Prototype

*Reposted with updated links*

If you were able to watch our introduction video, you know that one of our hypotheses for why it takes the development sector a long time to scale is that we’re often using our project cycles to test new adaptations of our innovations. When we launch a “pilot,” that can mean waiting for two-three years to get feedback and course correct at the midterm evaluation.

While we might need to wait until the midterm to start getting hard data on impact, we don’t need to wait several years to get valuable feedback. Why design and launch a full solution, when you can run rapid tests on prototypes first?

So in our human-centered design lab, we’re thinking about how to prototype versus pilot and how this can give us just one new tool to move faster.

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GRID explains how all this works in one fantastic graph

One aspect that is taking us some time to get our heads around – how do you prototype anything that’s not a product, such as services or systems? It’s still early days for applying HCD to international development, but here are some examples we love!

Sanitation: GRID Impact started off our lab with a deep dive into how they applied HCD and prototyping to increase the use of sanitation facilities (GRID + Sanergy + DIFD + Populist)

Family planning: The “Divine Divas” – Prototyping a pop nail salon experience, peer-to-peer learning and service delivery for sexual and reproductive health services for adolescent girls in Zambia (Marie Stopes International + Ideo + The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation)

Prototyping nail salon experiences with teens. Read more at: http://stories.hewlett.org/designs_for_a_better_world Photo credit: IDEO

Governance and accountability: Making All Voices Count, an organization that works on issues of governance and accountability by enabling citizen engagement, used human-centered design for the development of their stakeholder engagement strategy. Their prototyping process included creating 12 “user archetypes” and using story-boarding and role playing to prototype potential ways to engage citizens.

Agriculture: Juhudi Kilimo was interested in providing farmers with more in-depth technical training and assistance, so they prototyped both training videos utilizing actual farmers telling their stories and a mobile helpline (Juhudi Kilimo + Ideo)

Photo Credit: IDEO.org Read all about it here: http://www.wassermanfoundation.org/news/designing-better-training-for-farmers/

Health Systems: The Backpack Plus project used the physical object of a backpack as a starting point for designing systems to support and empower community health workers. (USAID + Frog + UNICEF + MDG Health Alliance + Save the Children)

Photo Credit: UNICEF Read more at: http://www.unicefstories.org/model/chwbackpackplus/

Meet GRID Impact

We’re partnering with GRID Impact based in Denver, Colorado for the first lab, Human-Centered Design, the teams will go through starting in early May. GRID Impact is a global research, innovation and design firm that specializes in human-centered approaches to complex social and economic challenges. They create scalable social impact in domains such as financial inclusion, sanitation, agriculture and alternative energy.

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Their Approach

GRID Impact applies a hybrid methodology of behavioral research and design to economic and human development challenges. They combine the evidence-based insights and diagnostic approach of behavioral science with the creative problem-solving and iterative, collaborative processes of human-centered design for more predictable, longer lasting results. Ultimately, they believe this approach produces products, programs and services that respond to how human beings actually behave as well as their needs, preferences and desires.

4_MicroSave_-07-23 17.06.03.jpg — Photo Credit: GRID Impact

Human-Centered Design (HCD)

Human-centered design (HCD) is a creative and adaptive problem-solving approach to bringing novel ideas to life that allows “designers” to understand how individuals will likely use and interact with a product by bringing human beings (“users”) into the process. This collaborative and participatory design process relies on rapid, iterative prototyping and design methods. Resulting designs don’t always solve the behavioral challenge – just because someone says they like a proposed solution does not mean they will use it. Data and testing are often the missing components.

Check out more of their HCD resources on their website and look for an intro to HCD post next week.

Tag: Prototype

What we’re learning – How do we prototype what CARE does best?

Meet our Partners: GRID Impact