So, the next stage,
we'll take a concept and build it out into a UI or
a prototype that we can then take to uses and start testing it with them.
We look at what we want to test with users and potentially other stakeholders.
We begin to figure out what's the purpose of a prototype,
that being the next stage of concept.
If it's to present,
we'll create a prototype that's more of a navigational walk-through.
If it's something that's highlighting a detail,
we'll create for example,
a video for an animation to communicate that.
So the prototypes that we're building here are either simple click-throughs;
things that just demonstrate the flow of a design itself,
or we'll do like a more nuanced prototypes;
something that's based in HTML and JavaScript that has rich interactions in it,
that show off those small micro interactions,
are things that will actually delight users.
Then we can see the emotional response to it as well.
So, this is the part where we'll really find
out whether or not we are solving the right problem,
or we will be able to take a UI to a customer and say, "What do you think?
What do you reckon?" They'll be able to tell us if it's on the money for solving
their problem or if we've strayed a bit too far from what they expected of the solution.
That'll help us refine the concept and refine the UI into the right solution.
The prototyping process is very varied.
One of the key skills at D+I is our ability
to work through mock-ups, proof of concepts,
refined prototypes, advanced prototypes,
and we do tailor it to each project depending on scale and requirements.
We've got so many varied clients from startups to big multinationals,
so that the process has got to mould to
their process as well and the way they structure their company.
For example, Evidure, part of Shriro, came up to us to design new barbecues.
We have a discovery phase where we go out into the marketplace and we then
try to have a bit of an understanding of what's already out there.
How do people use the barbecues?
How do they want to use the barbecues?
What are some of those pain points?
What are some of the experiences that need to be elevated in designing that barbecue.
That process is key to setting up the next process which is our ideation,
our design phase which is doing lots of sketches,
creating 3D models to visualize our designs,
rendering an opt for presentation which both helps us and
the client to have a real-life view look of what the product would be in reality.
We do that over and over again.
It's not a linear process;
it loops back around.
So, we get to a point where sometimes,
we design three concepts.
It's not quite the right direction we've taken,
but we've learned from that and then we swing back around,
do a little bit of a discovery and re-take of
where we're going in the next round of the concepts,
and we do that again.
It's interesting that one of the biggest challenges we've had was
one of these smallest nuanced little interactions here.
And it's simply just collapsing a sidebar.
Making it so it's minimal and out of the way
was something that we went through probably 40 variations of.
Finding something that really delighted the customer,
that was still easy to use,
and it's really just a simple thing like "Oh yeah,
Just collapse it or whatever."
But finding just the motion of it,
finding how it moves,
how it interacts, and how customers perceive it,
really changes the experience as a whole.
It's at the prototyping level that you're really truly testing ideas.
That's where you're going to get your best answers
and that's what you can now inform the best outcomes.
The more prototypes you build and the more you iterate with prototyping,
the better outcomes you get,
because you can put them in front of users,
you can put them in front of technical developers,
and build on the ideas.
Really, it's adapting to the thing at hand
that's going to be important when you're doing prototyping and research.
Never are going to actually have a solution that
works for every single thing that's out there.
You need to be able to adapt and that's the core thing of research and prototyping;
is adapting to the feedback and the situations that you have.