Chapter
7
Prototyping
General methods
Mood boards are collages that help to visualize and communicate intended design direction.
Mood boards are collages of existing or specially created text, sketches, visualizations, photos, videos, or any other media to communicate an intended design direction. Often used for but certainly not limited to look-and-feel prototyping, mood boards are a way to communicate target experiences, style,orcontexts by leveraging analogies of already known concepts.
Duration
From 30 minutes to a couple of hours
Physical requirements
Wall space/printer/scissors/glue or whiteboard/projector and access to photos, images and artifacts; flipchart, sticky notes and pens to annotate and record feedback
Researchers/Facilitators
1 or more
Participants
3 or more
Research techniques
Studio interviews, focus groups, concept tests/discussions
Expected output
Research data (specifically bugs, insights, and new ideas), photos, collages
Mood boards are collagesof existing media to communicate an intended design direction.
Mood boards are collagesof existing media to communicate an intended design direction.
Mood boards are collagesof existing media to communicate an intended design direction.
Mood boards are collagesof existing media to communicate an intended design direction.
Step-by-step guide
PREPARATION
- Review scope and clarify prototypingquestions:Briefly reflect. What is your scope? Whatdo you want to learn from this prototyping activity? Also think about who you want or need to involve. Isitjustfor within the project team, or are you planning to involve potential users or other stakeholders?
- Collect inspiration:Start to collect inspiration and raw material from all the sources you have available. This might include physically going through relevant newspapers or magazines, digging throughonline repositories like stock photo libraries or photo or video sharing sites, selecting materials from your own media library, or– last but not least– quickly creating new material yourself by going out and taking photo and video footage.
- Organize and refine:Organize that material and set up a first collage. Then,fill in gaps and reshuffle the deck until you arehappy with the mood board. Yourmood board can be a physicalone where you print out everything and glue it on, or it can be a digital mood board, which is a more practical solution if you are working with video or interactive media.
Step-by-step guide
USE/RESEARCH
- Present and collect feedback:Presentyour mood boards either to each other within the design team or to an external audience to receive feedback and ignite discussions.
- Annotate and revise:During these presentation sessions, youcan work on existing boards by adding annotations oradding, reshuffling, orremoving media, or even create completely new boards from a pool of data. Then iterate.
End of
Method
Mood boards
Taken from #TiSDD
Chapter
7
Prototyping
