Desktop walkthrough
A scale prototype, made with cardboard, building pieces, or figures, on which the team moves the characters step by step to rehearse a service from start to finish.
What it’s for
Lets you see failures and critical moments in a service or a space before building anything, with very few resources.
Key elements
Cheap and fast
Cardboard, building pieces, and figures are enough.
The value is in playing it
You learn by walking through the service, not by looking at the model.
Every role
Also move the staff and what happens behind the scenes.
How it’s done
Set up the space and the characters on the table.
Walk through the service step by step, out loud.
Note questions and failures, change things, and play again.
Applications in design
When to use it
To rehearse a service or a space with the team before a full-scale prototype.
Avoid
Polishing the model: it takes time away from playing.
Don’t fall for it
Also play the difficult cases: a wait, an error, someone in a hurry.
Connections
Authors and works
- 2018
Marc Stickdorn, Markus E. Hormess, Adam Lawrence, and Jakob Schneider
They describe it among the methods for prototyping services: sharing a vision of the complete experience and testing a concept cheaply.
Sources
Original sources
- Stickdorn, M., Hormess, M. E., Lawrence, A., & Schneider, J. (2018). This is service design doing: Applying service design thinking in the real world. O'Reilly Media.
- Stickdorn, M., Hormess, M. E., Lawrence, A., & Schneider, J. (2018). Desktop walkthrough [Method]. This is service design doing. View source: Stickdorn, M., Hormess, M. E., Lawrence, A., & Schneider, J. (2018)
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