How do experiments fit into the design process?

#EXPERIMENTSinDESIGN @brettbircham

Experimentsin Design

Experimentsin Design

Where do fit

process?the

Questions Guesses Experiments

“Yes, I could ‘take a wild guess’, but I think I’ll do some tests”

The Scientific Method

Question Guess Experiment

Design Thinking

Who is my user?What matters to this person? What does it feel like to be that person? What are their

problems?What are their needs?

How can we solve their problem?

How can we demonstrate the idea or solution?

What worked?What didn’t?

The experiment

Who is the user?What are their needs?What are the opportunities?

What really matters?What aligns?

How can we solve their problem?

How can we see if our idea works?

Diverge/Converge (generate/validate)

Experiment here …and here.

Experimentsin Design

Where do fit

process?the

If the process provides you with a structure to ask the right questions,

…experiments fit into the process when you find you’re answering your questions with guesses.

Experimentsin

Design

How do differ depending

process?on where we are the

•Depends on the question•What’s at stake•Your budget•And how wild the guesses

Different techniques lend themselves to different types of questions

ConciergeFake Door Wizard of Oz

Is there demand or interest in our idea?Will people pay for it?

What are the most important problems?What are the most important features?

Does the solution work?Does it deliver the benefits predicted?

Kids publisher: lots of wild guesses“Which new ideas have legs?”

Kids publisher: lots of wild guessesWhich new ideas have legs?

Lots of ideas

What could we

do?

Any interest or

demand?

Fake Door experiments

What is th

e

proposi

tion?

Will people buy it??

Betting company: big investment“will the feature deliver the benefit?”

Betting company: big investment“will the feature deliver the benefit?”

What could we

do?

What is the best idea? Propositi

on

design

Will it deliver benefit?Few good ideas

Dragon’s Den-style assessment

Fairly straight forward

Wizard of Oz Experiment

Questions and Guesses•Try thinking about your work in terms of questions•Be aware of when your answers are more like guesses•See if there are ways to help make those guesses a little less wild.