Observe what happens
Treat what people do with it as part of the design.
- 01Readthe situation
- 02Explainthe mechanism
- 03Examinethe evidence
- 04Judgeunder constraint
- 05Translateinto form
- 06Observewhat happens
- 07Transferwhat was learned
Implementation produces new information.
People reinterpret designs, develop workarounds, encounter constraints that were invisible earlier and adapt the intervention to their context.
Those responses are part of the design problem rather than noise around it.
Methods
Four methods that help
Each is a card in Riffle, a library of design method cards I built. The card says when to use the method, how to run it and what you get.
Pilot (opens Riffle in a new tab)
Does this work in real settings, how does it need to be implemented and should it go wider?
Varies · A small team
Think-aloud protocol (opens Riffle in a new tab)
What do people expect, notice and reason as they use this, and where does their thinking part from the design?
Varies · One person
Post-occupancy evaluation (opens Riffle in a new tab)
Now that people have used this space for a while, does it work as intended for them and their activities?
Weeks or more · A small team
Outcome harvesting (opens Riffle in a new tab)
What changed in the behaviour, relationships, practices or policies of the people we worked with, and how did our programme contribute?
Weeks or more · A small team