Role-Play

Role-Play

Role-playing is a form of prototype.

Prototypes are disposable tools that help you to think, communicate with others, validate ideas and generate more ideas. By prototyping your ideas you’ll develop a deeper understanding of what the idea means and you’ll uncover questions about its desirability, usability, viability and feasibility. You can gain perspective and understanding of the emotional experience with a product or service by taking on the role of a person you are designing for and acting out the experience with team members.

Time:
1 Hours - Minutes
Difficulty:
Easy
Materials:
  • None
Participants:
  • Design Team
The HCD Toolkit
and all HCD methods are licensed under: Creative Commons License
Instructions for this Method
  1. Ask team members to partner in teams of two. 

  2. Ask teams to pick one solution from the brainstorming boards. You may want to offer a range of criteria: two teams working on solutions they’re “most passionate about,” one group on “most feasible” and one on “furthest out” or “long term”.

  3. Ask teams to spend no more than 30-45 minutes making their chosen solution tangible. Partners will take on the role of the user and enact the experience of using the product or service.

Tips

Value of an idea—For each role-play enactment, answer these questions to start building the value of the idea:

  • Who will benefit from this idea? What is the value to the people who will use it?
  • Why and how is this idea better than alternative options?
  • How much is this benefit worth to the people who will use it?
  • How much would they be willing to pay for this benefit?”
  • How might this payment be collected?

Value of a prototype

  • Build to think: Prototypes are a powerful form of communication that help you to think in realistic terms about how someone would interact with the concept.
  • Rough and rapid: Prototypes are not precious. They should be built as quickly and cheaply as possible.
  • Answers to questions: Know what question a prototype is being used to answer, for example about desirability, usefulness, usability, viability or feasibility.

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