Catch up on LTI’s ChatGPT and Generative AI in the Library Coverage
Teaching, learning, and using AI — all in one place
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Posted on April 24, 2023 in Blog Posts
Imagine you’re in a meeting about a new service workflow. Patrons can now request laptops to use for a week. The goal is to figure out what the patron sees on the request form on your website. Things are getting… hand-wavy.
“So the user selects the pickup time on the request form, right?”
“Okay, then they’ll have to pick a library location first, since the hours are different for our branches. So maybe the time options can change dynamically based on the location.”
“We should say ‘preferred pickup location,’ since we might not have enough laptops if everyone chooses the same place. Then we’ll confirm the location by email.”
It’s at this point—overlapping, speculative discussion—when people might start to lose track of what they’ve found consensus on and what the imagined page and workflow will look like. That’s when I always suggest doing live prototyping.
In a nutshell, live prototyping means sketching out an interface (like a web page or form) on a screen that everyone can see during the meeting. When someone has a suggestion, you can make the change to the prototype right then and there to see if it makes sense. The end result of live prototyping is a collaboratively created mock-up, which can be used as a reference when building the real page.
You’ll need:
First, explain what you’ll be doing. You might say something like: “Since our goal today is to come up with what the form looks like for the service, let’s sketch out what will be on the form. At this point, we’re just brainstorming what will go on the page, so let’s not worry about details like color or precise text yet.”
Once the team starts brainstorming, you’ll begin implementing their ideas on the prototype. For example: “We’ll need to ask for the patron’s email address!” Add the text box to the form. “We’ll need to explain what the service is first.” Scoot everything in the page body down, then add placeholder text (Lorem ipsum…) at the top of the page. If people in the meeting have conflicting ideas, try both! Screenshot one version before trying the other, or save two versions.
Example:
Prototypes can come in a spectrum of doneness:
Since you’ll be prototyping live in front of your peers, you’ll want to choose a tool that you’re comfortable with. If it’s a new tool, practice using it ahead of time.
The intermediate and advanced tools all have keyboard shortcuts, which are big time-savers when the discussion is flowing fast! For instance, just pressing the T key in Whimsical switches your cursor to the Text tool. Once you know these keyboard shortcuts, you’ll feel like a wizard.
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