Design Kit: Prototyping

BEFORE YOU START

*The smallest variation has been spaced specifically for legibitlity

Make It Real Build to Think Plan for Field Tests In the Field

A four-week course brought to you by:

 Class 1
Make It Real
Focus: Overview/Tangible Products
Readings
Case Study
Workshop Guide

Class 2
Build to Think
Focus: Services/Interactions
Readings
Case Study
Workshop Guide

Class 3
Plan for Field Tests
Focus: Environments/Planning for Context
Readings
Case Study
Workshop Guide

Class 4
In the Field
Focus: Field-Testing/Real User Feedback
Readings
Case Study
Workshop Guide

Prototyping 2
Before You Start

Why Prototyping?
This course will guide you through how building rough prototypes, getting feedback,
and iterating early and often can help you arrive at more effective solutions.

Social entrepreneurs, businesses, and other This course is an invitation to experiment

innovators have used human-centered design
around the world to create solutions for many
different types of challenges.
This prototyping course will build on your
PROTOT YPING
previous experience as a human-centered
designer and help to make you a more effective,
innovative problem solver by strengthening
your ability to bring ideas to life.
with the process of design, with a focus on the
creation of rough prototypes. Let it inspire
you to approach challenges differently and
experience how human-centered design can
add a new perspective and dimension to
your work.
When you have completed this course, you
will have experimented with different kinds
of prototyping; learned how to plan, test, and
get meaningful feedback; and iterated on your
ideas in workshop and realistic environments.

Understand the Value

of My Idea More Effectively Build to Think

What Benefits
Bring Better Ideas Quickly Align Teams
into the World Faster
Will I Gain from and Stakeholders
Prototyping?

Reduce Risks and Have Fun!

Overall Costs

Prototyping 3
Before You Start
Recommended Previous Experience
We strongly suggest that you come into this course with previous experience
practicing the human-centered design process.
If you’re joining us to dive deeper into the art
of prototyping, then you should have some
understanding about the basics of human-
centered design.
We strongly recommend that you complete
our introductory level curriculum, Design Kit:
The Course for Human-Centered Design before
embarking on this course.
Alternatively, we understand you may have
been exposed to human-centered design
elsewhere, in which case a brief look at our
learning tools—Design Kit and the Field Guide
Prototyping
to Human-Centered Design—will give you a
refresher and get everyone on your team on the
same page around the language we’ll be using
during this course.
Throughout the course, we will be making
reference to concepts like Inspiration, Ideation,
Implementation, design research, synthesis,
brainstorming, and prototyping. This course
assumes basic knowledge of these topics, and
you and your teammates will be expected
to understand and be able to jump right into
prototyping during the workshop sessions.
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Before You Start

Course Roadmap by Week

1 MAKE IT REAL 2 BUILD TO THINK

Learning Objectives: Learning Objectives:

• Understand fundamentals of prototyping • Understand basics of service prototyping
• Jump in and start building tangible products • Journey map moments of an experience
• Get feedback from teammates for iteration • Role play to test and evolve interactions
• Seek fresh perspectives for effective feedback
Readings: Workshop Activities:
• What is Prototyping? • Introductions and Icebreaker Readings: Workshop Activities:
• Learning by Making • Warm-up Exercise • Build to Think • Select a Service Idea
• Key Mindsets • Prototyping Discussion • Prototyping Interactions • Think to Build
• Additional Prototyping Tips • Start with an Idea • Think to Build • Build to Think
• Types of Prototypes • Make It • Determine What to Prototype • Act It Out
• What You Might Need • Test and Get Feedback • Getting Feedback • Test and Get Feedback
• Overview of the Divine Divas • Iterate • Case Study: Diva Outreach • Iterate
• Case Study: The Diva Kit • Debrief • Debrief

3 PLAN FOR FIELD TESTS 4 IN THE FIELD

Learning Objectives: Learning Objectives:

• Understand the purpose of field-testing • Experiment with in-context prototyping
• Plan for in-context prototype testing • Get feedback from real users
• Explore Methods to prototype an environment • Iterate on the fly and co-create
• Consider how to engage real users • Understand how rough prototypes evolve

Readings: Workshop Activities: Readings: Workshop Activities:

• Why Field-Test?
• Understanding Context
• Learning Loop
• Planning Your Field Tests
• What Does it Mean to Include
People?
• Case Study: The Diva Centre
• Select an Environments Idea • Learning in the Field • Set It Up
• Think to Build • Integration and Iteration • Try It Out
• Sketch Your Prototype • From Rough to Refined • Test and Get Feedback
• Mock It Up • Taking It Further • Iterate on the Fly and Co-Create
• Refine Plan • Case Study: Live Prototyping • Debrief
• Debrief the Divas • Reflections
• Ideas for Moving Forward

Prototyping 5
Before You Start

Course Logistics
There are a few logistics that everyone on your team should know about.

Teams
This course is designed as a group-guided
learning experience. You’ll need a team of at
least two (and no more than six) colleagues.
We recommend four members as some of the
activities will require your group to split into
two small teams to test ideas with each other.
Diversity is key: a team of people with different
strengths and perspectives will only enhance
your ability to come up with new solutions. We
suggest making agreements before the course
starts about what responsibilities people
can bring to the table—who’s the scheduler,
ensuring the team is on time? Who’s the
enthusiast, inspiring the team to dream big?
Calendar
Plan out your workshop days on a calendar
with your team. Can everyone commit to
attend all of the sessions? If not, mark dates
that members might miss and plan accordingly
or reschedule. Some tasks might require more
time, so review the requirements for each
section and plan accordingly.
For the Class 2 Workshop, your team will be
asking a few friends or colleagues to attend to
provide some feedback and fresh perspective.
Take note of these requirements to give your
friends ample notice, and make sure they add
it to their calendars.

Time Commitment
For each class, you’ll have about one hour
of reading to help you prepare for your
workshop. Each workshop is scheduled to last
three hours. For some workshops, your team
will be expected to submit assignments on the
course platform. Following these assignments,
you will have a chance to explore and peer
review the work of your global classmates. Take
advantage of this opportunity to gain insight
on how others are tackling similar challenges
throughout the course.
Leadership
At each class, a member of your team will serve
as the “Class Leader.” The Class Leader will be
responsible for thoroughly reviewing Readings
and the Workshop Guide before the team meets
so that they can lead the workshop activities.
The Class Leader will also organize your team to
bring required supplies. You should coordi­nate
with your team to choose the Class Leader for
Class 1 and subsequently choose a new leader
for the following class at each group session.

This course is designed to be conducted over

four weeks, with a portion of that time spent
out in your community testing your prototype.
This pacing, however, is just a suggestion.
The course can be completed in more or less
time, depending on your team’s schedule.

Prototyping 6
 Suggested Supplies
The prototyping process is about making ideas
visual, tactile, and experiential. It’s important
to have supplies on hand that make it easy to
work in this fashion. Each class, your design
team will need the following supplies for the
workshop:
• Pens, pencils, markers, paper.
• Post-it notes if they’re available; if not, cut
scrap paper into squares and bring tape to
stick these square pieces of paper on the
wall. Trust us, this is important!
• Prototyping supplies might include
construction paper, cardboard, foam core
boards, scissors, tape, glue—but don’t stop
there, add anything that can help bring
your idea to life!
Don’t worry, you’ll get more guidance as
to prototyping materials during the course.
Make sure to discuss with your teammates
who will be responsible for bringing which
prototyping supplies to the workshop
each week.
Prototyping
Space
The human-centered design process requires
space for your team to work.
Can you hold the workshop at someone’s house?
Your school? Your office? Your garage? Your
church? Coffee shops or other cramped public
spaces can make it difficult to prototype, not to
mention the prototyping process can get a bit
messy and hectic when it’s at its best.
Whatever space you decide on, it works best
to have plenty of elbow room and work tables
so that you and your teammates can build
multiple things at once. You’ll want a proper
workspace as you begin to make ideas real.
Printed Materials
The Class Leader is required to print out the
entire Workshop Guide each week and bring it
to your group session. Other team members are
encouraged to print out just the activity sheets
from the Workshop Guides and may choose
not to print out the entire guide to save paper.
If you’d like, you can print out the class
readings, though this is not required. To save
paper, we encourage you to download and read
them on a computer or tablet as able.
7
Before You Start

About Acumen
Acumen is a non-profit changing the way the world tackles poverty by investing
in companies, leaders, and ideas.

+Acumen is part of Acumen’s work in leadership. We created +Acumen to give people

a meaningful way to “add Acumen” to their lives. Learn through our online courses or
volunteer and network through our chapters. +Acumen aims to provide the tools and
training for individuals to step up and create social change.

Design Kit: Prototyping is one of many courses inspired by the leadership curriculum used
in Acumen’s Fellows Program. Each of our courses fits in one of three areas of Acumen’s
Leadership Model.

MORAL
IMAGINATION

FINANCIAL OPERATIONAL
EXPERTISE EXPERTISE

MORAL IMAGINATION FINANCIAL EXPERTISE OPERATIONAL EXPERTISE

The humility to see the world as The ability to use capital The skills essential to
it is and the audacity to imagine as a tool we can control starting, running, and scaling
the world as it could be. to execute on our vision your vision for the world.
sustainably.

Acumen believes in the importance of incorporating the principles of human-centered design

when creating solutions to problems of poverty so that low-income communities are provided
with choice, not just charity. IDEO.org has been our partner in delivering human-centered
design training to our fellows for many years so we are excited to partner with them to make
these tools available to more people around the world. More information can be found at
www.plusacumen.org.

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Before You Start

About IDEO.org
IDEO.org is a nonprofit design organization that uses human-centered
design to improve the lives of the poor.

At IDEO.org, we believe that the most potent weapon against global poverty is design. The
solutions, systems, and social innovation that arise from truly understanding and designing
alongside the poor are the most likely to offer hope and improve lives. For us, if we can’t see real
impact, we haven’t done our jobs.

 Born in 2011 out of the global design and innovation firm IDEO, IDEO.org is a registered
501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to applying human-centered design to alleviate poverty. We partner
with nonprofit organizations, social enterprises, and foundations, to directly address the needs of
the poor in sectors like health, water and sanitation, financial inclusion, agriculture, and gender
equity. We employ top-notch designers, an elite class of businesspeople, and development
experts, making IDEO.org a flexible and creative organization uniquely situated to tackle
poverty through design.

Design Kit represents a key pillar of IDEO.org’s mission—to spread human-centered design.
Though we believe that our design process is crucial to arriving at innovative solutions, we don’t
think that we’re the only ones who can and should be using it. We want everyone on board. By
sharing, teaching, and empowering those in the social sector to practice human-centered design,
we’re helping ensure that the people we’re designing for get and take active part in creating the
solutions that meet their needs, desires, and aspirations.

Prototyping 9