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62 ◾ Transforming an Idea Into a Business with Design Thinking

rectangular sticky notes and sketch how the screen might look and how
the flow of the screens would be as the user interacts with the mobile
app. You may place these sticky notes on a foam board and draw
arrows to convey user interactions as well.
3. Slide show. You may use a slide-show software such as Microsoft
PowerPoint or Apple Keynote and use the native features (such as
shapes and lines). Use text and animations to convey your concept and
get feedback.
4. Storyboards. As we saw in the previous step, storyboards are one of the
most powerful ways to prototype. Humans are hard-wired for stories.
Stories evoke emotions and leave a lasting impression. All cultures have
sustained their traditions over the course of millennia through the use
of stories which have transcended generations. That’s the main reason
why storyboarding an experience-vision concept is one of the most
effective ways of prototyping. One of the best storyboarding tools is
called Scenes™ by SAP Design AppHaus, which is available at https://
experience.sap.com/designservices/scenes.
5. Role-playing or acting. Most people don’t realize that prototypes do not
have to be tangible. Depending on the situation, role-playing or act-
ing could be an effective mechanism for prototyping. One of the most
pertinent types of solutions where role-playing has a natural fit is expe-
rience design or interaction design. You may also record a video of the
role-playing session using a simple smart phone camera to review it
later on or show to users to get feedback.
6. Technical Prototypes. These days, most of the solutions involve technology,
which is primarily software applications either on desktop computers or
mobile devices. If your team has the technical skills, you can also create
simple versions of software programs to validate your concepts. These
software-based prototypes need not have all envisioned functionality or
actual data. They can have a simple front-end user interface with non-
functional logic. They may only use some dummy data to convey how the
concept would work and get feedback. There are many online tools avail-
able to help you in prototyping your software concepts. Some of the most
popular ones include Sketch, iRise, Axure, InVision and Flinto (Figure 4.5).

4.4.2 Testing

Whatever type of prototyping you adopt, it is extremely important to show
the prototype to the user and obtain feedback in a structured manner.