http://www.productbehavior.com/archive/deferring-decisions Tell me about it. Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:41:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 http://www.productbehavior.com/archive/deferring-decisions#comment-91 Aaron Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:39:25 +0000 http://www.productbehavior.com/archive/deferring-decisions#comment-91 Sure. By "fake" I mean: looks like a convincing product, but with no reality--no engineering behind it, might not be actually manufacturable, looks like it's made out of materials that we don't know will work. But it's important that it look "real" and as integrated as possible; showing material samples separately from unpainted foam models is not as effective as painting the foam model with the right colors. The goal is to get the participants to talk about all of the attributes especially as they relate to each other. Then, very important: throw the examples out. They are for testing communication, not models for the final product. It's easy to fall into the trap of "well, this is close, so let's just use it" but better to start over with the new knowledge from the testing, to avoid the "Mr. Potatohead" approach: glomming a bunch of stuff that worked well in testing together. Design from scratch, but be informed. Sure. By “fake” I mean: looks like a convincing product, but with no reality–no engineering behind it, might not be actually manufacturable, looks like it’s made out of materials that we don’t know will work. But it’s important that it look “real” and as integrated as possible; showing material samples separately from unpainted foam models is not as effective as painting the foam model with the right colors. The goal is to get the participants to talk about all of the attributes especially as they relate to each other. Then, very important: throw the examples out. They are for testing communication, not models for the final product. It’s easy to fall into the trap of “well, this is close, so let’s just use it” but better to start over with the new knowledge from the testing, to avoid the “Mr. Potatohead” approach: glomming a bunch of stuff that worked well in testing together. Design from scratch, but be informed.

]]> http://www.productbehavior.com/archive/deferring-decisions#comment-87 EZ Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:44:17 +0000 http://www.productbehavior.com/archive/deferring-decisions#comment-87 I'm intrigued- can you talk more about this process when you get a chance? Perhaps give an example of a "fake" design? I’m intrigued- can you talk more about this process when you get a chance? Perhaps give an example of a “fake” design?

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