3.3. Prototyping and Validating Ideas

3.3. Prototyping and Validating Ideas

● Sketch Sketching is the one of the easiest ways to create simple prototypes to explain your idea. It’s a basic representation of your concept, which you can further develop. It can be very helpful during the first phase of building prototypes as an initial visualisation of the idea. Just grab a pen and paper and start drawing what you have in mind!

● Cardboard prototyping Prototypes made from cardboard and paper are one of the easiest ways to recreate objects, which you can test and validate. It could be a product, or a physical part of the services. Often it’s the first and most low-fi (low-fidelity) prototype that you can test with the audience and quickly improve or change. With this kind of prototype, it’s easier to collect honest feedback, because people see that it’s a “work in progress” and they aren’t afraid to change or add something. They can see that you’re still developing it, and you didn’t spend too much time on it. It’s low-fi aspect also makes it easier to receive “constructive” criticism, because you know the prototype can quickly be changed to adapt to user needs. Build a simple prototype, which will allow you to test the most important features of your product and service. Let people play with it, use it. Another value to building your idea in this way is a common understanding of the idea within the team. Often, on the conceptual level we imagine our idea in a specific way, by building a cardboard prototype you can agree on how it really should look and function17

17 Photo: Art Square Lab

● Wireframes Wireframes are used to prototype an application or a website. By creating wireframes you focus mostly on structure and flow, not the visual aspects. It consists of a layout that represents all the most important functions and flows. This layout allows you to better understand the website or application in relation to user journeys. Using low-fi wireframes allow you to test your idea with users at an early stage of the project and implement changes quickly. Where does the user get stuck? What are the obstacles? What is missing? The prototype of the wireframe should be flexible to get changed18 .

18 Photo Art Square Lab

● Storyboard Storyboarding is a sequence of actions in which the user of your service or product follows. By dividing the whole service into steps, you can more easily understand the flow a user follows and find potential weak points of the service. After this you can decide which parts of the service are crucial and are in need of testing19 .

● Role Play Role playing can be used as a successful prototype for a service. You can invite users to “use” your service by acting it out, allowing you to record it. Thanks to this “role playing” everyone can better understand how the service could work. It’s also a great opportunity to collect feedback from the users, while they are playing. You can encourage them to think out loud and explain what they are doing and why as well as why they are stuck while using the service, what was not clear, confusing.

19 www.diytoolkit.org

3.4. Testing Plan what you want to test before you take off with the testing. Is the test addressing some part of the service, a product, maybe just some key functionality? Remember that it’s best to test the riskiest part of your service, one that is also important for operation. Don’t be afraid to choose that which you are least sure of. Thanks to the sincere feedback of your potential users, you will be able to quickly improve your prototype. The testing session is intended to allow you to detect all the shortcomings of your product and service as well as its good aspects.20

1. Testing your prototype:

Building your prototype will allow you to test your key hypotheses. It’s important that your users can interact with the prototype. This interaction will give you a better understanding of what’s clear and what is not. Create a testing plan that asks what you want to test and with whom. What questions are you seeking answers to? What method are you going to choose to test your theory? Here you will find some ideas for the testing methods:

20 Photo Art Square Lab

Concept testing

For testing low- fidelity prototypes, concept tests are a great method. To begin, take your drawings (of the service or digital product) and present them to potential users. Be open to feedback and ideas. Ask them how they will use it? What functions are the most important to them? What would they skip? You can ask how, till now, they solved the problem, what kind of tools have they used and why? This will allow you to see if you should develop a new idea, change it or maybe skip it entirely, without investing too much time and resources.

Testing A/B

If you develop a prototype, but aren’t sure about some aspects or elements, you can do what’s called A/B testing. To do this prepare two variations of the prototype and compare the results. This will help you discover which version is better, or maybe, after creating multiple versions, create a compilation of the most successful.21

First click testing

When you are developing apps or websites, this type of testing can allow you to see where users click and how they move through the app or website. While testing, you can ask participants to “think out loud”, which will allow you to better understand their way of thinking. Remember to note down/record the findings. You can also prepare some tasks for your participants and see how they solve them (e.g. find concrete information, create an account, etc). It is important not to correct their way of thinking but to learn from their journey through your prototype.

21photo: Art Square Lab

Note down all information and observations. This is what will be used for analysis and comparison with the results of other test sessions. After each session, try to record the conclusions and observations immediately and don’t lose them later. At the end of the testing phase, collect all results and analyse them. It’s best to share your observations with other team members or people who were involved in the project and testing. Have you paid attention to the same aspects or maybe something completely different?