{"id":670551,"date":"2018-12-03T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2018-12-03T17:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-blog-post&p=670551"},"modified":"2020-06-30T12:44:15","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T19:44:15","slug":"prototyping-empathy-six-tips","status":"publish","type":"msr-blog-post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/articles\/prototyping-empathy-six-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Prototyping empathy: Six tips for staying focused on people while prototyping"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Penny Marsh Collisson (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\"A

Note: This article was originally published on December 3, 2018, on Medium<\/p><\/div>\n

Here\u2019s a common scenario: Your team just spent a crazy week pulling together a prototype for upcoming user research. Schedules are tight, pressures are high. Despite all the effort, it turns out the prototype isn\u2019t really what you needed to have an awesome conversation with a customer. But at this point, only small tweaks to the prototype are feasible\u2014because who has time for more? And frankly, you would feel like a real jerk if you were to ask for more. The team just sunk in a massive amount of time and effort.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no shortage of innovative prototyping tools that tackle this exact scenario by enabling you to work with more agility and speed. However, we recently started to wonder if what we really need is not a new tool, but rather a refined approach for ensuring our prototyping efforts are human centered. As a result of that thinking, we want to share six strategies we\u2019ve found useful for staying focused on people while prototyping.<\/p>\n

These are a mix of things we\u2019ve been trying, as well ideas that emerged in conversations we\u2019ve had with dozens of researchers (within and outside of Microsoft) about how they ensure empathy is built in\u2014versus bolted on\u2014while prototyping. Let\u2019s dive in.<\/p>\n

1. Make people your top prototyping requirement<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"A

Illustrations by Michaelvincent Santos<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s easy to get bogged down in technical limitations while planning a prototype. As UX-ers, it\u2019s our responsibility to ensure prototyping is empathy-led. First, understand who you are designing your prototype for. Include and plan to learn from people with a wide range of perspectives (check out our work on inclusive design<\/a>). Also, get super crisp on users\u2019 goals and the job they\u2019re hiring your product to do, in the users\u2019 language. What will they find valuable? Usable? How should they feel and not feel? How will your prototype support understanding this?<\/p>\n

2. Optimize for a human experience, not a feature<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

People rarely, if ever, experience a feature in isolation. As part of planning your prototype, think through just how interactive or complete your prototype needs to be to approximate your users\u2019 reality. Be careful about optimizing your prototype to make testing more feasible or a prototype easier to build.\u00a0This can really impact the validity and value of your research<\/a>.\u00a0For your data to be useful, the prototype needs to be true to what a person would experience end-to-end in the finished product.\u00a0You might even need to include the place they\u2019d be starting before they get to your product. For example, will they get to your service through a browser? Through an app?<\/p>\n

\u00a03. Use prototyping to explore (as well as validate)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

You will create some prototypes to evaluate your team\u2019s ideas. However, you can also use prototypes to explore ideas and develop empathy with what users really want and need in earlier design stages. Consider the following:<\/p>\n