Bringing ideas to life

Module 6

Bringing Ideas to Life.jpg

Bringing ideas to life is one of the most exciting and fun parts of design. Getting your hands dirty, making, trying, testing, and learning are all part of the process.

Making our ideas real and tangible is also the best way to test them. An idea might sound great on paper, but before people interact with it, use it, and put it to the test, we just can’t be sure how it will work. By making them real, we can identify problems fast and quickly get feedback so we can continue improving our ideas. This process is known as prototyping: here we make our ideas seem real through models, storyboards and role plays amongst other methods, so that we can learn more about how they work.

Prototyping allows us to…

  • Test multiple hypotheses and ideas at once

  • Enable quick testing and rapid learning

  • Generate data about ‘why’, not just ‘yes or no’

  • Actively embrace and manage risk to test the boundaries of what’s possible

  • Create new ideas - it is a generative method.

Prototyping is different to piloting, which is usually a time-intensive and costly way to test a single idea or model. Piloting usually happens after prototyping, once we have tested ideas extensively and are confident about how they function and their potential to make a positive impact.

There are a number of prototyping methods you can choose to test your idea, and what you choose might depend on the nature of your idea and how far down the track you are in understanding what it involves. Below you will find several different prototyping methods to explore, so you can get a sense of which works best to help you learn more about your idea.

Exercise 1

Storyboarding is one of the most simple and engaging ways to prototype an idea. Storyboards help you to pin down the nuts and bolts of the idea, to communicate a lot of complex information and to get effective  feedback from people. Storyboarding is essentially making a cartoon about how your idea will work. Each box acts as a story ‘frame’ where things happen for an individual user of the idea.

Use your storyboard as a conversation starter, a communication tool, a provocation or a starting point to build on and learn from. In this exercise we will use the ‘office pets’ storyboard below to test out getting feedback on a prototype that seeks to respond to the problem of ‘office stress’. Alternatively if you have an idea of your own you would like to use, there is also a blank storyboard below that you can use.

Step 1:

With a colleague, read through the storyboard and practice asking each other for feedback on the idea.

Step 2:

Share you storyboard! Find others to discuss your concept with. This may be colleagues, or perhaps others you know outside of your organisation. You are seeking feedback to help you to refine and progress your idea. Ask your partner to observe the types of questions that generated the most  insightful responses from your interviewees

Step 3:

Reflect on the experience:

  • What did you learn about the idea?

  • What did you learn about using a storyboard prototype?

  • What did you learn about this method of engagement?

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Office Pets

Blank storyboard

 
SUGGESTED TIME: 
20 minutes
LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY:
Easy
MATERIALS NEEDED:
Pens, printed resources
PARTICIPANTS:
This is a group exercise. Initially you can start off by yourself or with a pair, but you will need to find a few other people to share your idea with.

Exercise 2

This exercise introduces you to several different methods used in prototyping that can take your storyboard to the next level. Here you can compare methods and see how they can be used to learn different things about the same idea.

Step 1:

Click on the image below to learn about what features and functions of an idea can be prototyped, and what methods of prototyping might be best suited to particular ideas.

Step 2:

Using the Office Pets storyboard, or your own storyboard, choose a method and use it to bring your storyboard to life. Think carefully about what you want to learn about as you choose your method and design how you might go about it: are you keen to understand whether it is desirable to users? Do you want to learn more about whether it is feasible? Or are you interested in whether it can be made affordable - whether it is viable?

Step 3:

Depending on your chosen prototype, find a group of people to help you bring it to life. It is quite hard to run a role-play without some additional actors to participate!

Step 4:

Reflect on your experience: what did you discover? What might you change in your next iteration of the prototype? You can share your thoughts on Twitter using the #LearningFirstBDA hashtag too.

Click the image to download the resource

Click the image to download the resource

 
SUGGESTED TIME: 
30-60 minutes, depending on what prototyping methods you choose to explore
LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY:
Medium
MATERIALS NEEDED:
Your storyboard, and prototyping resources such as LEGO, paper and craft materials
PARTICIPANTS:
You can explore these methods as a group, or on your own