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by Kate Pound, Improvement Manager, NHS England’s Emergency Care Improvement Support Team (ECIST)

At the heart of all prototyping is the user experience; if it's no good for the end users, then there's no point in the product or service! This is why throughout the #SolvingTogether work, lived experience is essential and given a high value of gold dust. Historically in health and care design, decisions are led from the top of an organisation where the power sits. Through prototyping and valuing lived experience, a power shift is essential from exclusive to shared, as seen in the chart below from Beyond Sticky Notes.

A prototype is the initial or preliminary model of a machine or product used as a basis for developing or copying other forms. It can also be used as a verb to describe the process of creating a prototype. Prototyping is a valuable technique used in design for quick development, testing, and learning. It should be a fun and inclusive process.

"I have not failed; I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - THOMAS EDISON.

Prototyping is about many things, but the concepts outlined in these quotes are critical to remember. Prototyping is about failing quickly and learning from those failures to improve things. Prototyping is all about iteration and evolving an idea to get to a final solution prototyping is also about making things to help communicate ideas, accelerate the conversation, and help others see your thoughts.

"Fail faster. Succeed sooner." - DAVID KELLEY

When starting prototyping, you are likely to have too many ideas about what and how the final design should look like In Design Thinking this is the second double diamond where you move from divergent to convergent ideas as you test and create, moving from your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to the final design.

"If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a prototype is worth 1000 meetings" - IDEO

Together, as we move forward in our efforts to solve problems, we have a unique opportunity to design innovative solutions that include diverse perspectives and voices. By listening to and collaborating with those who will benefit the most - our patients, their families, and our staff - we can create meaningful and impactful change.

This post was edited on Jul 20, 2023 by Gillian Driscoll