Generating Design Expressions

Single-Part Design Concepts

This diagram shows how to think about analyzing straightforward, scoped-down design concept that's made up of a single, simple, standalone part.

The major text in this image reads 'Test a concept that's a single, simple, standalone part.' The words 'single, simple, and standalone' are in bold. The image shows a single triangle that's filled in with a solid color. Three arrows lead in different directions away from the solid triangle to three other triangles of the same size, but filled with different patterns. One is filled with a pattern of dots, one is filled with a grid pattern, and one is filled with a pattern of small oblong shapes, like Mike and Ike's candy. The text surrounding these triangles reads 'one part, three expressions of that part

This design concept could be something like rewording a single letter or rescripting a specific phone call. To create three different versions of this single-part design expression, create three versions of the re-wording or three versions of the re-scripting to test with participants.

Multi-Part Design Concepts

Most designs, however, are more complicated than they appear. Even if you can use one or only a few words to describe your concept, that concept is usually made up of many different parts. This diagram shows how to think about analysing and expressing a design concept that is made up of multiple, interlocking, and interdependent parts.

The major text in this image reads 'Test a concept that has multiple, interlocking, interdependent parts.' It shows a solid colored shape made up of three smaller, differently shaped but also solid colored shapes all together. Each of these smaller component shapes is shown indpendent of each other in the next panel. In that panel, each shape has three arrows leading away from it, towards shapes that are filled with different patterns. The patterns are similar to but not the same as each other, ranging from grids to dots of different sizes and spacing, slash marks, and squiggles. The text surrounding these triangles reads 'For each part, make and test 3 expressions'.

Here are two examples of multi-part design concepts: a website and an in-person greeting program.

In the case of a website, components that need to be designed include but are not limited to text, images, pages, and interaction points like buttons. There are also intersystematic dependencies such as website hosting, legal and techincal compliance, visual and functional links with the systems around it, and be regular maintenance that must be designed. In this way, building a website requires the build of both a product that has many components, and a system that supports or connects to that product.

In the case of an in-person greeting program for people visiting and navigating government buildings, the finished designed system is also comprised of multiple parts. In this case, the team would need to design for who the greeters and where they come from in a labor pool, who their management would be, what might be scripts for the first greeting, what happens when they need to go on break, what happens if they can't answer someone's question, where their pay comes from, and, if they're voluteers, how will you attract people to and refresh the volunteer pool? After breaking down the service of a greeter system into its component parts, the team will then create different expressions of these parts, test them, then test them together. As you can tell, multiple rounds of testing would be required to ensure that this service works well.

Design Expression Framework

Use the framework in this section to create different design expressions for your work. Your goal is to find the best answer for the participants, so the work is worth it. Think back to the bicycle helmet example: each expression the designer thought of answered a different variation of participant need, so each expression is valid. But the arbitor of what is needed is the participant, so proposing each of these expressions to show the participants what could be is paramount. If you only choose and test one expression, you might as well tell the participants that you understand their experience better than they do. And of course, as you know from the HCD Discovery Phase, you know that you don't know.

<Previous

Next >