Route · Public Design Atlas
From idea to prototype
To go from a challenge to something concrete you can test: an object, a space, a graphic piece, a service, or a screen.
Frame the challenge
An open question that invites ideas.
How might we…?
A technique for turning a problem or an insight into an open, optimistic question that invites ideas: “How might we…?”
How it’s used
How it’s done
- You start from an insight or a specific problem.
- You reframe it as a question neither too broad nor too narrow.
- You use it as the starting point for ideation.
- Output
- Open questions that invite ideas
- Avoid
- Putting the solution inside the question (“How might we build an app that…?”).
Ideate
Generate alternatives before choosing.
Brainstorming
A group session to generate many ideas about a problem, leaving judgment for later.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- Frame the problem as a specific question.
- Suggest ideas without criticizing them.
- Group and choose once no more ideas come.
- Output
- A long list of ideas about a problem
- Avoid
- Letting the most senior person speak first.
Brainstorming in writing: six people write three ideas in five minutes and pass the sheet on so the next person can build on them.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- Hand out the sheets with the problem written at the top.
- Write three ideas in five minutes.
- Pass the sheet and continue someone else’s ideas.
- Output
- Sheets of written ideas that build on one another
- Avoid
- Voting without having read all the sheets.
Crazy 8s
Fold a sheet into eight panels and draw a variation of an idea in each one, at one minute per sketch.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- Fold the sheet into eight panels.
- Sketch one variation per minute.
- Choose the best one to develop.
- Output
- Eight sketched variations of an idea
- Avoid
- Spending the time drawing well.
SCAMPER
A list of seven questions for generating ideas from something that already exists: substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate, and rearrange.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- Choose what to transform: a product, a service, a step.
- Go through the seven questions: what do I substitute, what do I combine, what do I remove…?
- Choose the ideas worth testing.
- Output
- Variations of something that already exists, one per question
- Avoid
- Filling in the seven letters as a formality.
Mind map
A diagram that starts from a central topic and opens it up into branches of related ideas, from the general to the specific.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- Write the topic in the center.
- Open branches with the main ideas.
- Keep opening ideas from each branch.
- Output
- A diagram of ideas branching out from a central topic
- Avoid
- Confusing it with an affinity diagram: here the branches grow from a topic, not from the data.
Choose
Keep the idea that is worth developing.
Dot voting
Each person spreads a limited number of dots (stickers or marks) among the displayed options; those with the most dots move on to the next phase.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- Display all the options in view.
- Vote with a few dots, in silence.
- Count and discuss the most voted ones.
- Output
- A selection of ideas ranked by support
- Avoid
- Voting in turns and in full view, because the first dots sway everyone else.
Three criteria an idea must balance: it meets what people need and want, it can be built with the available means, and the organization can sustain it.
How it’s used
How it works
- Assess each idea against the three criteria.
- Spot which of the three raises the most doubts.
- Test that doubt first, with a prototype or with data.
- Avoid
- Using it as a quick vote, without data.
Six Thinking Hats
A way of running a group discussion: everyone adopts the same mode of thinking at once, represented by a colored hat, and they switch it as they go.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- Set out the topic and the order of the hats.
- Think together wearing the same hat, and switch when it’s time.
- Conclude with blue: what is decided.
- Output
- An orderly discussion that looks at a topic through several ways of thinking
- Avoid
- Using the hats to label people (“you are the black hat”).
Sketch
Think with your hands, fast and rough.
Sketching
Drawing ideas in a quick, cheap and open way to explore many of them and discuss them before committing to one.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- Draw several ideas by hand.
- Show them and listen.
- Choose which one moves on to a prototype.
- Output
- Many quick sketches of ideas to compare and discuss
- Avoid
- Polishing in a digital tool before you have several ideas.
Storyboard
A sequence of panels that shows a person using a product or a service in context, step by step.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- Choose the situation and the person.
- Draw the steps in a few panels.
- Share it and gather feedback.
- Output
- A sequence of panels showing use, step by step
- Avoid
- Drawing only screens instead of the situation.
Build
The minimum needed to learn something: a mock-up, a model, a simulation.
Prototyping
Building quick, incomplete versions of an idea, from a paper sketch or a cardboard mock-up to something that works, to answer a design question before developing the idea.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- Choose the question: whether it works for people, how it looks or whether it can be built.
- Build the minimum that answers it: paper, cardboard, mock-up, wireframe or code.
- Test it and decide what to change.
- Output
- Prototypes, from a sketch to something that works
- Avoid
- Polishing the look when you don't yet know if the idea works.
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.
How it’s used
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.
- Output
- A model of the service and a list of changes
- Avoid
- Polishing the model: it takes time away from playing.
Bodystorming
Ideating in the real place, or a similar one, and acting out the situations and ideas there with your body, instead of imagining them from a meeting room.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- Go to the place or recreate a similar one.
- Act out the situation and the ideas.
- Note what works and what doesn’t.
- Output
- Ideas tried out physically in the real place
- Avoid
- Doing it without research data: you would be acting out your assumptions.
Test
See what happens when someone uses it, walks through it, or looks at it.
Usability testing
A method in which real people try to do specific tasks with a product while being observed, to find out where they get stuck and why.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- Prepare realistic tasks, without saying how to do them.
- Observe each person as they try and think aloud.
- Note where they get stuck and decide what to fix first.
- Output
- A list of usability problems, with where they appear and why
- Avoid
- Asking “do you like it?”: measure what people do, not what they think.
Role playing
The team, and sometimes users, act out a situation with simple or cardboard objects to imagine how a product or service would work.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- Prepare the scene and the roles.
- Act out the situation with the imagined object.
- Discuss what worked and what didn't.
- Output
- Acted-out situations that show how an idea would work
- Avoid
- Turning it into theater without a design question.
Design principles
A short set of rules, drawn from research and the project's values, that guide design decisions so they are consistent.
How it’s used
How it’s done
- They are drawn from insights and from the project's values.
- Write only a few, clear and easy to apply.
- They are used to decide and to review the work.
- Avoid
- Writing principles so general that anyone would agree (“be easy to use”).