Experience Matters

Prototyping on the cheap - Part II

By day, Sean Howard works as a Director of Strategy and Innovation at Lift Communications, a brand experience studio in Toronto, Canada. By night, he goes by the name “Craphammer” - a lone blogger vigilante looking to set the marketing world straight. Sean was one of the commenters on our 100th post and we thought we’d extend an invitation to guest post here on Experience Matters. To our delight, Sean agreed to do so and in the process will be adding a couple of posts to our melting pot of voices. But enough about us, let’s hear what Sean, AKA “The Craphammer,” has to say:

There are many stages in a development (and research) process where I believe prototypes are highly effective and powerful parts of our arsenal. However, more than one person has brought up the costs associated with building prototypes and that this cost can preclude their use.

I wondered about this. Are prototypes really that expensive? Or rather, do they have to be?

This is part two of a two-part series where I present a number of ways to implement powerful prototyping methods on-the-cheap.

Re-enactments

We don’t always have to shoot video, build wireframes, snap photos or even design storyboards. Sometimes we can just act out. Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap devote some time to the power of role playing in their book “When Sparks Fly.”

They speak about how Interval Research had to equip a group of twenty-something researchers to be able to design interfaces for the elderly. They speak of a specific case where the team determined that visiting nursing homes and speaking to those most affected wasn’t enough.

 ”Far better if designers feel what it is like to inhabit an eighty-year-old body. The answer? Give them gloves to reduce dexterity, glasses smeared with Vaseline to mimic blurred vision, and weights on their arms and legs to simulate time-worn muscles - and then let them role play interactions with the proposed technology.”

At the MX conference in San Francisco, I heard about how the design team at Adaptive Path applied this same approach. They were working on a project in response to Amy Tenderich and her open letter to Steve Jobs for Apple to help improve the lives of the 20 million Americans with diabetes.

The design team built some rough physical mockups of insulin pumps from easily available office and home supplies (same shape, weight and size). After a few days of wearing these devices, the team was beyond motivated to come up with some revolutionary ideas that have the opportunity to make living with diabetes a far more humane experience.

See the final Charmr solution here.

Re-enactments put us in the shoes of the audience. They give us the opportunity to pause, replay or even alter scenarios as they are happening, exploring new ideas and directions on the fly. And they require us to exercise our imagination, together as a team. And like a child to whom a branch can become a sword, a gun or even a microphone, so too can we utilize everyday objects to sit in for items that otherwise would not be feasible.

DIY engineering

Make Magazine has revolutionized the world of do-it-yourself. They’ve taken what was seen as the land of crafts (beads and glue) and dragged it kicking and jumping for joy into the realm of robot building, mad at-home scientists and exploding backyard objects. What I love about Make is they have shown that do-it-yourself mad scientists are people that live next door. Or in my case, inside my own home.

I realize that not everyone wants to build something in their basement out of PVC pipe, cereal boxes and old cans. But it gives me hope that not all prototyping has to be done by “professionals” in high tech labs. Might be worth canvassing your company and seeing if you have any hidden Make mad scientists.

Make a T-Shirt Cannon

Interactive prototypes

I have fallen in love with Axure RP. Axure RP is a rapid prototyping tool that creates wireframes, specifications and working prototypes (all at the same time).

Here is a link to a sample prototype created with Axure.

We use Axure RP at the agency where I work at varying stages and with both internal and external audiences. With stakeholders and decision makers we are able to showcase a “functional” and detailed prototype in less time than it would take to build just the wireframes in Visio or OmniGraffle. With internal staff we are able to have discussions across disciplines and modify the prototype as we go.

Axure RP is not the only tool for building interactive prototypes. There are plenty of people using Flash, After Effects, Director and more.

Regardless of the tool we use, interactive prototypes help everyone to better understand the purpose of the functionality and content proposed in the wireframes and other artifacts.  The site can be more easily envisioned because people are able to interact with a semi-working, clickable prototype and experience how it will all function.

It can also be used for user testing.  Cam Beck uses Axure to test (quite early) what people are likely to click on, and even get a sense of the mental model they are using to navigate the proposed site.

Final word?

Writing this article really opened up my eyes to the diversity of cost effective prototyping methods that are available.  It is my hope that this will help to remove this perceived “cost barrier” and move prototyping into a more prominent place in our day-to-day jobs.

Have you used any of these techniques?  Have I missed any?  I would love to hear about your experiences.