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Navigating Early-Stage New Product Development Deploying strategic planning, creative thinking, prototyping and testing to validate ideas and bring winning products to market.
contributors
Kelly O’Connor
Craig Wightman
Trevor Brinkman
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER
INNOVATION CONSULTANT
Ben Arlett
Maddy Conaghan
JAMES HOLMES
HEAD OF ENGINEERING
HUMAN FACTORS CONSULTANT
HEAD OF ELECTRONICS & SOFTWARE
Paul Richardson HEAD OF DIGITAL
FOREWoRD In the words of the ancient Chinese proverb, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. Choosing the right first steps can be vital in reaching your destination in the most effective way, or indeed in reaching it at all. The same is true in New Product Development, where choosing the right approaches and development tools are as important in successfully bringing a product to market as having a compelling idea and vision. In this issue of FOCUS, we look at the inherently risky and uncertain world of early-stage new product development. We explore how strategic planning, creative thinking, prototyping and testing can be deployed to validate ideas and bring products to market more effectively and with the needs of end users properly considered. Whether you are a startup seeking expert support in realising your vision, or a global company looking to innovate and accelerate your pipeline, talk to us about how we can help you achieve your goals. We hope you enjoy FOCUS and welcome your feedback on our insights.
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The Fuzzy Front End of Product Development
Minimal Viable Product
The Design Process
CONTENTS
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The Power Of MVP Uncovering the how, why and ways MVPs can be used.
The key components for successful product innovation.
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Proof Through Prototyping Engineering
Understanding the process of providing evidence through prototypes.
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Accelerating Connected Device Development
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New & Next Insights
Trevor Brinkman rounds up new and notable developments in rapid prototyping, crowdfunding, personalisation and automation.
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Value of Early Stage Testing
Electronics & Software
Human Factors
Exploring the rise and success of Connected Device technology.
The necessity of early stage prototyping for successful HF research.
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Digital Impact Digital
A Q&A with Paul Richarson, KD’s Head of Digital.
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User Needs
Concept Design
Detailed Design
Fuzzy Front End Product Development The
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of
A significant proportion of our work with clients is at what some might call the fuzzy front end. This spans user insight and discovery, through innovation and concept generation, to proof of concept and minimum viable products.
looks-like, works-like proof of concept, all have important roles to play in moving forward along the product development path, even if that means taking a few sideways steps, or pivots, along the way, based on what has been learned.
By nature, it’s fuzzy because outcomes are not certain, but that’s not to say that process and rigour cannot be applied. Methodologies such as Design Thinking, Design Sprints and Agile Development, all support the concept of adapting the horizon of the anticipated result based on what has been learnt as the product concept develops.
Prototypes can be tremendously powerful communicators of an idea and can play vital roles in capturing a shared vision of an early product concept or in helping to secure next stage approval or funding for a programme or validating a concept with end customers.
Prototyping has always been a key element of KD’s in-house capability and approach, whether it takes the form of a rapidly made card model to test an idea, an engineering test rig to support experimentation, a technology demonstrator to communicate a new principle, a digital app prototype, or a
But it’s not simply a question of having the attitude and capability to bring ideas, concepts and principles to life in the form of prototypes. Equally, if not more importantly, is deciding what and when to prototype, and how to test. Precious project time and resources can be wasted seeking to make a complete prototype too early – much better to focus on key aspects of a
Design Transfer
Design verification
Viability
design where learning is important or the need for validation is more critical. Similarly, consideration of how to test - whether that is functional performance, usability, or purchase intent should intelligently shape the requirements for the prototype. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to navigating the early stages of product development. Ultimately, it’s about choosing the appropriate tools to address and balance the three key components of successful product innovation, desirability, feasibility and viability.
Design Validation
Desirability
Product demonstrators Technology demonstrators MVPs
User insight Ideation Concept prototype Usability testing
Desirability: Is the product appealing, usable and differentiated? Here, the tools of Design Thinking (user empathy, ideation, concept prototypes and testing) are invaluable in iteratively building a compelling concept.
Feasibility: Is the product technically feasible? This is all about wellplanned engineering prototyping and testing, using proof of principle prototypes to establish the feasibility of fundamental aspects of the product, then building towards a more complete looks-like, works-like prototype.
Viability: Is there a market for the product and is it economically viable? In this area, early demonstrators can help to communicate the vision to investors and, as the product develops, taking a minimum viable product (MVP) approach can provide an acid test of viability.
Feasibility Proof of principle Proof of concept Looks-like, works-like prototype
Craig Wightman craig.wightman@kinneirdufort.com
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Fluidic test cartridge - Proof of principle test rig Institute of Bio-Sensing Technology, University of the West of England
Proof of principle point-of-care diagnostic test instrument. Institute of Bio-Sensing Technology, University of the West of England.
Proof through
Prototyping Demonstrators, Proof of Principle and Product Prototypes
Ben Arlett ben.arlett@kinneirdufort.com
Prototyping is a term that is often used but can mean many different things to different people and within the context of product development there are many roles that a prototype can play. The value of any prototype is linked to the expectations placed upon it, and much of the success of any prototyping activity comes down to being clear about what it is expected to achieve. Modern day prototyping techniques are so powerful that one of the key challenges can often be in understanding how much development has gone into the device or product sat in front of you. This has enabled people to blur the boundaries of what a prototype is intended for, which can be both powerful and at the same time misleading. This article will explore some of the functions that a prototype may be intended for throughout the product development process and identify where there may be differences that are not apparent at first sight. It also proposes a nomenclature intended to highlight these differences and provoke thought into why you are building a prototype.
Types of Prototype Let’s start by breaking down three broad areas for use which we will term Demonstrators, Proof of Principle & Prototypes.
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Demonstrators are the sellers and communicators of the project world. They show what might be possible and the goal is to represent as much of the key features of a product as quickly and efficiently as possible. They could range from aesthetic models designed to communicate form and the use of a product, through to devices that have functionality to demonstrate how something might work. Demonstrators are often produced before a formal product development process starts in order to get sponsorship / investment into a project. Proof of principle prototypes are the engineer’s tools. These are prototypes that are born out of taking a risk based approach to your product development and are designed to prove some of the higher risk challenges early on in your product development process before you have committed significant resource to developing the whole product. They may be a small part of the overall product, but often lie at the core of the functionality. Integrated prototypes are the assembled builds that get produced towards the second half of your product development cycle. They will often be prefaced by terms such as ‘looks like’, ‘looks like / works like’ or ‘looks like / works like / made like’ to indicate the state of development.
Validation User Requirements
Product Testing
PROTOTYPES
Verification
Sell the Project
System Design
Validation
System Integration Tests
Product/System Requirements
Verification Sub System Assembly Tests
Sub System Requirements
Validation
Validation Verification
Verification
Sub System Design
Component Tests
Component Level Requirements
Detailed Design
Design Fixed
Validation
System Integration
Production Representative Parts
Looks Like/ Works Like Prototypes (Proof of Concept)
Use of prototypes in context of the best practice process for medical product development.
The Development Process Project Inception The early days of product development are all about the art of what might be possible. As product developers we want to present our ideas on how we can break new ground, whether that is through advances in technology, new ways of interacting with users or taking advantage of new information that is available. The challenge here is getting buy in or investment into a project rather than making concrete design decisions, however it is worth considering the expectations that are set when demonstrators are produced at this stage. Risk Based approach to product development Once a product development is underway it is important to tackle the most difficult problems early on. These challenges could be technical or possibly user related, but at this point prototypes are being used to demonstrate the feasibility of an approach and design decisions are being made off the back of these, whether based on engineering tests or user-based studies and so the prototypes need to be representative of final product in the function of interest.
This stage of a development can be challenging to manage as it is the area where challenges arise and things are most likely to require iteration. Expectations of project sponsors needs to be managed through an understanding of what they might expect from prototypes. System Integration As more complex systems are integrated, it is important to consider the dependencies of different subsystems on one another. A mechanical system may require some electronics and software in order to test functionality, a diagnostic instrument may require a cartridge to run and so forth. These specific dependencies will dictate the ideal path to take, and in some cases there is inherently some iteration where there are interrelated dependencies. Ultimately, as your product comes together, the assembly of subsystems enables the formal verification and integration in to full product prototypes provides the validation of the subsystems. This can often follow a path where initially the look and feel of the integrated prototypes may be defined up front (looks like prototype), and then evolve, adding in the functionality (looks like / works like prototype), and in the final iteration, a product is transferred to manufacture (looks like / works like / made like prototype).
In Conclusion Prototypes have many different uses throughout the development process, and there is a natural tension between product demonstrators and the more functional proof of principle prototypes, particularly in the early days of a project. The right balance depends on the degree of technical challenge in your project, the funding environment, and the involvement and attitude of project sponsors. However, while striking this balance can be something of an art, the key is to be clear and about what your prototype is trying to achieve and when there are design decisions being made. Point-of-care diagnostic instrument product demonstrator. Institute of Bio-Sensing Technology, University of the West of England.
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Getting prototypes in the hands of users early and reducing time to market. With the installed base of connected devices set to rise to 35 billion by 2025, ‘smart’ devices are impacting almost every industry, from manufacturing, to healthcare to consumer goods. In an increasingly competitive market the ability to prototype, test and refine new product concepts quickly has never been more important. Responding to this growing need, our team have built a flexible development and prototyping toolkit covering the four elements present in many connected systems: sensors, user interaction apps, web dashboards and cloud data. This allows a core “vanilla” technology platform to be rapidly and cost-effectively assembled, then “flavoured” and customised to address the exact needs of a proposed product or system and delivered as a working prototype system for demonstration and user testing.
James Holmes james.holmes@kinneirdufort.com
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KD Digital Prototyping Framework Faster Development for Better Devices- Using pre-developed building blocks for the four key components of a typical connected device ecosystem, we’ve accelerated the development of prototype connected devices, Apps and Web dashboards. These prototypes can be developed within a matter of a few weeks, and placed in the hands of users to enable rapid user testing and refinement. This approach frequently reduces the up-front investment required to prototype new connected devices, and helps explore the business case for the product whilst accelerating time to market.
1. Connected Sensors By developing a range of flexible electronic and software components we can quickly build sensors to gather information by monitoring movement, airflow, sound, air quality, temperature and more. Whether these sensors are monitoring patients in a hospital, or equipment in a factory, this data can then be wirelessly streamed to a smartphone, computer, or cloud-based server.
2. Smartphone App By combining custom developed cross-platform App software modules with our extensive UI experience, we can quickly present sensor data in an intuitive and user-friendly way.
3. Cloud Database Data is much more valuable when we can collate information from many users or sensors in a central location. We’ve developed an adaptable online datastore which can centrally collate data from many users and distribute it via an App or Web Dashboard.
4. Web Dashboard A web dashboard can be a powerful tool to provide high-level summaries of data and trends to help users see the bigger picture. By developing a range of online web dashboard components, we can accelerate prototyping of web dashboards.
1UpCup To demonstrate this platform, KD has developed the 1UpCup, a smart approach to reducing single-use cups. The cup uses heat and location sensors to track when and where it’s topped up with coffee and the data is data is sent to the user’s smartphone which displays information about cups saved as well as loyalty points earned. Retailers are able to combine multiple cup data to gain knowledge of their customer base and highlight trends they can use to improve their service.
Managing Machinery In an industrial setting, smart sensors are helping to reduce the environmental impact of heavy machinery by detecting machine activity and delivering an all-inone data collection and analysis solutions. By better understanding fleet activity, equipment can be better managed to cut fuel and rental costs and minimise their environmental impact. Machinemax wireless telematics www.machinemax.com
Better Clinical Trials In the medical space, connected technology has the capability to improve clinical trials by monitoring both when and how patients are using devices. Embedded sensors in devices such as inhalers can give deep insights into patient technique and adherence and this information can be fed back into the development process to help shape better products, which ultimately deliver better patient outcomes. AstraZeneca Symbicort SmartTouch
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Craig Wightman craig.wightman@kinneirdufort.com
The power of
MVP
Since its publication in 2011, Eric Reis’ The Lean Startup has been widely adopted by both the startup community and established businesses seeking to innovate and develop successful new products. Ries’ approach for developing, launching and continuously innovating products, is drawn from a range of established practices and methodologies, including lean manufacturing, design thinking and agile development. At its core, is the build–test–learn cycle, which gets a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) into the hands of customers quickly, seeking to learn and adapt based on the results. Since gaining prominence through the popularity of The Lean Startup, the concept of the MVP has been variously hi-jacked, reinterpreted and applied in a range of different business situations and product types. Indeed, even within the book, which largely draws on
digital products and service examples from Ries’ own background, the use of different approaches to how MVPs may be created and used is illustrated. The key thing to ensure, however, is that the terms Minimum and Viable must be equally respected. It’s “minimum” because we are expecting to use the MVP to learn from, so we want to apply the least amount of effort to get us to the point where we can learn. At the same time, we need to carefully consider viability. The MVP needs to demonstrate a product’s vision in a sufficiently compelling way to elicit customer feedback and meet their expectations. This applies to attributes of quality and design as well as features with the caveat that certain levels of expectation are required in relation to customer and market expectations for your product type. Your MVP won’t fail because it’s missing some features, but it might fail to engage with its audience if its quality or design falls below minimum user expectations. The aspect of customer expectations includes an important element of market context. Is it a product that someone would buy? Here we look at three ways in which MVPs may be used...
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MVP
As a test Prototype
In the context of an MVP, when is the P a “product” or a “prototype”? The answer is that an MVP should be a genuine test of the ability of the proposed new product to drive people to part company with money to buy it. That is not to say that we can’t learn a great deal from producing and testing prototypes – and these form a key part of any good Design Thinking programme or Innovation Sprint – but if we don’t test a product’s ability to sell, we risk fooling ourselves. Having said that, it’s not always necessary to produce a completely saleable product to test it as an MVP. When Nick Swinmurn wanted to test his hypothesis that customers would be interested and willing to buy shoes online, he arranged with local shoe stores to take pictures of shoes and put them online and invite people to buy them. When they did, he went back to the store, bought them (at full price) and shipped them to the customer. This experiment provided the validation Swinmurn needed without having to set up a fully-functioning e-commerce site and fulfilment warehouse full of stock. It was a prototype, but one which provided genuine and meaningful interaction with real customers, providing valuable learnings about their interest and willingness to buy. The resulting business, Zappos, become the leading online shoe retailer with over $1Bn revenues prior to being acquired by Amazon. Sometimes, it’s possible to create an MVP without even meaning to do so. When KD were asked to support Korean social media advertising agency Innored to work with them on a campaign for the Huggies brand, the brief was to develop a concept to embody and communicate the core Huggies
proposition of a happy parent and baby journey. The selected concept was a connected pair of wearable cameras which would simultaneously capture, and play back, family moments from both perspectives. The products were rapidly developed and built as sets of working prototypes, used by a handful of families, but viewed by millions via the resulting viral video. The objective, of enhancing the brand message with consumers was achieved, but an unexpected outcome was that 40,000 requests were received by Huggies from customers to purchase the MomentCam wearable cameras. In this case, the effort of product development was minimised by only requiring a small number of prototypes to be used for a limited time. The authenticity of the video footage captured by the trial participants was sufficient to validate and communicate the product concept to a much wider audience. These examples demonstrate the need to be creative with the design of both the prototype and the experiment to test your hypothesis and, crucially, to validate customers willingness to buy.
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MVP When shaping up an MVP to deliver as a first version of your product to the market, two attributes are needed. The first is a discipline to only include features and attributes that embody the core proposition of the product and the second is the courage to view the MVP as a learning tool in a process that will allow you to develop future better versions of that product. If customer feedback to your MVP highlights missing features, you have a great priority list for future versions. If “missing” features aren’t highlighted, you’ve saved yourself a lot of wasted effort. The worst that can happen is that you get no feedback – meaning that people don’t care about your product.
As a v1.0 Product
The original iPhone can be considered an MPV. When it was launched in 2007 it had no connection to Exchange email, poor 2G cellular phone performance, and was only available through a very limited number of telecom operators globally. What it did have was a technically outstanding touchscreen embodying a new way to interact with a phone, and features presented as apps (even though at the time, there were only a few, with no way of adding more). The choice of minimum features allowed users to see and, for early adopters, own a first version of Apple’s vision of a reinvented phone. Similarly, Fitbit’s first product had only the most basic of functions – a tiny clip-on device with a minimal display and data download only when physically plugged into a dock attached to a computer, but it allowed users to experience Fitbit’s vision of what activity tracking could mean in their lives. Bristol-based startup OurCanary recently launched their family life organiser app with the restriction that the current version only works for families with one child. Whilst this excludes over 50% of their target market, it enabled delivery of a meaningfully viable feature set, with significantly reduced effort. Feedback from the one-child family early adopters, as well as notification of interest from disappointed potential customers with two or more kids, will provide invaluable learnings to direct their product development efforts for future product releases. ©OurCanary - Family Organiser www.ourcanary.com
©iPhone - iPhone 2g
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©Fitbit - Fitbit Tracker
Accu-Chek Instant Blood Glucose testing system
Raspberry Pi Desktop Kit www.raspberrypi.com
MVP
Although not adhering to the MVP principles in The Lean Startup, the mindset of minimum viability is one that can be effectively applied to the requirements definition of a whole range of new products. A common characteristic of many products and product ranges is the extent to which they become unnecessarily bloated with features, a phenomena sometimes described as “elegant creep”. How many programmes on your washing machine do you actually use? How many features of Word do you know how to use, or even know exist? The discipline and courage referred to earlier to focus on the product features and attributes that capture your vision and add genuine value for your customers need to be applied to achieve best in class product experiences, not to mention reduced time and cost in development and support.
Again, Apple provides a good example of this mindset. By ruthlessly “cutting off the tail” of features on their products – think elimination of CD players on laptops, or headphone sockets on the latest iPhones – Apple have risked alienating some of their customers in the interests of the pursuit of a purer future excellence. In our early-stage work with clients, we often challenge teams to take this approach. A good example is the AccuChek Instant blood glucose testing system for Roche Diabetes Care, which started as a workshop with a range of client
As a Product requirement mindset
stakeholders and asked the question: “what is the minimum feature set we can define with the highest value to users”? The result was a product which does the most important things well; a bold, clear display with target range indication and Bluetooth connectivity to push features relating to data analysis and trends onto more relevant parts of the product ecosystem. Some products make a virtue out of their minimalism. Raspberry Pi, the credit card sized, bare bones computer is a global phenomenon and the UK’s all-time best-selling computer with over 25 million sold since launch in 2012. The approach, which simplifies the core functionality, enabling users to add features they require to suit their educational, hobbyist, or industrial needs is a result of a disciplined minimum viability mindset. The open dialogue that Raspberry Pi enjoys with its user community also fosters a natural buildtest-learn feedback loop into their core value proposition. Even with their range there is room for a most minimal MVP, the Pi Zero, dubbed the “latte computer” because, at $5, it costs the same as one (at least in a Bay area coffee shop!) In a world of increasing complexity, and reducing attention spans, simpler products, with clearer propositions are more likely to succeed.
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© Atherton - Atherton Bikes www.athertonbikes.com
© Atherton
Trevor Brinkman trevor.brinkman@kinneirdufort.com
what? what? In many industries 3D printing has become a vital part of the design process; the ability to quickly produce physical parts at a relatively low cost effectively shortcuts the need to commit to conventional prototyping or even soft tooling. As useful as 3D printing is in the design process, there aren’t many instances of parts being used directly in manufacture outside of the automotive, medical and aeronautical industries where deep pockets are the norm. Recent innovations in manufacture could however be heralding the dawn of a new era, by combining 3D printing with more conventional manufacturing techniques. This enables wider access to products that harness the benefits of 3D printing in the form of speed, precision and complex geometry.
Insight & Innovation Consultant Trevor Brinkman keeps us at KD updated with his newsletter The WeekEnd. Every Friday we’ve come to expect a sideways look at the week’s events combined with his mostly irreverent opinion on what this could mean for society at large. Here we’ve asked Trevor to take a look at some emerging technologies, services and business models to see what they could mean for brands, business and consumers. If you would like to subscribe to The WeekEnd, sign up with this link: https://bit.ly/2lOYmFU
One company exploring this route is Atherton bikes. In what seems like next to no time they have gone from 3D prints to placing on the podium at this year’s downhill mountain biking world cup. Atherton bikes have gone from idea to prototype in a fraction of the time it would normally take a manufacturer of carbon frames. Key to this success has been the utilisation of a hybrid manufacturing technique where 3D printed lugs are bonded to carbon fibre tubes, enabling quick and relatively affordable iteration of geometry and frame design during development. This also opens up the opportunity of individual personalisation for consumers to ensure the perfect fit. It’s mind blowing to think that a small bike company based in Wales has been able to compete with the established companies with their millions in design budgets and come out on top. A testament to what can be done by harnessing the power of technology and ingenuity.
why should i care? We all want things faster, better and cheaper. By looking at how we might combine manufacturing techniques with 3D printing we could potentially unlock new routes to market for industrial and consumer applications that tick all those three boxes, as well as delivering the personalisation that the mass customisation model promises. A notable example of this is the collaboration between Vancouver based 3D printed footwear startup Wiivv and Dr. Scholl to create customised insoles. This is a product that leverages several important current consumer trends in the form of direct to consumer, personalisation, digital and could well be a sign of things to come in the consumer healthcare space.
© Wiivv & Dr Scholl Dr. Scholl’s custom 3D inserts www.custom.drscholls.com www.wiivv.com
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what? what? © Atacac www.atacac.com
what? what? Fashion is a notoriously fickle game and while change is expected on the catwalk, the winds of high street couture are also equally liable to change at the drop of hat. While it’s hard to keep up as a consumer, (case in point; bumbags are back in this year and I really had thought that everyone had agreed these were definitely out in the mid 90s?) spare a thought for retailers and manufacturers. Our personal fashion crimes can normally be concealed in the back of the wardrobe for an appropriate mourning period before disposal but if you’ve committed to not one but 10,000 leopard print jeggings then it sucks to be you. One way of getting round this conundrum is to get people to order and pay upfront before production but how do you do that when people can’t see the fibre of your fabric? Swedish fashion studio Atacac offers discounts on pre-orders effectively flipping the model of: Full price > reduction > clear out sale to pre-order (cheapest) > discount during production (cheaper) > In stock (full price). At pre-order customers are shown digital renders of the garments (effectively a digital MVP) and are rewarded for investing early. Digital tools such as CLO allow clothing designers to turn 2D patterns into 3D renders on avatars to show what the clothes would/cloud look like in real life.
UPS has recently announced that autonomous trucks have been transporting packages on their behalf across the state of Arizona. TuSimple has been doing the actual moving of freight and has also been operating a 115 mile test route between Phoenix and Tucson as well as a longer 1,000 mile route in collaboration with United States Postal service. The goal of the pilots was to move closer to Level 4 autonomous driving where the truck would be essentially fully autonomous and able to reach a particular location under its own steam. The TuSimple solution uses a combination of nine cameras and two LIDAR sensors and, for now, has someone behind the wheel in case of any mishaps. Whilst we probably won’t be seeing that talking car from Knightrider delivering post or parcels to our homes any time soon, the transport of freight from hub to hub is an extremely interesting proposition. TuSimple reckon they can reduce the cost of road transport by 30% using their technology, with the increase in online shopping and the tsunami of parcels this has created all the big players will surely be looking at this as one way to cut costs and increase profits.
why should should ii care? care? why There has been considerable hand wringing in regard to robots stealing our jobs and if you’re a truck driver you’re probably right to be concerned. If we look ahead to 2025 it probably won’t be unusual to see long caravans of autonomous trucks making their way between hubs while last mile deliveries are taken care of by smaller, electric vehicles operated by humans. As technology starts to encroach on industries and jobs traditionally performed by humans are under threat, now is probably a good time to start thinking about who is going to be affected and what we as a society are prepared to accept. We don’t want any repeats of the strikes and protests of the industrial revolution especially when at some point the robots doing the jobs we don’t want to do will be significantly more dexterous than the looms of old and will be able to throw our shoes back at us with interest.
why should should ii care? care? why Crowd funding sites like Kickstarter have been leveraging the power of pre-orders for years and for most of the time it works. For the consumer you get a heavy discount and you feel engaged in the process. For the startup business, your investment is offset and your early investors become advocates as long as everything goes to plan. It’s becoming more and more common to see established brands turn to crowdfunding for their moonshot to minimise risk and build a following. By marrying production directly to your customers demand it’s possible to get a feel for overall public interest and thereby potentially mitigate any big misteps due to a disconnect. © TuSimple Self-driving truck www.tusimple.com
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Human Maddy Conaghan maddy.conaghan@kinneirdufort.com
Factors: The Value of
early stage
testing
Why we shouldn’t fear failure, the necessity of early stage prototyping for successful HF research
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Value: noun. 1. The regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something
“You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledgehammer on the construction site” Frank Lloyd Wright
Functionality, Desirability and Usability Early stage prototyping is a powerful way to rapidly assess functionality, desirability, and usability of a product, in short; to understand how to add value. Value is not just measured in monetary terms, but in the benefit offered towards users’ lives by solving realworld problems. Integrating early stage prototyping with human factors (HF) methodologies, adds true value; improving usability and often identifying other areas for product improvement, which ultimately enhances longterm return on investment. Products designed using an integrated user-centred approach are typically more successful. However, to create a successful product, an unsuccessful product must first be understood. Integrating early stage prototyping within the user-centred design process, allows initial ideas to “fail”; a word that should not be feared but embraced, as it provides the opportunity to learn, iterate and improve. In the words of the famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, which colourfully illustrate the benefit of identifying issues early: “You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledgehammer on the construction site”.
Failing fast Early stage HF assessments provide the opportunity to “fail fast” and identify the attributes that do not add that ‘value’ that can be iterated around. Integrating an iterative process, where traceability through testing results and failure is applied to the design for improvement, is what makes great products which are not only more desirable, more functional, and more usable than marketed counterparts, but hold true value. Early stage prototyping can prove particularly valuable in the design and development of medical products, facilitating thought-through risk mitigation. Whilst considerations of risk are relevant across all product types and development programmes, the need to mitigate risk in medical products can be a matter of life or death.
Risk and regulatory approvals Medical products carry with them a huge responsibility to add value to their users’ lives. The value that an inhaler can have to an asthmatic, or a glucose monitor to a diabetic is immeasurable in terms of quality of life. As creators of these products, we have a duty of care to ensure that the ‘value’ added is aligned with the user needs. What is required is a product that will perform
as expected, without the ‘risk of risk’, which would otherwise need to be mitigated. The most effective way to identify such risk, is to test, from an early stage, with prototypes and real users. This is not just best practice but is an essential requirement for US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) product approval. As creators we must demonstrate and document integration of a usercentred approach within our design and development process for product approval for use.
Prototyping fidelity So what types of prototypes can be effectively used in early stage HF testing? The answer is that prototypes that are of a level of fidelity have a valid role to play in HF testing, whether this is sketch model mock up, a paper prototype of an app, or a highly finished ‘lookslike-works-like’ prototype - they all stand to add value. The important thing is to identify the usability questions to be asked in the testing and design the prototype to address those questions. For example, in the design of a new user interface for a medical device, early prototypes might test whether the concept and its fundamental information architecture fits the mental model of the user – whether they “get it”. It’s not relevant at this stage to test the details of page layout and interaction elements – these can be tested as the product develops, informed by foundation tests. Starting early, and truly understanding how a user will interact and use a product can save much time later on. Often, little encouragement is needed for peoples’ imagination to kick in for meaningful feedback to be offered. Lower fidelity mock-ups can also form part of other testing methodologies, in particular, contextual design. Using an early contextual design method with such mockups can stimulate participants to visualise ideas not yet fully formed. Embedding users within an iterative process enables the creation of truly user-centered products. Using prototypes within later contextual design methods, such as contextual inquiry, can generate considerable insights having embedded the product in users’ lives.
Faking it – Wizard of Oz prototyping There is often a need to be creative in the approach to prototyping for usability testing. This is particularly relevant in new technology products where a “Catch 22” situation can exist: how can we test technology which is not yet developed, yet how can we develop the technology effectively without that development being informed by user testing? This was a challenge facing IBM in 1983 in developing a “listening typewriter”. The team wanted to test the threshold of user acceptability for the accuracy of speech recognition, in order to inform the development of the technology. Their solution was to adopt a “Wizard of Oz” technique where the speech recognition was performed by a human, hidden from view, who typed the words said by the user, to give the impression that the function was being performed by the machine. This method of creatively “faking” a product or system, can unearth invaluable insight into a product, saving project time and avoiding costly mistakes being integrated into a fully functioning prototype.
Summary Including early stage prototypes in the user-centred design process produces powerful outputs, that when implemented via design iterations, significantly improve a product’s chance of success. If a product is easy to use, addresses a latent need and poses very little risk, it becomes desirable. If a product is desirable it will be in demand; and if it is in demand it will be successful. By integrating early stage proof of principle prototypes within a user-centred design process, great products can be created, solving real problems, for real people and adding real value. 17
digital impact With the increasing convergence of physical and digital in delivering engaging experiences, how do you see your role influencing the work KD is involved in? I think it’s safe to say that online and connected technologies have now permeated almost everything we do in our daily lives and have changed our behaviour forever! So as designers it’s important for us all to think a little more ‘digitally’ by design. This could take the form of taking approaches with greater consideration of digital channels and touch points, or new methodologies to help us get our designs in the hands of actual users faster. I’m looking forward to having deeper conversations with our clients about their ambitions for digital, and how they can leverage KD’s years of experience to identify and maximise their potential to deliver new and exciting product experiences. KD has an outstanding track record in design thinking, innovation and product design, and I want to help add a new dimension to the business as we develop new connected product experiences, cross-channel digital experiences and service design. I think we’ll see an increase in partnerships that enable us to provide a strategic view of digital opportunities, with a focus on speed to market, increased sustainability, social responsibility and inclusive design.
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A Q&A with Paul Richardson, KD’s latest recruit as Head of Digital Paul has specialised in Digital for over 10 years, working with some of the world’s most reputable brands on B2C and B2B experiences. How do you see the most value being added through Digital expertise and what’s your vision for digital within the team at KD? Like all commercial design delivery, Digital design relies on a constant balancing of technology constraints, time and skills to create successful experiences but, unlike most physical product development, improvements and change can happen much more rapidly once a product has been launched. Using digital design methodologies and rapid prototyping techniques, we can deliver experiences to the end user quickly, iterating and improving against requirements and user needs frequently once launched. This has huge value to us and our clients, in terms of efficiency, user feedback and agility. Designing effectively in this way requires a lean, Agile approach bringing with it new ways of gathering insight and defining measurements of success. This has great advantage in that it forces designers to think in a more modular way, creating design systems and language that are designed to scale beyond single project delivery. As the lines between physical and digital products become increasingly blurred, our channel experience as designers must become much broader, forcing us all to become more T-shaped. Digital design is able to catalyse this increased knowledge and collaboration. It’s going to be great!
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What do you think are the most interesting developments in recent technology that will enable more engagement and relevance in society? Where to start?! I think the most interesting developments we’re seeing are less about the specific technologies, but more about increased engagement and expectation in the services we already use and are becoming accustomed to. Uber, Facebook, Monzo, Netflix, Ocado, Deliveroo, Amazon Prime and Apple are the obvious and most cited service disruptors, but I think that we’re only just starting to understand how these act as long term social disruptors and the impact of our increased dependencies on them. Increased coverage for mobile devices and the promise of next generation access speeds from technology such as 5G and fibre to the home, are going to shift our reliance and relationship with connectivity from a basic utility closer to an expected human right at an exponential rate. Especially with the opportunity to devolve processing power back to the cloud, we’ll see less of a need to own the most powerful hardware, putting more emphasis on desirability and personalisation. We will all expect instant access and increased reliability, something that will bring a heightened importance on the designer’s part to create experiences that are easy to use and navigate, considering location and environmental factors, agnostic of device type. Machine Learning and AI are also developing at a staggering rate, which I expect will drastically change the design of user interfaces and our expectation for products to already understand our needs. Related to this is the increased value we put on our personal data. For example, look at software and technology development in China; digital transactions and cashless society changing our relationship with the value we put on experiences vs physical products. Privacy and accessibility are being more readily understood by consumers, and the value we put on our personal data is increasing. As designers we have a great responsibility to make decisions as to where these new technologies are best placed, especially when their deployment decreases physical human-to-human interaction in favour of more virtual and self-service experiences. But these are extremely exciting times, and it’s great to be working on the tip of the wave!
How have you found your experiences of KD so far and what do you see as the benefits in having all of our expert disciplines under one roof?
atmosphere. I have a strong belief that the best innovation happens with the juxtaposition of skills and knowledge, so having the whole team located together has huge benefits for sharing our broad expertise. Digital requires a different type of design management and collaboration between clients and suppliers. Discovery and planning requires more rigour for accurate feature prioritisation against user needs to realise opportunities to innovate. KD gets this, and the advantage of working with a team of experts in all aspects of product design, prototyping, UX, human factors, research, testing, software, firmware and design strategy is that we rarely miss anything that would jeopardise critical paths to delivery!
How do you think design conversations with our clients will change over the coming years as technology develops? I think that we’ll see more of a focus on the overall service experience around a product, rather than the product itself. A move towards continuous improvement and long term engagements rather than a project by project model. And of course, new mobile technology, augmented reality (a personal favourite of mine!), and wearables will drive the necessity to improve the hand-off between these technologies and how we can design integrated services to support them. Coupled with this, I’m also expecting more conversations about the design of global experiences and scalable design systems. Including optimisation and improvements to existing frameworks and how legacy systems can be integrated efficiently. I think we’ll see a better understanding from our clients about the long term investment that is necessary for digital design, and the benefits that constant iteration and improvement can have on driving efficiency and ROI over and above more traditional large-scale redesigns or tactical projects. We’ll also see more defined metrics and KPIs that don’t just focus on conversion, but value user experience as a differentiator. This has always been challenging, but now that most organisations have undergone widespread digital transformation, and CRMs have become ever more sophisticated, I think that we’ll see a renewed focus on reporting on the performance of our designs across whole project life cycles. Doing so puts less emphasis on specific deliverables per se, but increases our accountability to prove that we deliver world leading product and service design.
There is a quiet sense of confidence, expertise and ambition across the whole company and a very welcoming
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Dates in our diary TeenTech, Bristol 10th October
Inspiring future innovators to venture into the world of STEM, TeenTech is a nationwide campaign helping young people to strive for opportunities in contemporary industry. TeenTech West will be making its mark in Bristol on the 10th of October, taking place at The Pavilion. https://www.teentech.com/teentech-events/
Web Summit, Lisbon 4th - 7th November
At a time of great uncertainty for industry upon industry and the world itself, Web Summit gather the founders and CEOs of technology companies, fast-growing startups, policymakers and heads of state to ask a simple question: where to next? https://www.websummit.com/
Bristol Tech Fair, Bristol 9th November
a one-day celebration of technology, engineering and science for everyone. Throw yourself into a lively tech carnival of family fun activities, careers advice and diversity inspiration. http://www.bristoltechfair.org/
Global Innovation Forum, London 20th - 21st November
Combining the latest trends in design, creativity, digital and innovation every year we look forward to attending GIF. This year we look forward to presenting our thoughts on the latest trends in innovation. https://giflondon.com/
DDL2019, Edinburgh 11th - 13th December
Our team will be attending this year’s Drug Delivery to the Lungs Conference in Edinburgh. Across three days, they will be joining some of the industry’s specialists within the development of medicines for inhalation. https://aerosol-soc.com/events/ddl2019/
SXSW, Austin, Texas 13th - 22nd March 2020
South by Southwest® (SXSW®) celebrates the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries. https://www.sxsw.com
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