prototyping & testing, beginner

MVP, or Minimum Viable Product, is a prototype which requires the least amount of resources to fulfill the purpose of being able to test what you are looking to test. Think about how to prototype your idea from inexpensive materials, like creating a paper prototype. As this methodology can be applied in so many areas (from physical products to digital interfaces to services), it is impossible to provide a clear-cut how-to guide. The idea, however, is simple: is your idea a physical product? Make your design from cardboard! Or are you working on a digital interface? Fake the different screens in your app by making it on powerpoint, and then just pretending to press in the right spots to move the screens along. Or maybe you’re working on a service? Do yourself, what you imagine the service does – deliver products, offer customized feedback, etc.!

Some examples of different types of MVPs can be found on this website. These case studies can serve as an example of how others have benefited from MVPs. To check whether your MVPs fulfills all the requirements defined, you can use this template.

Website: http://scalemybusiness.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-minimum-viable-products/

Case studies: https://www.forbes.com/sites/darden/2016/06/07/how-to-design-your-next-minimum-viable-product-3-case-studies/#305f55a3733b

MVP template: https://www.creatlr.com/template/Bw4Rbc8I4kKm0dFcdXoTje/MVP/download/

co-creation, advanced

Community management can be helpful in some cases, and even required in others. If you haven’t already come across the need for creating a community around your project, it could be useful by now. Prototyping and testing in a co-creative manner together with the community, the user-base of your concept can spark new and innovative ideas while testing and validating these together with the stakeholders you are targeting. The benefit of building a community extends beyond prototyping and testing, since a well-established and run community can help you reach great impact as well as sustainability of the concept in the long term. For more information, take a look at their website or the summary of the Community Canvas. For more detailed instructions, go to the pdf of the Community Canvas and start working on the Community Canvas template, while asking yourself these key questions.

• Website: https://community-canvas.org/
• The community canvas in a nutshell: http://bit.ly/community-canvas-summary1
• Guidebook, detailed instructions to the canvas: http://bit.ly/community-canvas-guidebook1
• Template, community canvas worksheet: http://bit.ly/community-canvas-worksheet-summary
• Template, key questions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fyuwwqX911i9CK1BjY8jXkk3v2m8ZCHeV3dVqYuDiGM/edit

prototyping & testing, beginner

For collecting constructive feedback in a positive and creative form, try the “I like, I wish” format. Originally designed to be used within interdisciplinary teams, by creating a format in which all team members can feel comfortable with giving feedback to one another, leading to better team dynamics and collaboration going forward. This is something that is recommended to use within your teams, but has also been proven efficient to gather feedback from your users. User feedback in the form of “I like, I wish, what if” formulates the feedback in a way that is more comfortable for users who feel uncomfortable with direct criticism – by formulating it in the form of an “I wish” sentence. The third factor, “What if”, is in turn directed at collecting new ideas and suggestions from the participants. To use “I like, I wish” within your team, take a look at this website from Aalto Design Factory. For facilitating an “I like, I wish, What if” session, take a look at this method card by d-school.

Website: http://ilikeiwish.org/

Method card by d-school: https://dschool-old.stanford.edu/wp-content/themes/dschool/method-cards/i-like-i-wish-what-if.pdf

prototyping & testing, advanced

In order to create a product, service or digital interface which is of value for the users, usability is of upmost importance. It is important to create outcomes which are easy and intuitive for the users to use, not causing them difficulties or stress in achieving what they are looking to achieve when using the prototype. UX has to do with creating an optimal user experience, while considering factors like user research, project management, usability evaluation, visual as well as interaction design, and even content strategy and web analytics. For all of these themes and more, complete with methods, templates and guidelines, take a close look at all the materials available on this website. For a number of usability testing guides and tools, you can take a look at this collection. You can also download many templates to use when conducting your usability testing (consent forms, recruiting, plans and materials, reporting and much more). For example, this comprehensive usability test plan template may come in handy.

Website: https://www.usability.gov/

Collection for usability testing: https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/user-research/index.html

Templates: https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/resources/templates.html

Usability test plan template: https://www.usability.gov/sites/default/files/usability-test-plan.docx

co-creation, intermediate

The Social Innovation Lab for Kent has developed a set of method cards for participatory design methodologies, drawing from social science, community development, business and design. Alike many of the method cards and toolkits from the first phases of our user-engagement toolkit, these method cards also present tools for the very early phases of the project. However, many of the tools also have to do with the later phases: planning and communicating your project etc. Take a look at the deck of SILK method cards, split in five different themes: plan, communicate, insight, workshop and design. For more information on the tool and how it came to be, visit this website.

Website: http://www.socialinnovation.typepad.com/silk

SILK method cards: https://issuu.com/silkteam/docs/method_deck/18

co-creation, advanced

CTA stands for constructive technology assessment. The CTA toolkit anticipates challenges and uses of new technologies and innovations in a way that the analysis of this feedback can be fed back into ongoing development, implementation and societal embedding of the innovation. It plays an important role in the early phases of the development process. The toolkit provides an indication of when each tool should be used and at which stage of the process. Familiarize yourself with the CTA methodology on this website and browse around the six tools in their toolkit: social technical configuration, multi-path mapping, innovation value chain, actor analysis, scenarios and CTA-lite workshop.

Website: http://www.cta-toolbox.nl/

Toolkit: http://www.cta-toolbox.nl/tools/#aim