Full Article: Prototyping

Here is a link to a full version .pdf of the Prototyping article.

You can also find prior articles on my website.

Cheers... Rob

Prototyping: Returning to the Design Model

Returning to the Design Model

I would like to return to the design model and offer up a set of tools I call design schematics, worksheets of a sort that help guide the project along. Here are the six steps I like to use in my design projects.

1. collaborative design & direction setting
2. discovery, research, & assessment
3. divergent thinking & ideation
4. convergent thinking, filtering, & selecting
5. prototyping & piloting
6. implementation, tracking, & adjusting course

I recommend prototyping be embedded in a larger design framework with the entire process is driven by a vision for the future, continuous creativity, and regularly checked alignment with the environment, users, and the organization's capacities and internal dynamics.

This is not always possible or desired in every instance and the prototyping process can succeed independently, especially in skilled hands. I have created a template to accompany and guide the design process based on a series of questions at each stage. I call these the design schematics. Here is a link to the design schematics template. I’ll explain these in more detail.

Using the design schematics. The schematics are composed of six worksheets, one for each stage of the design process, as well as an introductory problem definition worksheet to get the process started. I will explain how to use each one.

Defining your current problem: During the design phase, it is most important to spend time identifying the problem, understanding who would benefit from a solution, and scoping out the project. The worksheet includes an initial problem definition along with some background information like why the problem may lend itself to a design approach, what attempts to solve the problem were made in the past, and some of the individual roles in the problem/solution. I like the give the project a code name, just for fun.

Design worksheet: The design worksheet focuses on developing a full design brief. I like to use a design brief to summarize and communicate the work here and eventually establish criteria for success. The brief is a useful guiding document that helps plan the project, establish timeframes for meetings and events, and generate an initial cost proposal. This worksheet includes the first formulation of the problem statement, lists criteria for success, explore the value proposition, and sets the research and discovery process in motion. I end the worksheet with a table of contents for the design brief – every project is different!

Discovery worksheet: The discovery process is one of background research, environmental scanning, any SWOT (or similar) analysis, historical research, potential futuring activities, and can be quite expansive. The worksheet is not designed to be all inclusive but to summarize efforts. It is important to identify the forces at play in the current environment and at some point in the (not too) distant future and articulate the implications for your organization, the larger context, and the various stakeholders.

Divergence worksheet: Divergence is about creating choices and the worksheet has five components: clear problem statement, lists of participants in the process, the selected ideation techniques, creating positive turbulence, and determining how many choices need to result from divergence. The worksheet should be supplemented with more complete process plans for each session.

Convergence worksheet: Convergence process is making choices and the worksheet has four components: how to make early choices and reviewing the initial criteria to check if they make sense, developing critical assumptions to help refine further choices, ensuring there are ways to learn what “wows” clients and stakeholders, and ways to filter and rank final choices to move them forward to prototyping and implementation.

Prototyping worksheet: The prototyping worksheet can help frame and focus the prototyping process. It encourages full description of the prototypes, plans to build and visualize them, and stories that can be told to help bring them to life. The worksheet asks that elements or functions of the prototype be identified for testing and that the test procedures and feedback mechanisms be selected. I also find it helpful to consider key hurdles that the prototype must pass before implementation can begin. By the end of the prototyping stage, a single clear strategy for addressing the problem should emerge and have enough detail developed that implementation can proceed.

Implementation worksheet: For many design problems, implementation deserves an entire plan on it’s own. The implementation worksheet helps to get this organized and launched. Decisions are required about the timeline, budget, impacts, and feedback mechanisms. It is useful to spend time discussing and determining what success should look like relative to the problem at hand and go so far as to list specific outcomes with metrics. Detailed cost projections or as much as a financial strategy should also emerge. I like to establish multiple targets for actions and link them to accountable managers or groups. I have found that implementation can sometimes require multiple worksheets if there are multiple strategies in play. Use this and all of the worksheets in flexible ways to fit to your design problem.

In conclusion. While I have mostly likely given an incomplete treatment of prototyping, I do believe there is enough detail here to help encourage and organize a good prototyping effort. Prototyping is a special kind of convergence process that serves to make ideas real, test them in simulation or real-world situations, and prepare them for implementation. Over the past few pages I attempted to define prototyping and share considerations for practice based on my experiences.

I hope the design schematics tool is a helpful way to organize your prototyping journey and encourages you to explore this powerful technique for bringing ideas to life. My guess is that we’re in a renaissance of prototyping methodologies, as design think surges I believe that we will see the method pushed further, new kinds of approaches emerge, and new technologies arise that give us capabilities that we have never had before.

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Robert Brodnick, Ph.D. Founder, Brodnick Consulting Group robert@brodnick.consulting 530.798.4082

Prototyping: Considerations for Practice

Considerations for Practice

I would like to suggest and anyone can, and should, try prototyping as a way to test new ideas. Let me review a handful of key considerations for practice that can quickly get you up to speed. To start, prototyping can be used on its own or as a stage in the full model. A designer friend share with me, “You can make a beautiful piece of art out of a block of wood or rock if you iterative enough!” So even alone, if you start with basic materials and improve the design based on feedback along the way, you can a useful solution – sometimes to a problem you weren’t sure you even had. I like to be more intentional when prototyping, however, and tend to use a more robust design approach. I will revisit the design model at the end of this article.

There are countless options for taking an idea from the early stages of formation to one that is ready to be put into play. Regardless of which path you take, by the end of the prototyping process, a single clear strategy for addressing the problem should emerge and have enough detail developed that implementation can proceed. I often follow six steps in the process: 1) visualize possible solutions from the best choices, 2) use stories to bring ideas to life, 3) determine what elements or functions the prototypes will test, 4) build models, develop experiments, and get feedback from stakeholders, 5) refine the prototypes, and 6) determine what works and plan to launch.

Anatomy of a prototype. The whole point of investing energy in building a prototype is to bring an idea to life so that it can be tested and refined. The initial, or early stage, prototypes typically are of low fidelity or detail. They can be rough-hewn and have less focus. Final, or late stage, prototypes have increased fidelity, enhanced detail, and may focus on specific features for testing at any one time. Prototypes are dynamic, change, and can be uneven. The most important components may shift and change over the life of the prototype to give it definition and allow for testing and interaction. Here are several elements or components to consider to feature in the anatomy of your prototype:

drawings: simple visual representation of an idea or feature of a prototype

animations: putting drawings into motion by subsequent changes in shape or form, animations appear to move through time

models: whether to scale (the same size) or at scale (proportionally smaller), models are more complicated than simple drawings and are often built in 3-dimensions

video: recording live action or mixing action with animation to explore how a prototype does or could work over time or during interactions

storyboards: developing a narrative storyline along with drawings to represent or demonstrate features of a prototype that may be difficult or costly to build

diagrams: conceptual drawing that shows how parts of a prototype do or could work together

3D virtual models: rendering a prototype in a computer generated format, interactions could happen using simulations, augmented, or virtual reality

business models: expressing the cost and revenue generating functions of an idea (I like Osterwalder’s components: value propositions, customer segments, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structure)

stories: oral or written narratives about experiences or uses of a prototype, they could be true or fictional

ads: possible advertisements for products or services that can demonstrate key features or marketing potential for a prototypes

mock ups: a quickly built model or replica of a more complicated object, machine, or device used for testing, demonstration, experimentation, or role play

role play: acting out or performing a particular role to match perceived expectations in a certain situation, there is a focus on individuals’ behaviors, interactions, communication, and related outcomes

scenarios: hypothetical, complex, and layered frameworks often set in the future that attempt to explain or demonstrate how potential forces could interact, scenarios are frequently written and enriched with data, graphics, or more rich media

complex simulations: one of the most difficult and costly prototyping situations, complex simulations are a very close to life enactment of a potential event such as military maneuvers, disaster simulation exercises, or business games

One last comment about the anatomy of a prototype, from the user experience perspective, prototypes are experience at various stages of engagement. A few years ago, I came across a framework for unpacking the use experience into distinct stages. This 5E Framework was developed by Ben Jacobsen of Conifer Research and the stages are: entice – entry – engage – exit – extend. I have found it useful for prototypes of all kinds but it’s especially useful for 3rd and 4th order experiences. It can be helpful think about prototypes from these five vantage points. Sometimes different features should be highlighted at different stages.

For handy reference, I’ve associated potential prototyping components with Buchanan’s orders:

Component	1st Order	2nd Order	3rd Order	4th Order
Drawings	X	X
Video	X	X
Storyboard/Stories	X	X	X
Animation	X	X	X
Scale Models		X	X
Physical Objects		X	X
3D Models		X	X
Computer Simulation		X	X	X
Experience Journeys			X	X
Role Play			X	X
Scenarios				X
Complex dynamics				X

Road mapping the expedition. I like to think about the prototyping process like as expedition and be ready for anything. Last year I shared an article on expeditionary strategy and prototyping surely falls into that category in a sense. My prototyping work starts with intentional design. During the design phase, it is most important to spend time identifying the problem, understanding who are the clients and stakeholders, and scoping out the project. I like to use a design brief to summarize and communicate the work here and eventually establish criteria for success. The brief is a useful guiding document that helps plan the project, establish timeframes for meetings and events, and generate an initial cost proposal. The design brief is like a project road map, but one that changes as you map new territory. For the initial map I try to include helpful information for prototyping like the design criteria and resources available. Some testing can be expensive, so planning ahead is helpful. As much as I like road mapping the expedition, taking time to journey map the results can be helpful. Here, find ways to capture insights, tell stories, and use data.

Data collection, feedback, and interaction. These are critical to successfully evolve the prototype. When getting ready to start the prototyping process, be sure data collection, feedback, and testing mechanisms are all in place. I like to also isolate very specifically what to test and when to test it. Prototype design may feature elements for testing and explore uses, impacts, perceptions, and feelings. Iteration is the key to success. The slow (or rapid) shaping of the idea or design moves the prototype increasingly toward usability. Along the way there should be failures, failures of less than optimal designs. It’s helpful to have an encouraging attitude toward failure, learn from it, yet equally to understand or describe success so you know when to stop when the prototype is good enough for the next step. Perfect can be the enemy of the good, or so thought Voltaire.

Prototyping environments. One last consideration I will offer up for prototyping has to do with the environment and approach one would take.

In the lab. Quite a bit of prototype testing is done under controlled conditions of some kind, a meeting room, in the lab, at a test site, or other “safe” environment. There many advantages to this that include lower risk, better controlled conditions, lower cost, and enhanced freedom to continue to ideate. Along with these come disadvantages as well such as a detachment from real-world conditions, lack of broad user input, and the ability to test unexpected factors. Often, early prototypes move from a safe to live environments later in the design.

Live prototyping. In the live environment, we look for ways to experience and test the prototype in real world conditions. While this may begin with partial control, the goal is to move on to as much reality as possible. Prototyping sessions may focus on one characteristic or feature at a time or full expose the prototype to holistic testing. The benefit of live prototyping is that we can immerse in the organizations and communities that will use the design. Beta testing is nearly synonymous with live prototyping and may be considered a special case where the prototype is put into limited practice with users beyond the design team.

Piloting. Beyond live prototyping, pilot testing is a sustained engagement in the marketplace, community, or organization where the design will finally be implemented. These are only partial implementations and may be done in small markets or parts of an organization at first. Here, we are testing more than the idea itself but looking at more complex interactions, relationships, and how the prototype interacts within the multiple, nested systems in which it is embedded.

Rapid prototyping. A final approach is rapid prototyping, which may transcend environment completely, moving wherever is necessary to move quickly. The goal here is a high degree of iteration by staying lean in the design and moving fast. Each iteration of the prototype includes only the components necessary to be able to test specific features. Here, we move almost ridiculously fast, make a lot of changes, and test and retest often. Designs may include optional alternatives, move back to earlier designs, or pivot completely based on what we learn along the way. To be fair, rapid prototyping deserves a more complete treatment in a later article.

Prototyping

Prototyping

Prototyping is a special kind of convergence process that serves to make ideas real, test them in simulation or real-world situations, and prepare them for implementation. Early prototypes are rough and easy to make and modify. Successive prototypes add resolution or details as the design project moves forward with the later-stage prototypes being the most fully formed. Prototypes need to be accessible, more real than virtual, and built for people to interact with through experiences. In this article I will give definition to the prototyping process and go on to explore considerations for practice, describe the anatomy of a prototype, and explore a variety of approaches for prototyping. I will conclude by revisiting the design model and describing the use of what I call design schematics, a tool to step through the design process leading up to implementation of the preferred solution.

What is Prototyping?

Prototyping defined. Prototyping is a process for building models of potential solutions, refining them through repeated testing, and preparing them for eventual production or implementation. An internet search on the word prototype yields definitions like “a first, typical or preliminary model of something, especially a machine, from which other forms are developed or copied” or “a person or thing that serves as an example of a type” and “the ancestral or primitive form of a species or other group; an archetype” – oh, I like archetypes. All of which seem pretty much on target... although I’ll save you my lengthy discourse of archetypes.

A deeper search for definition yields a tremendous amount of material, perhaps too much for a generalized model. Prototyping gets a lot of detailed treatment in very specific applications like software development, engineering sciences, biology and the natural sciences, electronics, material and mechanical applications, consumer products, and simple tools and machines. There are form studies, user experiences, AGILE processes, visual and functional prototypes, and a lot of proof of concept approaches. To help make sense of all of this, I’ll return to a useful taxonomy that comes out of design thinking.

Revisiting Buchanan’s 4 orders. Allow me to again review one of the seminal writings on design thinking, Richard Buchanan’s 1992 article Wicked Problems in Design Thinking. Buchanan put three significant conceptual stakes in the ground. He postulated that design thinking was a new and emerging liberal art. He framed the design process as a way to solve some of the worlds most difficult and wicked problems. And, he explored how design thinking is applied across a large number of problems and how extensively design affects contemporary life. He summarized four orders for design thinking that will be extraordinarily helpful to aid our understanding of the prototyping process:

1st order: symbolic and visual communication. Examples here include graphic design works like typography, publications, illustration, photography, video, infographics, and computer graphics and animation. This order focuses on communicating ideas and information. Prototypes are often drawn or visualized electronically.

2nd order: materials and tangible objects. Examples here include everyday products, clothing, tools, machines, and anything we use in our 3D world. Design here can go between the virtual and physical and extends to include psychological, social, and cultural experiences related to the objects. Prototypes can be any of the 1st order but also include scale models, material objects, or computer representations.

3rd order: activities, services, and simple systems. Examples here include services, user experiences, human machine system interfaces, and simple organizational processes – anything where one or more individuals are experiencing interactive interaction with an intentional and pre-designed system. Prototypes can include 1st and 2nd order representations for components of the system, but experiences and interactions require more complicated storytelling or experience mapping.

4th order: complex systems to include cultures, environments, and organizations. Examples here include architecture and urban planning, complex engineered systems, and social systems and media. As Buchanan writes, this order is “more and more concerned with exploring the role of design in sustaining, developing, and integrating human beings into broader ecological and cultural environments.” These prototypes are more difficult to build and require multiple forms of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order representations as well as scenarios and complex systems dynamics.

I really find the four orders of design thinking to help unpack the various approaches to prototyping and considerations for practice. One should treat a 1st order visual prototype very differently from a 4th order system. First and second order prototypes are first of all much easier to build, display, and create interactive experiences with. Developing prototypes for 3rd order activities, services, and simple systems can be difficult without a great deal of expense. And 4th order prototypes require either lots of storytelling and imagination or lengthy studies to fully uncover all of the components.

As I’ve mentioned before, a case could be made that prototyping could be traced along with the evolution of our species as we first grabbed a rock or hand tool and made improvements to adapt them to our tasks and environments. But there should be a point in time when we became more conscious about the process and formalized prototyping. The results of my research suggest that this formalization happened in the late 1960s or 1970s. There was an explosion of processes using the basic approach, from industrial applications to emerging software development, not only was the method used, but it was written about, adapted, and evolved from more art to more science. Since then, we have found applications in nearly every type of industry and most recently design thinkers have amplified prototyping to a dominant tool.