Hi friends,
This is week three of a five week series on Human Centered Design for Cities. Today we are talking prototyping! Prototyping is an experimental model to test a concept or a proposed solution. Prototypes are scrappy and messy - their primary function is to communicate ideas to stakeholders and test those ideas with users.
Any concept can be prototyped. Whether it is a service, a program, or a product, prototyping is a useful way to make your ideas tangible. They allow us to collect feedback before we invest time and resources into developing something that may not work.
Sometimes people who have spent the majority of their careers in non-profit or government think that prototyping is reserved for physical product design. They are more accustomed to the term pilot, so they tend to use those words interchangeably. However, a pilot and a prototype are not the same thing. I’ll use a skateboard and a racecar to talk about the difference.
Think about this continuum of transportation methods:
A skateboard is our prototype - the most simple form of transportation to get the job done. It gets a user from point A to point B just like a racecar, albeit more slowly and with more manpower. At their core, the racecar and the skateboard do the same job. When we prototype something, we aim for a skateboard. We want to prove our concept in the simplest, cheapest, and lightest way possible. There are two main reasons for this:
If you start building a racecar and run out of time or money, you end up with half a racecar. Last time I checked, half a racecar can’t even get you to the end of the driveway.
If you start building a racecar and find out that later that your user actually needed a boat, you just wasted a lot of time and money on building the fanciest version of something that didn’t end up being useful at all.
Starting with the most basic, complete product to prove your idea minimizes risk and gives you the opportunity to work out the kinks early.
Let’s take a moment and talk about pilots.
A pilot usually begins as a bicycle (step 3 on the continuum above). There is more money allocated up front (typically from a grant) which causes teams to build resource and time heavy products. The problem here is that teams will skip over the process of defining the problem they are trying to solve and gathering insights. Instead, they jump right into solution building in the name of experimentation. Skipping insight gathering is a recipe for failure.
If I’ve now convinced you that starting with a skateboard is the way to go, here’s how to do it with a product and with a program:
Prototyping a Product - Use the materials around you to build. For example, if you are designing a network of bike lanes in the urban core of your city, you might print out a map and use colored tape to mock up the network layout. The prototype shouldn't be high fidelity or take a long time to build - it is meant to communicate an idea.
Prototyping a Program - Draw it out in comic strip form. Make sure you list each step your user will take from beginning to end with enough detail to fully communicate your idea. You can also take things a step further and create a simple pitch deck, a brochure, or a dummy website. This will allow you to clearly communicate your idea and gather user feedback from the people who would participate in your program.
I hope this is a helpful introduction to prototyping. Next week we’ll take a look at testing and iterating your prototype. If you’d like to dive into this topic on a much deeper level, check out my six week Human Centered Design for Cities course.
Here are the most interesting things happening this week in cities:
This is a really awesome #longread about decentering the designer. Betsy Ramaccia shares the tactics and benefits for entering a community space as a facilitator instead of a subject matter expert.
Christchurch, New Zealand has ended a 39 year contract with its resident wizard. Yes - the kind with the hat. Christchurch is the only city in the world to employ a wizard. During his tenure, Ian Brackenbury Channell performed rain dances during periods of drought and took an active role in community protests. Imposter syndrome, be gone.
The City of Los Angeles has started painting their streets with a reflective coating to fight extreme heat waves and bring down neighborhood temperatures. The reflective surface bounces heat waves back into space, lowering the ground temperature by 2-3 degrees. This may not seem significant, but the City is already receiving feedback from residents that it is making a big difference in their quality of life.
Currently Reading: Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, Mariana Mazzucato
If you want more, check out my Flipboard magazine for a backlog of content.
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