A2: Experience Prototyping Submit individually

In this assignment, you will act as your own prototype to unearth the key ingredients that your design will need to instantiate.

Step 1: Iterate your Point of View

Iterate on your POV, incorporating the feedback you received and your studio theme. A point of view sketches a direction for tackling the problem. Simply enumerating a problem is not a complete point of view. For example, "students get distracted while studying" points out a common problem but not an avenue for addressing it. A good test of your POV and inspirations: each inspiration should make partial progress toward your POV. And, the POV should set a goal that's beyond what the inspirations offer. POV example: 'Life's fast pace can discourage reflection. Presenting users with a summary of their digitally captured behavior can offer a prompt for thinking about who we are and what we value'.

Step 2: Experience Prototypes

You will conduct two experience prototypes, where you simulate the experience of using the design that you will create. You must have different users between the two iterations. Think about ways that your design can address the issues that are at the core of your point of view. An experience prototype actively engages your users in the task that your app performs with you acting as the facilitator/computer. This means that you are pretending to be your app and will perform all the functions that you expect your app to do. The experience prototype will give you an idea of what kinds of functionality your app will need and how it needs to be designed in order to effectively complete its intended functionality.

Your second experience prototype should explore a different solution to the same point of view. You must also have different users between the two iterations. Think about ways that your prototypes can address the issues that are at the core of your point of view. Do not draw an interface. After the first experience prototype, gain feedback from the users you interacted with and make some improvements to your prototype before conducting the next experience prototype.

For example, if your app intends to help two people meet together for lunch, you should be the one communicating with both the users to set up the lunch meeting. If your intended app asks for calendar availability, suggests a time, confirms the lunch meeting, and sends a reminder, it will be your responsibility to perform all of those actions yourself. You would not attend the lunch itself. After the planned lunch meeting, follow up with the users to gain feedback about their experience and how you can improve your prototype. It may be helpful to prepare a few questions, such as "How did my reminders affect whether or not you showed up to the lunch meeting?" or "What interactions on my part helped you successfully have a lunch meeting and which parts did not?"

Document each of your experience prototypes with about half a page of single spaced writing. The write-up should address the following:

  • Description of the app idea that you are testing
  • What were the steps required for planning and what was included in executing the task?
  • How successful was the execution? What was not?
  • What adjustments did you make as the facilitator after your first prototype and why? What were the differences between your first experience prototype and the second? Which one was more successful and why?
  • Feedback from users after each experience prototype
  • What did you learn from doing the experience prototype and how will you apply the knowledge to your app?

Step 3: Make an Inspiration board

Inspiration Board:

  1. Start an inspiration board by listing 5-10 items that relate to your design idea or point of view. These items can be anything -- from similar designs to feelings that the idea evokes.
  2. For each inspiration, write a one-sentence positive (+) attribute that would help your users accomplish their goals.
  3. …and also a one-sentence “I wish” (-) that represents an unmet need in this inspiration that you want your design to fill.
  4. Mark one of your inspirations as representing the best way it could be accomplished today.

Your inspiration can be existing applications, artifacts, products, services, or anything that relates to your concept. Here, web search is your friend (useful sites include Google, the ACM Digital Library, TechCrunch...). The relationship could be very concrete or very abstract. A carrot-peeler or a measuring cup can be your inspiration for an elegant and ergonomic software interface design.

As an example, if you were making a travel app, your words could be: relaxing, paradise, getaway, Europe, blue, etc. Then, some inspirations could be tripadvisor.com, souvenirs, twitter, Bank of America mobile banking app, and so on. You should not be submitting inspirations with tripadvisor.com, travelocity.com, expedia.com, as these websites all offer the same type of services and therefore, do not add anything “diverse” to the set. While it’s true that Google has a clean minimal layout and the iPhone has a beautiful design, citing those as inspiration wouldn’t be very specific.

Here's a concrete example of an inspiration board, found below the overview section, where you can see the existing products/systems/etc. that help establish the problem space being explored.

Benefits of Inspiration Boards:

  • Making an inspiration board helps you understand the existing landscape.
  • Inspiration boards can inspire you to improve upon an existing service or go in a totally different direction.

Step 4: Find the Open Areas

Make a table listing your inspirations and attributes they have. This table will serve as a competitive analysis for your prototype versus the existing products in the world. Compare each inspiration to see what attributes some inspirations are missing to get an idea of what unique features you might want to include in order to make your prototype stand apart. What areas aren't covered that you might want to focus on?

Check out this competitive analysis to get an idea of what a good example of this part might be.


In Studio

During studio, click the button below to fill out the Student Code of Conduct after forming teams.

Student Code of Conduct
 

Individual Submission

Submit a single formatted pdf file with the following items concatenated within it:

  • Write-up of experience prototypes, and your Point of View.
  • 5-10 items that relate to your design idea.
  • Five existing inspirations that relate to your thinking and explanations of why you chose those designs.
  • Table of competitive analysis.
Submit your formatted pdf here

Evaluation Rubric

Students earn one point for each binary criterion met.

  1. Submission's POV presents a problem and goal without offering a specific solution.
  2. Experience prototype #1 makes an explicit connection to the point of view.
  3. Description of your execution and functions of experience prototype #1 are sufficiently detailed, such that another facilitator can perform them.
  4. Experience prototype #1’s feedback leads to a clear plan or insight that is applicable to the next iteration.
  5. Experience prototype #2 makes an explicit connection to the point of view.
  6. Description of your execution and functions of experience prototype #2 are sufficiently detailed, such that another facilitator can perform them.
  7. Experience prototype #2’s feedback leads to a clear plan or insight that is applicable to the next iteration.
  8. Board comprises at least 5 visual inspirations with concrete, POV-related positive & 'I wish' for each.
  9. The 5+ inspirations included relate to and strengthen your design idea.
  10. At least one of the inspirations shows the best way the user could satisfy the need today, and explain why it falls short
  11. Inspirations were diverse with insightful explanations.
  12. Competitive analysis shows a table of at least four competitors.
  13. Competitive analysis compares at least five specific different features.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my A2 have to be the same topic as A1?

Most of the time, your A2 will build on A1. That said, it’s not required. What is required is that you put forward the very best design work you can that addresses your studio’s theme. If in your case that means shifting or changing what you work on, so be it.