Design Thinking: Testing

Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lecture, you should be able to:

• Explain prototyping and its steps

• Understand the concept of experimenting

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 Topic Learning Outcomes

In this lecture, the students should be able

to understand the concepts on:
• Types of prototyping
– Low fidelity
– High fidelity

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 Prototyping
Your idea will have lots of testable components, so be clear about what you
need to learn and which components will give you the necessary answers.

Prototyping isn’t about being precious.

Make simple, scrappy prototypes to not only save time, but to focus on
testing just the critical elements.

You might be trying to learn something like, “How big should this be?” or
“What should the uniforms of the social enterprise look like?” At this stage
you should have a lot of questions about how your idea should work.

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 Prototype

Prototypes are often used in the final, testing phase

in a Design Thinking process in order to determine
how users behave with the prototype, to reveal new
solutions to problems, or to find out whether the
implemented solutions have been successful.

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 Prototype
• The results generated from these tests are then used to redefine one
or more of the problems established in the earlier phases of the
project, and to build a more robust understanding of the problems
users may face when interacting with the product in the intended
environment.

• Prototypes are built so that designers can think about their solutions
in a different way (tangible product rather than abstract ideas), as well
as to fail quickly and cheaply, so that less time and money is invested
in an idea that turns out to be a bad one.

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 Prototype

• For instance, when developing software, a design team may produce a number of paper
prototypes, which the user can gradually work through in order to demonstrate to the design team
or evaluators how they may tackle certain tasks or problems.

• When developing tangible devices, such as the computer mouse, designers may use a number of
different materials to enable them to test the basic technology underlying the product.

• With advances in 3D printing technology, producing prototypes is now often a more instant and low-
cost process, and as a result this has allowed designers to provide stakeholders with accurate and
testable/useable replica models before settling upon a particular design.

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 Types of Prototyping

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 Low-fidelity prototyping

• Low-fidelity prototyping involves the use of basic models

or examples of the product being tested.
• For example, the model might be incomplete and utilise
just a few of the features that will be available in the
final design, or it might be constructed using materials
not intended for the finished article, such as wood,
paper, or metal for a plastic product. 
Low-fidelity prototypes can either be models that are
cheaply and easily made, or simply recounts or
visualisations of them.

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 Examples of low-fidelity prototypes:

• Storyboarding.
• Sketching (although Bill Buxton, a pioneer
of human-computer interaction, argues 
sketching is not an example of
prototyping).
• Card sorting.
• 'Wizard of Oz'.

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 High-fidelity prototyping

• High-fidelity prototypes are prototypes that look and

operate closer to the finished product.
• For example, a 3D plastic model with movable parts
(allowing users to manipulate and interact with a device
in the same manner as the final design) is high-fi in
comparison to, say, a wooden block.
• Likewise, an early version of a software system
developed using a design program such as Sketch or
Adobe Illustrator is high-fi in comparison to a paper
prototype.

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 Steps in Prototyping

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 01 WRITE DOWN THE KEY ELEMENTS OF
YOUR IDEA
With your team, write down the key elements of your idea.

Think practically about what needs to be tested and write

down your primary questions for each component.

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 Now pick a few questions to answer.

If you want to prototype an interaction, consider putting on

a skit with your team.

If you’re testing a logo, print it out and stick it on a t-shirt to

solicit feedback.

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 Remember, this process is about learning, not getting it
right the first time.

Better to test a miserable failure and learn from it, rather

than take ages making a beautiful, highly refined prototype.

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 Determining the steps in Prototype

02 PUTTING ON A SKIT

Now pick a few questions to answer.

If you want to prototype an interaction, consider putting on

a skit with your team.

If you’re testing a logo, print it out and stick it on a t-shirt to

solicit feedback.
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 Determining the steps in Prototype

03 HOLDING A BRAINSTORM
Think through what kind of prototype makes the most
sense to answer these questions.

You might consider holding a Brainstorm now.

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 Determining the steps in Prototype

04 REFINED PROTYPE
Remember, this process is about learning, not getting it
right the first time.

Better to test a miserable failure and learn from it, rather

than take ages making a beautiful, highly refined prototype.

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 Prototype Model

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 What is Rapid Prototype?

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 METHODS IDEATIONS PHASE

1. Storyboard
2. Role-playing
3. Rapid Prototype
4. Business Model Canvas
5. Get Feedback
6. Integrate Feedback and Iterate

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 What is Experimenting?

• Nurturing ideas takes experimentation – trying something,

incorporating the learnings and trying again. 

• Yet how will you know which experiments are set up for
success? 

• How do you know which experiments will yield the greatest

learnings?

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 Qualities of a good Experiment
Three qualities of a good experiment:

• Is it low risk– can it be conducted with a safe audience at a

minimal cost? A good gauge is would it cost less than $100

• Is it quick and easy– is it easy to build and run? A good gauge is

can it be set up and run in under 1 hr.

• Is it generative– will the experiment help you learn and grow the
idea you are testing? A good gauge is it will generate at least two
good learnings to help you adapt your idea.
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 Method of Experimenting

The best way for the coffee purveyor to see if this idea can be a
success is with a low cost, quick prototype through
storyboarding.

Storyboarding helps build out an idea before the actual

experimentation is conducted and it identifies the potential
opportunities or challenges with the idea

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 Experimenting with Storyboards

Storyboards can help you visualize your concept from start

to finish.

1 Determine the part of your idea

2 Spend no more than 30-45 minutes drawing how your
ideas work
3 Helps you fully think through your concept
4 Act out the Storyboard to your team for feedback.

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 Example of a Storyboard

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 SUMMARY OF MAIN
TEACHING POINTS

 Explain prototyping and its steps

Understand the concept of

experimenting

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 QUESTION AND ANSWER

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