Prototype and test — Examples

Example 1 — The cheapest artefact for the open question

An onboarding flow has been redesigned and the open question is whether a first-time buyer understands the two field labels and the order of the steps. The team has offered to build a fully clickable, branded prototype over two weeks. Decide what to build instead, and write what the session should record.

Open question: does a first-time buyer understand the two field labels
and the step order?
Proposed artefact: full clickable flow, real content, brand styling,
all five steps, two weeks of work.
Session plan: show the prototype, then ask "what do you think of it?"

Solution

Artefact: four linked greyscale screens, real labels but no styling,
half a day. A hand-written paper card for the label wording.

Session plan: give the task "buy one item as if it were your first time",
then watch and narrate.

Notes recorded:
P2 read "Save for later" and asked "does that buy it?"
P2 tapped the step heading, waited, then used the button below
P4 skipped the address step, went back, re-read it twice
Decision: rename "Save for later"; keep the step order; change nothing
else before the next test.

Fidelity was matched to the question: labels and step order can be tested on linked greyscale screens, so brand styling and animation would have cost days without teaching anything extra. The notes record what participants did, and the heading tapped as if it were a button is exactly the kind of moment a “what do you think?” question never surfaces. The line that usually goes wrong is the closing one: without a keep, change or abandon note written down, the next session repeats this test.