1.)Marion Buchenau, Experience Prototyping
It was advocated during the train experience that people be given tasks or demeanors. How are these chosen so that they are realistic and accurately reflect what real passengers would do?
2.)Marion Buchenau, Experience Prototyping
During the ROV role playing the control crossed domains from being action driven with hands to a verbal system. Given that speech is often slower and more ambiguous than physical controls, why was this still a valid prototype to expose the problems faced by a ROV operator?
3.)Marion Buchenau, Experience Prototyping
Low fidelity prototyping is what is being mainly advocated by Buchenau, but how is it apparent to those doing the role-playing when the artifacts of low fidelity prototypes become confused with the core problem being addressed?
-Role playing: Are there additional benefits in having a bank of users to role play with the prototypes / service designs (with Ideo observers, role players as well) in addition to having the people at Ideo role play that may not be the typical customers of the product?\
-Rapid prototyping: How much of the final design is determined by the first prototype. In the article and at Ideo offices, it always seemed like the underlying themes / shapes of the first prototype always made it into the final product (e.g. there wasn’t radical change in the prototyping steps). Is this positive or negative?
-For experience prototyping, naturally parts of the “true” atmosphere is lost in the recreation. How is it determined what aspects are critical when things that appear minor and are not incorporated, may actually have a large impact on the impression of the service?
How do you create a prototype for changing an entire experience? Riding on a train seems like a good example - the designers understand the experience but you can't as easily bring that change into the Caltrains board room like you could a new design for a mouse... Or say a new way of carpooling - how can you prototype it in a way that's tangible?
How do you keep role-playing on task? It seems like a difficult balance to maintain enough creativity and openness while at the same time not straying too far from the goal.
If you don't have a big name like Ideo, how do you convince your team to participate in something that doesn't seem to fit in the corporate setting? Even if you explain why it's valuable people still feel a little strange and don't get into it when you try to do the bodystorming.
How do we know if we should go for a simple prototype or a high tech prototype early in the design process?
How would a designer go about choosing which of several user experiences to use in design, if they were unable to use all of them?
Are there any situations in which developing empathy with a user through experience prototyping would work against designers?
1. As the articles mentioned, experience prototype/role playing often provide important insights to the designers, but how acceptable are the traditional businessmen to these newer ways of prototyping? What are ways to help them be more engaged in the process?
2. How do you provide enough support for participants to be engaged in the role playing and yet still be able to focus their attention on remembering/taking note of the good/bad of their experience?
3. before reading the articles, I didn't realize that prototype can take place in so many stages. I've always thought prototype only has to do with making a mock up of the product. How would you plan things such as an understanding prototype experience? Would the prototyping experience limits you to a certain viewing angle because of what you experienced in the role playing?
1. Interesting that prototyping is such an invaluable part of the design process --- it's the part that scares me most! My fear has become manageable, however, because of the introduction to Improvisation class I'm taking this quarter. There are signficant overlaps in the philosophies of improv and IDEO-like design. I'm curious about that connection --- did a bunch of trained improvisors start the D-School?!
Here are 13 "maxims" of improv given by Patricia Ryan (who taught improvisation at Stanford for years) in her book, Improv Wisdom, 1. say yes, 2. don't prepare, 3. just show up, 4. start anywhere, 5. be average, 6. pay attention, 7. face the facts, 8. stay on course, 9. wake up to the gifts, 10. make mistakes, please, 11. act now, 12. take care of each other, 13. enjoy the ride.
2. Having a "disability" this weekend was an incredible role-playing exercise. I thought, if I sat down and mused about it for awhile, I could think up all the design flaws in and inconveniences of using a walker. Not true. There were so many little things that I learned while actually role-playing a disability. What kinds of things did your role-playing experience teach you that you might not have thought of were you not to be mimicking a disability?
3. Communication is key in design. IDEO has set up various ways of communicating at different stages of the design process (pictures, post-it notes, prototyping, roll playing, etc.). Some modes of communication are easier than others for certain people and some are much harder for them. Evaluate which modes of communication come most naturally to you (the ones you're "good at"). Now think about the forms of communication that make you squirm a little --- you're not as comfortable. How might you practices these?
Rapid prototyping as described by Tom Kelly in "The Art of Innovation" usually involves a flurry of comments and thoughts being thrown into the mix. Some thoughts will have more weight in the group then others. How can the facilitator assist quieter persons to contribute? Also, how can should the issue of someone having hurt feelings because their contributions were ignored be dealt with? How does a design team avoid becoming a place where only the "fittest" survive and contribute?
In all 3 readings, group prototyping efforts were presented. What are the best methods for an individual to prototype alone? Imagine a situation where an individual is working on an art piece and enjoys solitude or a person in a business setting wishes to apply design principles in a design-unfriendly environment. How can multiple perspectives be generated in the mind of an individual?
In "Experience Prototyping," the interaction between the prototype and client is emphasized as something that is extremely important. Recognizing that the client cannot always be physically present for the presentation, what are the best ways to communicate prototypes electronically? Has 3D software been tried? Videoconferencing? What is the relative effectiveness of these methods compared to traditional face-to-face interactions?
1. I?ve gained a lot of insight from IDEO as well as Kelly?s chapter about prototyping. Rule #1 seems to be to break the rules. If this is the case, then what if you break the rules of the design process? Is it possible to break these rules, and if so, what does this look like?
2. Simsarian?s article on role playing really fascinated me. When role-playing, just as in our observations phase, is it better to play an extreme user? Or do you want to act like a ?normal? user?
3. David Kelly obviously has a sense of humor, and I just wonder how much personality plays into the design process. I know there is so much thought that does into the process, but what about individuals? You could get a completely different design with a completely different group of people. So how do you know when you?ve got the best design team?
1.) What are the various models for prototyping and the advantages/disadvantages for each (ie Apple, IDEO), Amazon)? What lessons unique to their business model made their prototype successful (Prototyping is the shorthand of innovation)?
2.) What is experience prototyping? Why is it important and what does it achieve? Give an example from the article in which experience prototyping allows the designer to gain more insight into prototyping. (Experience prototyping)
3.) How does role play facilitate design during each stage in the design process? How does IDEO use role play/what techniques do IDEO use to encourage role play?
1. At our IDEO workshop, we were taught that prototypes don't have to look "nice" - that they're just rough mock-ups. Yet, in "Prototyping is the Shorthand of Innovation," we are taught that "prototyping is also part performance." Can these philosophies co-exist? Is a successful prototype really just a sales pitch or marketing strategy packaged in a tangible item? ("A prototype is almost like a spokesperson for a particular point of view...")
2. Role-playing comes up a lot as one of the keys to making design discoveries. How does one keep role-playing from becoming contrived? How real is it? For example,when a person deliberately wears gloves and tries to use a ticketing machine, there's a self awareness that does not exist under normal circumstances. Could this detract from insights gained through the experience?
3. The role-playing aspect of the design process can be time-consuming to execute - to fully experience the role. What kind of adjustments can designers make for projects that have time constraints? Is there another way to simulate the hands-on experience besides bodystorming? (Or is this not an issue since many design projects have long project cycles?)