Interesting article in the May 17, 2004 issue(sub. required) of BusinessWeek on IDEO’s process of designing a better consumer experience.
Here’s an outline of the IDEO way:
1. Observation
IDEO’s cognitive psychologists, anthropologists and sociologists team up with corporate clients to understand the consumer experience. Some of IDEO’s techniques:
- Shadowing
- Behavioral mapping
- Consumer journey
- Extreme user interviews
- Storytelling
- Unfocus groups
2. Brainstorming
An intense, idea=generating session analyzing data gathered by observing people. Each lasts no more than an hour. Rules of brainstorming are strict and are stenciled on the walls:
- Defer judgment
- Build on the ideas of others
- Encourage wild ideas
- Go for quantity
- Be visual
- Stay focused on the topic
- One conversation at a time
3. Rapid prototyping
Mocking up working models helps everyone visualize possible solutions and speeds up decision-making and innovation. Some guidelines:
- Mock up everything
- Use videography
- Go fast
- No frills
- Create scenarios
- Bodystorm
4. Refining
At this stage, IDEO narrows down the choices to a few possibilities. Here’s how it is done:
- Brainstorm (weed out ideas)
- Focus prototyping
- Engage the client
- Be disciplined
- Focus
- Get agreement
5. Implementation
Bring IDEO’s strong engineering, design and social-science capabilities to bear when actually creating a product of service.
- Tap all resources
- The workforce
Much of their success can be contributed to their consumer focus at the beginning stages of their process.