BRIEFS AND BLUEPRINTS · VOLUME 3 OF 4 · 50 METHODS · OCT 2026
Props and Pilots
Briefs and Blueprints, volume three: making ideas real enough to test, and testing them. Fifty design methods for education and edtech, from prototype and test, each with its steps and a template to copy.
Volume three of four: prototype and test
Making ideas real enough to test, and testing them. Fifty methods, seven of them with a flow, and a worksheet for each.
What it is, how to do it, and a template to copy
Every method is listed under its most widely used name. Its other names come first on the slide, so a search for any of them lands on the same entry; Appendix A lists every name in the set, with the volume that holds it.
The practices this volume serves
Each method carries tags for the practices that use it, from design research to policy design. Nineteen methods, such as the design brief, are used in every practice.
Prototype
Making ideas tangible enough to test. Twenty-three methods.
Twenty-three methods, by the question they answer
Each method on the stage answers one of these questions. The order of the questions is roughly the order a project meets them, but most projects return to an earlier question at least once.
Paper prototype
Hand-drawn or printed screens and interface pieces that a person "operates" by swapping paper in response to a user's taps and choices.
Wireframing
Alsowireframes · low-fidelity mock-ups
User flow
Alsotask flow · wireflow · screen flow
Sitemap
Alsonavigation design · IA diagram
Content-first prototype
Alsocontent prototype · proto-content
Clickable prototype
Alsoclick dummy · interactive prototype · high-fidelity prototype
Wizard of Oz prototype
A prototype in which a hidden person produces the system's responses, so that users experience a working product before the technology exists.
Concierge prototype
Delivering a service manually, in person, to a few users, to learn what they value before automating it. Unlike Wizard of Oz, users know a person is doing it.
Minimum viable product
AlsoMVP · minimum viable ecosystem (MVE)
Prototype sequence
AlsoME310 prototype types: critical experience · critical function · dark horse · funky · functional · X-is-finished · final
Exploration map
A map on which a team plots the prototypes it has built along two chosen dimensions, to see which areas have been explored and which have not.
Video prototype
Alsovision video · concept video
Desktop walkthrough
Alsotabletop walkthrough · service model
Service rehearsal
Alsoservice prototyping · service staging · investigative rehearsal
Lesson prototype
Alsomicroteaching · rehearsal lesson
The microteaching cycle
The flow shows the lesson prototype steps in order, with the points where the work loops back, branches or waits for an approval.
Learning materials prototype
Alsodraft module · pilot materials
Assessment item writing
Drafting assessment questions and tasks to match an assessment blueprint, so that each item measures its intended outcome at its intended level.
Rubric drafting
Alsomarking scheme design · scoring guide
Paper game prototype
A game made with cards, boards, dice and tokens to test rules and play before building a digital version.
The playtesting cycle
Timehours to make, 30 minutes per playtest
Dashboard mock-up
A sketch or prototype of a data dashboard, ideally using real or realistic data, to test whether it answers its users' questions.
Space mock-up
Alsofull-scale mock-up · tape-out · pop-up classroom
Policy prototype
Testing a policy idea by making the artefacts people would actually meet, such as a letter, a form, a guideline or a service step, and trying them with users before the policy is finalised.
Branching scenario map
A map of the decision points, choices, consequences and endings in an interactive scenario, planned before it is written or built.
Test
Checking ideas with real users and real settings. Twenty-seven methods.
Twenty-seven methods, by the question they answer
Each method on the stage answers one of these questions. The order of the questions is roughly the order a project meets them, but most projects return to an earlier question at least once.
Test card
Alsotesting sheet · prototype to test · test plan
Moderated usability test
Alsousability testing · user testing · structured usability testing
Unmoderated remote test
Participants complete tasks on their own, usually through an online tool that records their screen, clicks and sometimes voice.
Think-aloud protocol
Asking participants to say what they are thinking as they work, so that researchers can hear expectations, confusion and reasoning.
Guerrilla testing
Alsohallway testing · corridor testing
RITE testing
Alsorapid iterative testing and evaluation
Fix the prototype between sessions, until no new issues appear
The prototype is changed between sessions as problems are found.
Solution interview
Alsoproblem and solution interview
Cognitive walkthrough
An expert review in which evaluators step through a task as a new user would, asking at each step whether the user would know what to do and see that it worked (Wharton et al., 1994).
Heuristic evaluation
Alsoexpert review · usability inspection
Assistive technology testing
Testing key tasks using assistive technologies, such as screen readers, magnifiers, switch access and voice control, ideally with people who use them every day.
First-click test
Showing users a screen and a task, and recording where they click first. A correct first click strongly predicts task success.
Five-second test
Showing a screen for five seconds, then asking what users remember and what they think it is for, to check the first impression and main message.
Tree testing
Participants find items in a text-only version of a site's hierarchy, which tests the structure and labels without the influence of visual design.
Preference and desirability testing
Alsoproduct reaction cards · desirability study
Feedback capture grid
A four-part grid for recording feedback during or after a test: likes, criticisms, questions and ideas.
I like, I wish, I wonder
Alsorose · thorn · bud (a similar format)
Readability testing
Alsocloze test · comprehension testing
Expert content review
Alsosubject-matter expert (SME) review
A/B test
Alsosplit test · multivariate test (variant)
How an A/B test is set up
The flow shows the a/B test steps in order, with the points where the work loops back, branches or waits for an approval.
Fake door test
Offering a button or link to a feature that does not yet exist, to measure how many people try to use it. Those who click see an honest message that the feature is being considered.
Beta programme
Alsoearly access programme · pilot release
Pilot
Alsotrial · field trial · pilot lesson
A pilot ends in one of three decisions
The flow shows the pilot steps in order, with the points where the work loops back, branches or waits for an approval.
Design-based research
AlsoDBR · design experiments
The design-based research cycle
Iterative classroom trials that refine both a design and its theory.
Pre- and post-test
Alsolearning gain measurement
Item analysis
Analysing how each question performed: its difficulty (the proportion correct), its discrimination (whether stronger students got it right more often) and how each distractor was chosen.
Cognitive interviews
Interviews in which respondents answer draft survey or test questions while explaining how they understand each one, to find wording problems before use.
Moderation
Alsorubric calibration · standardisation · marker calibration
The moderation cycle
The flow shows the moderation steps in order, with the points where the work loops back, branches or waits for an approval.
Next: Handoffs and habits
Volume 4, Handoffs and Habits: delivering, sustaining and running the practice. Forty-eight methods.
Twenty works
The methods are the source’s own, checked against nine books on design thinking and practice. Where a method rests on a published source, the entry names it and the reference list gives it.
Every method in this volume is indexed, with what it is and its other names, at https://www.geraldajam.com/library/glossary/playbooks/briefs-and-blueprints-vol-3.