[Sigia-l] Research then prototype OR prototype then gather userfeedback

[Cindy Blue]

In my experience, it depends (yeah, yeah, it all depends) on how much you
already know about the users, how much time you have, what type of
information you are trying to gather, and what you mean by prototype.  

I have worked on products for which I really know the audience, and feel
that it is better to have something visual for them to react to, in order to
solicit more specific responses.  In other cases, I've known next to nothing
about the users and how the product might fit into their workflow and
environment.  In this case, putting anything in front of them might
completely miss the mark and waste time.

A prototype can take many different forms, some more time consuming than
others.  An uninformed prototype can backfire if users focus on an element
of the visual that isn't insightful, or if something from the prototype that
wasn't well thought out survives iterations by flying under the radar (no
overwhelming positive or negative feedback).  

Cindy



Cindy Blue
Senior Information Architect
NavigationArts, LLC



-----Original Message-----
From: sigia-l-bounces at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-bounces at asis.org] On Behalf
Of Trenouth, John
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 4:34 PM
To: sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: [Sigia-l] Research then prototype OR prototype then gather
userfeedback 

I'm interested in hearing people's experiences with two different
approaches to design (whether it's a product, service, information, what
have you).

Is it better to start a project by:

1.  Studying users' workflows, environments, experienced, etc., and then
develop prototypes based on this knowledge  

OR

2. Just putting something together based on what the organization
already knows, and then bring it to users in order to gather their
feedback on what you have.

The first option is a proactive approach that progresses through
knowledge and insight, while the second is a reactive approach that
progresses through constant course corrections.

Obviously over the course of any project there is a little of both,
however to start of a project it's an either or choice.  What are your
experiences with this choice?


-- john trenouth

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