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PHASE 3 — Designing the Meta Product
STEP I - TEST
This is one of the most dynamic parts of the design process, where you will see if you got it right. It’s also a crucial step before making investment decisions. First of all you have to clearly define the elements in the network that are testable, the ones that can be left out of the testing process, and the ones that can’t be tested at the moment. Once you know exactly what you want to test, you can choose the best way to prototype your Meta Product. Communicating or testing concepts at this point of the design process does not have to be costly.The key element to testing effectively is to be able to make associations from the results and look back to the previous steps to refine the new network and the interactions.
Recommended techniques
Quick prototyping
This is a mix of drawing, video recording and model-making. It begins with re-enacting the context (or the boundaries of the interaction) as accurate as possible. Then creating the interactions according to your design guidelines.
Context mapping
This is an approach where people express their experiences and aspirations in different communicational levels. It is a combination of techniques that aims to help designers work closely with the people and understand the context where the interactions, services or products will be used.
Guided storyboard
It is a technique to guide people to share a life story. It consists of blank storyboards with cues to fill in a complete story that explains a particular experience.
Interview on the spot
It is a descriptive observation technique that adds an interpretation layer on top of the descriptions. You can ask the people being observed in the context what they think about “x, y, z”, and/or you could add your own reasoning to interpret what you see and the opinions of the people questioned.
Evaluative observation
In an evaluative observation you jump from describing what you see, to interpreting the reasons behind it, to attaching a value to it (good, bad, enjoyable, frustrating, etc).
Re-enacting & roleplaying
This is a technique to recreate some of the most important situations in the context with some realistic elements. It requires preparation beforehand by writing a “script” where all the actions are described. Cheap props (making tape, cardboard, drawings, etc.) can be used to define the relevant elements in the surroundings. This technique requires to have an audience that gives feedback.The whole play can be video recorded for later analysis.