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Thursday February 16, 2012

We’re passionate about digital prototyping. We’ve seen how the process can bring people together, help our clients achieve their goals, and help deliver superior digital products.

But it’s sometimes hard to bring digital prototyping into an organization or know where to start. Some of the common questions we hear are:

• How will it work with my current processes and resources?
• How is it better than what I currently have?
• How much will it cost?
• What will I get when it’s over?

To help understand the value and make the case for digital prototyping, we are developing a new program called, “Pilot with id8.” This is intended to help you build a business case and jump start your project with digital prototyping.

In just a few days of expert consultation we will conduct some initial interviews to understand your needs, we will create a draft plan with resources, activities, and costs, and we will design the first few screens of your digital prototype. This will give you a concrete plan and demo that you can use to build a business case and generate enthusiasm within your organization.

If you are interested, please contact us pilot@id8.com to see if you are eligible for a free digital prototyping consultation with id8.

We know that you’ll find it worthwhile, and we hope to chat with you soon!

Show them where you came from!

Thursday February 9, 2012

Sometimes we move so fast on a project, iterating within the prototype every week, that I often feel we forget how far we’ve come.

I personally always like to remind people on my team the amount of ground we’ve covered, and how much work we have completed to this point.

One way to do this is to simply say: “Remember when we first started this project…. remember all we had was a box with three buttons in it…. now look at where we are…”.

However, I’ve tried that method many times and I don’t think it’s very effective. In the moment it’s cool, but as soon as you move on to another topic it’s forgotton.

So recently I’ve been thinking about a better way to convey this. I always try to go back to our core principle – visualize. The best example of that I could find is time-lapse cameras. See a months worth of work in 2 minutes. I love these things. It might have something to do with the fact that I have a short attention span, but none-the-less I love watching the whole experience from start to finish.

Here is a classic example:

And then this one:

These are great, but I want to convey a prototype changing over a short period of time. So I think this is a better example of what I’m looking for:

 

So with those examples in mind, I decided to take screen shots of the prototypes we build over time, and then, for now, put them into presentations to show the team before we get into any major discussion or decision making.

Here is an example – it’s a start:

Over time I will try to improve them and make them more interactive, maybe even create a little movie with some cool music.

So far I found it to be a very helpful technique. It helps relax the people in the meeting, it also helps remind them how much work we’ve covered thus far.

I love doing it, and I will continue to do it. It takes a bit of time and effort, but I feel it’s worth it and when you look back at the ideas you started with, it can be pretty funny as well!