Prototyping (low fidelity)

Preparation

For this play, preparation is required to help your participants understand the prototyping goal and get the most out of the session.

As a minimum requirement, you need to have a clear idea of the (new or existing) solution you want to test with users before building the real thing. This could be anything from improving a small part of an existing solution to a completely new idea that involves cutting-edge technology.

There are many ways to decide on a solution to prototype. We recommend gathering some insights about the problem space the team are working on, reframed as a how might we.... From there your team can ideate a range of possible solutions. You can do this with the help of our silent brainstorm play. Based on what was decided in your ideation session, you will have one or more solutions that you want to prototype. If you have many solutions to choose from, you can use the grouping and dot voting plays to prioritise which solution to prototype first.

Choose a workshop play template

Depending on the solution, you will choose from two different templates to create your prototype from:

1. User story:

This template is great for high-level mapping of services, products or processes.

2. Wireframes:

This template works well for creating layouts for a new service or interaction that could be included on the Queensland government website (www.forgov.qld.gov.au).  Wireframes also exist in a mobile format for the government website (www.forgov.qld.gov.au).

Invite your participants

Aim for including a diverse group of people to form a multi-disciplinary team. The more diverse the experiences and perspectives of the people around the table, the richer the prototype outcomes will be.

This play runs best with a maximum of 8 people; if there are more people, create virtual break-out rooms with groups of up to 4 people or book an additional meeting room and add a facilitator.

Participants in this session should be made up of the project team and any subject matter experts relevant to the project. This might include a Project Manager (PM), Project Officer, Designer, Business Analyst, Communications Officer, Solution Architect, or Developer. You can still run the session if you don't have all of these team members available but aim for as much diversity as possible.

You’ll want to make sure when you send an invite for the session, that you clearly explain the goal, how long it’ll take, and why people’s participation will be beneficial. You can use the provided template to make it easy. If you have already decided on a solution to prototype in an earlier session (for example: silent brainstorm play), including the same participants in the prototyping session is very beneficial. That way they get a chance to build and expand on the idea that was selected.

It’s important to give enough notice to ensure participants have free time to come along to the session. Aim to send invitations about 2 weeks in advance.

You can also provide a link to the play for people to look at ahead of time.

Calendar meeting request for prototyping (low-fi)

Subject:

You're invited to help conduct low-fi prototyping for [project name]

Meeting description:

Hi [team name if sending a group invitation, or participant name if sending individual invitations]

As part of our ongoing work for [project name], we'd like to get everyone together to draft a version of a [product or service] for our project so that we can explore and test our ideas with users.

A prototype is a draft version of a product or service that allows you to explore and test your ideas with users, so that you can learn important user insights and improve your solution quickly before the real build.

A prototype can be anything from paper drawings (low-fidelity) to something that allows click-through of a few pieces of content to a fully functioning site (high-fidelity).

The play we are doing today is around low-fidelity prototyping.

In this session we’ll work collaboratively to put together a prototype together with the intention of testing it with users at a later date.

The session will take about [x] minutes and there is no preparation required.  
[If conducting the workshop virtually include the following - We will be using Miro for this workshop, and you can read more about lo-fi prototyping in the Digital service design playbook. ]

I look forward to your contribution to the session.  [If you’re planning to record the session include the following - We will be recording the session for learning and development purposes and recordkeeping. Please let us know before the session if you don't want to be included in the recording or transcript].

The [Project name] team is committed to inclusion for our events, and we appreciate the experience of inclusion is not the same for everyone. Please let us know what we can do to make our events more accessible and inclusive for you.

Kind regards,
[Facilitator name]

Setting up the tools

For remote teams, use the Miro template provided. In the template, there is a facilitation guide that help you work out what you need to add to the template before the workshop. Before the session, you will need to:

• Add information around the project in the introductory slides. These slides are indicated with clear boxes beneath the spot you need to add your content. If you see a 'workshop prep' box below a frame, you need to add additional information there.
• If you see a 'Tip' box below a frame, it will have useful guidance around prepping or running your workshop.
• Lock things down - prevent objects from being accidentally moved, edited, or deleted by locking them on the board.
• Familiarise yourself with the flow of the miro board and activities that will be run.

For in-person teams, you will need a booked meeting space. You will need to print the PowerPoint prototyping deck (one-sided printing). Print 1 deck for every two people in the workshop. Also make sure you have:

• some blank A4 paper
• markers (one for each participant)
• A large table (or a few small ones) to do the paper prototyping on

Even if you are working in-person, consider reviewing the Miro template to get an idea of how we suggest running the play.

1. Introduction – 10 mins

If using Miro, check that everyone knows how to navigate and use the board.

Welcome the team and start by explaining the goal, expected outcomes, and what activities you will run in the session. In this section, you will also introduce the solution that the group will prototype.

Also, explain why prototyping is useful and mention the benefits of low-fidelity prototyping. This information is included as part of the introduction slides in the Miro template.

2. Warm up: collaborative painting - 10 min

Introduce the participants to the collaborative painting activity. Ask participants to drag and drop the illustrations into the white frame in the middle. The goal is to create a shared visual representation of the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), and it’s encouraged to build each other’s images. Explain that it’s a fun activity with no rules or expectations and that the purpose is to get used to moving things around on the Miro board. This will set everyone up for success in the main workshop activities.
If you are from another department, consider choosing a subject that is appropriate to your project for this activity.

3. Key information – 15 mins

Once again, introduce the solution that you are intending to prototype. Then, go through the following steps with the group:

1. Define the key user you are prototyping for
2. Decide what you need to learn from testing the prototype
3. List the most important information you need to include in the prototype

This activity helps participants get a shared understanding of the type of prototype that the group needs to create. This will help with collaborating on creating a clear prototype.
You should have most of this information prepared from previous work in your project. Consider having some answers ready to add in, just in case your participants get stuck.

This is a good spot to give everyone a 5 min break

4. Prototype – 45 mins

This is where the magic happens! This is a collaborative activity, where you will create a prototype together.

Let the participants know that they can drag and drop (or copy/paste) the illustrations located in the orange area to the white working space. You can also add any visuals to the scratch pad below, to experiment and test things out before adding it to the working space.

Based on the key information you defined in the last activity, encourage participants to collaborate to create a visual representation of the chosen solution. As the facilitator, listen and be mindful of conversations and ideas. Sometimes it can be useful to start building out ideas that are mentioned, to get the momentum going. Towards the end, nudge the group towards a clear and concise prototype with the core information needed, even if it means removing some items that aren’t relevant.

Tip

Get everyone to play around in the scratch pad area at the start, to get people comfortable.
If there are many different ideas, remind the participants of the key users and what you need to include in the prototype to learn something useful from the users.

5. Wrap up – 5 mins

Thank everyone for their time.

Mention what the next steps will be. You might already have user testing sessions planned, or you might want to set up a follow-up session to refine the prototype.

Let the participants know that if they have any final thoughts or questions, they can add them to the miro board (on the last slide) or send you an email. This is useful in case you are running out of time towards the end of the session.

After this play, you can choose to share the outcomes with the participants in a follow-up email. This would either be an exported PDF of a virtual Miro board, re-sharing the Miro board link, or sharing photos of the physical sticky notes from an in-person session (you could save these in your project files in Teams).

After the prototyping play, you might want to run the usability testing play to help you get going with testing your prototype.

Prototyping (low-fi wireframes) Miro board

Prototyping (low-fi user stories) Miro board

Subject:

You're invited to help conduct Low-fi Prototyping for [Project name]

Meeting description:

Hi [team name if sending a group invitation, or participant name if sending individual invitations]

As part of our ongoing work for [Project Name], we'd like to get everyone together to draft a version of a [product or service] for our project so that we can explore and test our ideas with users.

A prototype is a draft version of a product or service that allows you to explore and test your ideas with users so that you can learn important user insights and improve your solution quickly before the real build.

A prototype can be anything from paper drawings (low-fidelity) to something that allows click-through of a few pieces of content to a fully functioning site (high-fidelity).

The play we are doing today is around low-fidelity prototyping.

In this session, we’ll work collaboratively to put together a prototype together with the intention of testing it with users at a later date.
The session will take about [x] minutes and there is no preparation required.  
[If conducting the workshop virtually include the following - We will be using Miro for this workshop, and you can read more about lo-fi prototyping in the Digital service design playbook.]

I look forward to your contribution to the session.  [If you’re planning to record the session include the following - We will be recording the session for learning and development purposes and recordkeeping. Please let us know before the session if you don't want to be included in the recording or transcript].

The [project name] team is committed to inclusion for our events, and we appreciate the experience of inclusion is not the same for everyone. Please let us know what we can do to make our events more accessible and inclusive for you.

Kind Regards,
[Facilitator name]

Prototyping low fidelity wireframing PowerPoint kit