As a designer I donât understand this âdesign thinkingâ trend. I feel like designers are little solicited in the process
Audrey
DESIGN THINKING VS. DESIGN DOING
As I explained roughly in a previous article on the HIVE creative process, design thinking rests on iteration and holds four main phases: research / insight / ideate / prototype .

The double diamond creative process simplified
It is only but recently that I realized we often tend to leave out the âperformingâ side of the process to focus on its reflective aspect. Empathize, Ideate, iterate⌠those words all ring a bell to us. But âactingâ seems to have been thrown off the window, transforming design thinking into a BS (rayer) methodology with no real application. If I learned anything by working with designers at the HIVE, itâs that doing matters.
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Usually, when we think prototype, we immediately picture a miniaturized version of our product / service. But prototyping is actually the first conceptâs âcrash testâ. The goal is for you to identify your projectâs core aspects / values and design a first draft accordingly. It leaves plenty of room for touch-ups, little adjustments, and, in case of failure⌠for a pivot.
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It also helps you materialize your idea. By quickly crafting your until-then virtual concept, you will directly see how it stands when coming to life. Itâs a necessary step for you to access raw material / your projectâs core and build-up from it.
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Finally, it allows you to collect direct feedback / insight from your final users. Youâre designing for others to use your creation. Eventually, youâll have to know what they think of it. A prototype is the perfect way to include them in your reflection and allow them to express their first impressions when interacting with your project.
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WHAT IS PROTOTYPING?
The HIVE staff illustrated âprototypeâ with the following example:
First, close our eyes for a minute and imagine youâre some kind of a 20th Century version of Elon Musk. Ready? Set. Go!
As the Elon of your world, youâre tired of public transportation. You recently came up with the idea of a new mobility means â letâs say the end product is a car. What are you going to present to the people? Well, your prototypeâs aim is first and foremost to help people project themselves in your innovative mobility system. If you have no time, you can make a wheel â for people to see what can activate your productâs movement. If you have some time ahead of you, you may build a scooter â for people to understand what sensations / speed youâll reach when using the future product. And if you have Elonâs fortune and crazy schedule, youâll just build a Tesla from scratch!

Unsplash
* But Iâm not Elon*
Worry no more, here are two concrete examples of how quickly / slowly a project can run with(out) prototyping.
We had to start prototyping with paper to see if the interaction worked or not
Florence Grosse
1 - CAPSULE
CAPSULE is a HIVE-born project which goal is to explore and design âmeaningful encountersâ, was first prototyped at thecampâs bar. Every evening after 6pm, the team would come sit down at the table, scout for people to come and test the interaction with them. But how did they âencapsulateâ their moment in a âfrugal prototypeâ? A little hint: it was paper and ink crafted only. It consisted in a simple card game. Both parties â either people who didnât know each other beforehand or the gamemaster and whoever accepted to be a beta tester â went through a predesigned (non randomized) experience. Today CAPSULE is an interactive autonomous interaction ⌠but it had to #startfromthebottom to get there

The first CAPSULE experienceÂ
I can’t project myself for now, we have nothing to show
AnaĂŻs
2 - MERGY
Little confession. Our projectâs greatest weakness has been precisely the lack of quick prototyping. We spent countless hours ideating / debating / wondering / studying different paths the project could take overtime. This ended up in constant pivoting and little adjustments, without actually consulting our final-users.Â
We found ourselves stuck more often than we like to admit. When meeting new partners, we had a vision, but no actual tangible object to fix it. And after a while, we realized that because we didnât concretize our project, we each represented it slightly differently. No need to say this was when we hit the wall. Hard.
This lack of medium undermined us. It almost killed the project. We crafted in a hurry our first model in late January. Once we had a clear image (and feedback from people), we pivoted (for the last time), all set â and on the same page.
The rest of the adventure until March was still a heck of a ride, but we eventually made it out alive.
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LEARN BY DOING
To close this article, I âll leave you with a challenge we went through at the HIVE
DO TRY IT AT HOME PLEASE, I promise itâs safe

FRUGAL PROTOTYPE
RULES
- 2 to 24 hours
- Material: whatever you can find that doesnât need someone elseâs intervention / quick use
- An audience to double the fun
Two VERSIONS are possible for the exercise:
1) CLASSIC
 Like a Vanilla ice-cream in summer
Each team / person has 2 to 24h to come up with a prototype. Once the time is up everybody gathers to pitch and unveil their own.
2) DARING
Like a Roquefort-tasting ice cream
Consider adding a little more spice to the concept by switching it up. Each team or person has to prototype another teamâs / personâs project.
If the projects are not known beforehand, a joker pitch is allowed before starting the challenge. Once the challenge is launched, no interaction is allowed between teams  before the prototypesâ unveiling “ceremony” (both to remain objective and see what sticks into peopleâs mind when thinking about your project).
If the version 1) is doable pretty much everywhere (all you need is paper at most), I really recommend 2). Not only does it provides you with an exterior insight on the project, it also allows you to see if what you consider important sticks out.
What are you waiting for? Letâs prototype!
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