Producing a prototype

Prototype! is what I always say being asked if there is any smart and agile method of testing the design before spending lots of money on the development phase and probably avoiding the spectacular failure or overlook a strategic direction of further product development. No matter the domain and the scope, just prototype to test at least one functionality of your idea. 

User experience design methods offers a highly flexible set of tools to assist you in this journey. Here is what I suggest before building a prototype: 

• Analyze the situation as broad as you can imagine. Explore any potential competitors, allies, obstacles and chances (both technical and substantive). Check any former similar implementation (if there are any) or beaten paths. 
• Define the users in order to understand their specific needs and pains. It is also very useful to get some insights about their ambitions and motivations. How do you uncover them? Try running a survey remembering to focus on data you want to collect. Focus on the purpose of your design and remember what exactly you want and need to know. The success of it lays in properly asked questions. For those highly motivated I would always recommend in-depth interviews with the users. They could be done in many different circumstances. I have a big history of research walks regarding my urban experience. Try something that fits your purposes. I would suggest testing the product or area firstly on your own. Service safari is always a great starting point and an occasion to walk in the user’s shoes. Observation studies should do a great job as well. 
• Discover the potential context of use for your design. No matter the idea’s characteristics, there is always a context behind the user’s motivation. Keep this in mind on every stage of your process, it will help in case of any hesitation. 
• Try to come up with some unique value proposition of your design or just define what problem does it solve exactly. Remember about the users and their satisfaction, not your ambitions and habits. 
• Generate hypotheses to test. Before investing big money in implementation it is good to validate your guesses. Create a good hypothesis, which will be precise and focusing on one thing at a time. The simpler the better, as always. Remember that good hypothesis is a testable hypothesis. Before building your prototype it is smart to define its challenges and questions it answers (or help to get them). This stage is for planning your tests as well. It may occur that for testing purposes you need to prepare the prototype in some exact way. 
• Make a promotion plan for your testing. The method will always depend on the type of your product (e.g. physical or digital), insights from your research reports and hypothesis set. Remember about such details as season, time of the year, month or even week. Everything depends on the type of you design.

Remembering not to skip the learning phase is crucial. Same as doing a clever research based on real problems and challenges. Not doing enough research may lead you to focusing on solving fictitious problems. What is more, when deciding on prototyping method you need to be skeptical of your beliefs. By assuming that you know how things are you risk to fail all the hypothesis generating phase and simply testing a false one. Always aim to prototype and iterate basing on new insights. Remember about your primary goals, use them to understand the scale of certain user actions. Testing the design with future users is an excellent way to see the product in action before spending lots of money. Talking about money, take your time to carefully analyze future costs of your design. Costs of maintaining it are important as well! See you next time to reveal some more!