Be Curious: Prototype and Test

Prototyping

Prototyping is getting ideas and explorations out of your head and into the physical world. Building prototypes means exploring, evolving, and communicating ideas using people, paper, or pixels. A prototype can be anything that takes a physical form – be it a wall of Post-it notes, a journal, a role-playing activity, or even a storyboard. Prototypes are most successful when shared so that you can learn from the feedback from others.

You don’t know if an idea will work until you try it!

Test

When designing a new solution, the general rule is to test early and often. To get the most out of testing, here are some general things to consider.

• Clarify your goals. What do you want to learn? Identify your questions, concerns, areas of interest, and the purpose of the research.
• Define the scope of the test. Be very specific about exactly what you are testing. Rather than trying to test everything at once, plan out which elements of the product or service each round of testing will cover.
• Decide on your questions or tasks. That will be used in the test phase.
• Decide on metrics. What specifically are you measuring? What will a successful outcome look like?