Design speed dating
Showing people many concepts in a row, as storyboards or short scenes, to compare their reactions quickly and without building anything.
What it’s for
It helps you learn early which ideas matter and which limits must not be crossed, without prototyping all of them, which would be expensive.
Key elements
Many ideas, little time
Each concept is seen in a few minutes and compared with the others.
Need first
Ask about the problem the storyboard shows, not about the technology.
Then, acted out
People act out familiar situations to react in the moment rather than give abstract opinions.
How it’s done
Draw many ideas as storyboards, each with a question.
People react to each storyboard, one after another.
Act out the best ones in short scenes and adjust them.
Applications in design
When to use it
When you have many ideas and need to choose which ones to prototype, especially if they touch people's private lives.
Avoid
Asking people to vote for the nicest idea; what matters is whether it responds to something they live.
Don’t fall for it
Keep the storyboards equally simple: if one is more polished, it will be liked for that reason.
Connections
Authors and works
- 2007
Scott Davidoff, Min Kyung Lee, Anind K. Dey, and John Zimmerman
Proposed it to explore smart home ideas with families: first they validated needs with storyboards, then acted out scenes in a simulated home, without building any technology.
Sources
Original sources
- Davidoff, S., Lee, M. K., Dey, A. K., & Zimmerman, J. (2007). Rapidly exploring application design through speed dating. In J. Krumm et al. (Eds.), UbiComp 2007: Ubiquitous Computing (LNCS 4717, pp. 429–446). Springer. View source: Davidoff, S., Lee, M. K., Dey, A. K., & Zimmerman, J. (2007)
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