Prototyping for context: exploring stakeholder feedback based on prototype type, stakeholder group and question type

Abstract

Engineering designers frequently use prototypes to gather input from stakeholders. Design guidelines recommend the use of quick and simple prototypes early and often in a design process. However, the type and quality of a prototype can influence how stakeholders perceive a new design concept and can, therefore, impact their responses. Additionally, different levels of experience, expertise, and preparedness for providing input to designers may lead stakeholders from different geographical or cultural settings to provide different responses, making the format of a prototype even more influential. Although design practitioners are known to intentionally align their prototyping approaches with the specific design question to be answered, it is unclear the extent to which prototyping approaches should vary based on the stakeholder, context, and setting of a design project. To investigate how the format and quality of prototypes influence stakeholders' responses, we conducted a field study with various medical professionals in Ghana. We presented prototypes for a medical device in different formats to stakeholders and collected responses to the design through semi-structured interviews. Our findings indicate that professional expertise, prototype format, and question type influenced the types of responses that stakeholders provided. These findings suggest that designers seeking input from stakeholders on new concepts should consider context-specific prototyping strategies, especially when designing at distance and across cultures.

Will You Talk about God with a Spirituality Chatbot? An Interview Study

“…These screenshots are about three scenarios of interacting with the chatbot. We chose these activities because they are common in people's spiritual journey, and building familiarity is important when eliciting feedback using prototypes [20]. We also used a very open question in this part:…”

“…However, demoing a chatbot prototype in the interview also helps the interviewees more vividly envision interactions with a chatbot. The prototype also enabled participants to speculate on the desired functions of a chatbot, as well as the concerns of introducing chatbot technologies to the religious space [20]. Therefore, we presented the screenshots of three conversation examples corresponding to the three scenarios.…”

The Epistemic Role of Design Education in an Engineering Science Department

“…Most engineering curricula have dedicated courses towards advanced math and science, and therefore explicit design experiences are required for synthesis and application of theoretical knowledge. Apart from serving as epistemic practices of the engineering profession, design courses emulate the social aspects of the profession, such as teamwork [9], resource management [10], and communication with stakeholders [11]. Reform in undergraduate engineering curriculum, such as instilling 21st-century competencies in students, are often implemented in the design courses [12].…”

Investigating prototyping approaches of Ghanaian novice designers

“…Virtual prototypes, like sketches, often do not include the same information as tangible prototypes, limiting the amount and kind of information that can be transferred between individuals (Suwa & Tversky 1997;Suwa et al 2000;Tversky et al 2003;Goldschmidt 2007). Virtual prototypes often leave more room for interpretation and require more domain knowledge from participants to interpret and provide input on a new concept (Deininger et al under review;Tversky et al 2003). Consequently, virtual prototypes can make effective communication more challenging which is particularly critical when communicating outside of the design team, i.e., to engage with stakeholders.…”