Prototyping
In the prototyping phase we begin to "try out" the ideas generated during the co-design phase in order to see how they look, feel, and function outside of our heads and in the real world. This typically involves mocking-up interfaces, role-playing interactions, and engaging with potential users and other stakeholders to understand how they experience the new service(s) we are developing. Until we start to build, enact, or otherwise realize our designs in this way, we can only speculate about how they might actually work -- and how they could work better.
At this stage, it's important to remember that we are prototyping unfinished innovations as a way to develop, test, and refine them further, not piloting completed services to demonstrate, argue, or prove their value. Our goal in prototyping is not to "get it right" the first time, but to rapidly iterate, learn from, and improve upon our designs through low-risk, low-investment simulations and experiments. Involving stakeholders in this process provides critical insights from the people who our designs are intended to serve, gives them a stake in our process, and increases their willingness to implement, adopt, or otherwise support the outcomes of our project.
Detailed description to come.