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Prototyping experiences for connected products

O’Reilly Solid 2015

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What we’ll do today

• What’s experience prototyping all about? (15 min)

• Warmup (20 min)

• What you can tackle through experience prototyping (20 min)

• Different techniques for prototyping connected products (20 min)

• Comfort break 3:00 pm

• Prototyping time (1h 15min)

• Demos and discussion (45 min)

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Hello!

Claire Rowland Elizabeth Goodman Tom Metcalfe Martin Charlier

@clurr @egoodman @tommetcalfe @marcharlier

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Designing Connected Products

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“PROTOTYPE”

An experiment designed to answer specific questions.

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PROTOTYPE EXPERIENCE PROTOTYPE

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IBM & SPEECH-TO-TEXT

Let’s not bet the company on it…

More about this story in “Pretotype It” http://www.pretotyping.org/uploads/1/4/0/9/14099067/pretotype_it_2nd_pretotype_edition-2.pdf

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Building the thing right.

PROTOTYPE EXPERIENCE PROTOTYPE

Building the right thing.

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Building the thing right.

What are the tech challenges we will face?

Can we actually make this work with the tech we have?

Will it meet the requirements?

Building the right thing.

Would people use this?

How would it have to work to be desirable?

Should we build this at all?

What would it feel like to use this?

PROTOTYPE EXPERIENCE PROTOTYPE

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Product development

“Product development is largely an exercise in uncovering surprises as soon as possible.”

Susan Conant

http://radar.oreilly.com/2015/06/the-11-deadly-sins-of-product-development.html

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Product development

COST

STAGE IN YOUR DEVELOPMENT

You don’t want to be asking big, fundamental

questions here.

Are we building the right thing?

Are we building the thing right?

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negligiblesignificant

Cost

hours or daysweeks

Time

many & roughfew & precise

Answers

PROTOTYPE EXPERIENCE PROTOTYPE

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ELECTRONICS PROTOTYPING

Even electronics prototyping platforms can sometimes distract and waste time.

“Uh-oh! I’ve just spend an entire day getting a certain

library to work.”

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STORYBOARDINGPHYSICAL MOCK UPS

VIDEO PROTOTYPINGACTING OUT

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Warmup

Please get into teams

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10 Minutes

Pick an IKEA product and augment it through sensing & connectivity.

Give it an IKEA style name.

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Briefing

Each team now receives their briefing.

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Exercise 1

List questions

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“PROTOTYPE”

An experiment designed to answer specific questions.

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Areas you will learn about

Value proposition Context of use

Interaction

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Areas you will learn about

“where is the value in this idea?”

“what are the user stories for this idea?”

“does this seem like a worthwhile idea?”

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Areas you will learn about

Value proposition Context of use

Interaction

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Areas you will learn about

“what would this feel like in an office?”

“what would using this while cycling feel like?”

“would using this on public transport be problematic?”

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Areas you will learn about

Value proposition Context of use

Interaction

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Areas you will learn about

“how would the interface have to work?”

“what is the right gesture for this?”

“could this work using a voice interface?”

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15 Minutes

List questions about your briefing you could answer through experience prototyping.

Pick ONE question to prototype.

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Think about these areas:

Value proposition Context of use

Interaction

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Exercise 2

Prototyping time

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Prototyping techniques

Media from the future Storyboards

Physical props Wizard of Oz

Video prototypes

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Newspaper article

Credit: Dan Hill

Press release Sketch-the-box / sketch an advert

• Can this service, idea or product be plausibly conveyed?

• Are we able to convey the idea in simple terms?

• Forces you to clearly and simply convey the value and why anyone should care.

• Can be iterated quickly.

• Why should people care? • How do you persuade them? • How can you proof your

claims?

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Prototyping techniques

Media from the future Storyboards

Physical props Wizard of Oz

Video prototypes

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Storyboard with script

Credit: Deb Aoki

Credit: Robert André

Composed with screenshots Collaboration with cartoonist to explore wider human context

• How different products and systems hang together.

• How interactions work across space and time.

• Great foundation for video.

• Focus the reader on what is the new part and make it clear what you’re *not* designing.

• Sense check your ideas through how plausible the story feels.

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Prototyping techniques

Media from the future Storyboards

Physical props Wizard of Oz

Video prototypes

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Physical artefacts

Credit: Uniform Credit: Stimulant Credit: D-LABS

1:1 scale Gaining empathy through acting out

• Make it real - think through making. • Act out and pretend to use the products.

• Work and iterate in the real sizes and environments.

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Use existing devices you already have

Credit: UsTwo http://ustwo.com/blog/our-experience-approach-to-hmi-design/

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Iterate, iterate, iterate!

http://bergcloud.com/case-studies/cloudwash/

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Prototyping techniques

Media from the future Storyboards

Physical props Wizard of Oz / Mechanical Turk

Video prototypes

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What a participant experiences….

Credit: Ericsson Labs, Marcus Nyberg

… and how it’s done.

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Across multiple days and remotely.

http://www.ideo.com/images/uploads/news/pdfs/FultonSuriBuchenau-Experience_PrototypingACM_8-00.pdf

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Prototyping techniques

Media from the future Storyboards

Physical props Wizard of Oz

Video prototypes

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These are NOT video prototypes. (These are concept videos…)

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30 minute prototype for a connected herb garden sensor.

this was a video…

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Connected instrument w/ play-along lessons

Credit: Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos and Ant Mace / From a workshop run by Tom Metcalfe

this was a video…

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Sketch-A-Move: Slightly more elaborate. Both a demonstration and an exploration.

http://www.superflux.in/work/sketch-move

this was a video…

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Sketch-A-Move: Behind the scenes

http://www.superflux.in/work/sketch-move

Capture imagination and inspire the team

Matthias Kranz, et. al http://www.eislab.fim.uni-passau.de/files/publications/2006/SketchAMove_preprint.pdf

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Stills compositions with narration

More info: http://www.cooper.com/journal/2008/12/economizer

this was a video…

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A storyboard or video prototype can guide the tech requirements

More info: http://www.cooper.com/journal/2008/12/economizer

Technology requirements

Technology requirements

Technology requirements

Technology requirements

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1 Hour 15 Minutes

Prototyping time!

At Demo time, we want to hear your selected question and see your prototype in action (video or

demonstration)

Prototype to share (35 min)

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Focus first on learning about the problem through prototyping - then focus on producing a shareable prototype.

Prototype to learn (40 min)

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Instagram hashtag for your prototypes

#SolidPrototyping

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https://instagram.com/explore/tags/solidprototyping/

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Demo time!

(+ discussion)

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kuddel

winner

Winner of the IKEA exercise

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Thank you.

designingconnectedproducts.com