Prototypes As Catalysts for Communication

“Notes on Design Practice” | Summary and Analysis

“Notes on Design Practice” by Thomas Erickson focuses on communication between users, the design team, and the organization during the development of a new design, and how it plays a vital role in the entire process from research and gathering information about your users to designing and testing prototypes. Erickson states that the early part of a design “development life cycle” is comprised of three distinct stages: exploration, refinement, and transition. During each stage, communication between all groups, from participants to an organization, is necessary for a new design to be successful. However, communication can be difficult with a design team comprised of varied backgrounds and organization leaders who don’t have the time, or knowledge to understand the reasons behind design changes. “Design artifacts”, specifically user stories and prototypes, can help facilitate communication between users, the design team, and the organization during the volatile design process. Erikson explains that user stories are useful tools for design teams because they stimulate conversation with users and provide insight into users’ interactions, which allows designers to understand more about their target “usage domain”. User stories are also important during the transition phase because communicating and discussing design changes to an organization can be difficult, and user stories help by creating personal accounts that are easy to understand, relate to and remember. Prototypes are another crucial tool to help refine the product design, as well as communicate with users and organizations. Erikson focuses on vision prototypes, which explain the nature of the product and its future uses, and working prototypes, which help refine the design of a new product through several iterations. Vision prototypes provide valuable knowledge, especially to organizations, because they explain and describe the future design choices and possible interactions to the non-designer. However, due to their higher fidelity, vision prototypes draw more criticism for errors or irregularities. Working prototypes aid in the refinement stage because they help designers test and redesign their designs with ease and they must be both accessible and rough to be helpful during the design process. Working prototypes also help encourage communication and compatibility between a diverse design team while creating new iterations and deciding which design changes to implement. This article describes how user stories and prototypes foster communication between users, designers, and the organization throughout the design process by providing designers with information about their users’ perspectives and interactions, and through communicating design choices between a diverse team and organization leaders.

Erickson, T. (1995). Notes on Design Practice: Stories and Prototypes as Catalysts for Communication.