Design operations guide

The methods you should use to express your design concept depends on the type of concept you choose. Look back at your references: what is the nature of the expression you’re creating, based on that collection of references? Is it a product? A service? A system? Or is it more complex than that, like a large service that needs multiple products to support it? If you’re unsure, review the designed things section of the Design Concepts Guide, where you’ll find explanations of the nature of products, services, and systems.

Depending on what you’re designing, you can select from the following methods to generate version 1 of your design expression, or investigate design methods from other sources.

If you find yourself in need of more design methods, look at the collection of Design Methods from 18F.

Card sorting framework

What: Card sorting is helpful when you are designing products that distribute a lot of interconnected information to participants. This method is often used by designers who are creating digital products, like websites, but you can also use it when making paper-based products or instructional materials.

When: Things that deal with displaying or gathering information are usually products, and card sorting is a useful framework for designs that center around creating information-based products. These types of products require systems to support them “on the backend”, which means that people or systems will need to process the information that’s gathered or ensure the accuracy of the information that the product displays. Keep this in mind as you move into your product design; it probably won’t stand alone. If you don’t already have systems in place to support the product, stop your design phase now and re-scope; your design is too big. You’ll need more time to create a product-and-system design that works well together.

Why: You may be very close to a service or system you are designing for, and so it may be hard to see it from the outside. Building a product that’s in tune with participants’ thinking increases the chances that people will successfully absorb and use the information you provide. As a result, they’re more likely to trust the product.

Get started: The materials you need for a card sort are cards (plain index cards will do), a bold marker and your discovery findings.

Review: Review your discovery findings. What are the topics or themes of information that the participants need to know?

Organize: What is the hierarchy of this information? Is there a hierarchy? If there is, organize the information in the way your research indicates it should be organized.

Write: Condense the topics and themes of information into short, descriptive phrases. Write these phrases on the index cards using a bold marker. All the phrases should be written in the same color.

Reuse: This framework can be used in at least two, if not more, design and testing cycles. In the first, most low-fidelity design, card sorting can help you understand the information, as well as the hierarchy of that information. In a second, medium-level fidelity prototype, card sorting can be used to start identifying layout and formatting for the information.

Storyboarding framework

What: A storyboard is a series of comic book panels. Its structure helps illustrate how your concept works in real life, moves through it, and seeks to accomplish its goal. A storyboard forces you to think through the tough transitions, invisible moments, and entire cast of people who will need to interact with your design concept. Start with a low-fidelity version to document basic interactions, then use the framework again to refine the details as you hear about the interactions from participants.

When: Storyboarding’s utility is in designing human-to-human interactions. These interactions are often characterized as services. As references, think of the service of a triage nurse going down a checklist with an ER patient, or a security official guiding people through security screenings. These designs may seem lightweight, but to successfully introduce and maintain them requires the buy-in of many groups: the people providing the service, their supervisors, the people administering the space in which the service occurs, et cetera. All of these groups are stakeholders, so design and test accordingly.

Why: By using pictures and panels, a storyboard prompts you to think about how and when your concept comes to life— whether it’s the moment when a person clicks on a webpage, or the moment when a person picks up the phone to call a service hotline. A storyboard also prompts you to think about the cast of people who work behind the scenes to make your design concept available and helpful to users, as well as the cast of people who will use your concept.

Get started: Use the storyboard framework to draw out the interactions required for participants to use your product, service, or system concept. You’ll find that drawing the interactions helps you see the places where you’ve made assumptions regarding how easy an interaction might be.

Your storyboard should comprise at least three elements: people, place, and pathway. You don’t need to be “good at drawing” to make storyboards. You can draw stick figures to represent people and you can draw happy/sad/perplexed faces with speech or thought bubbles to represent their feelings and thoughts.

If you feel like you have a good idea of how your product, service, or system will work, jump right into creating two storyboards. The first should outline your concept’s debut “in a perfect world,” while the second should explore its debut “in the real world.”

Draw out each step of a participant’s progress with your concept. How does the participant find or encounter the concept? What information do they need to get started, and to continue? Will they need to navigate or coordinate with other systems to make progress? How will they know they’ve successfully completed the process?

“In a perfect world…” storyboard: The “perfect world” story can be the north star of your design project. It sets your orientation and gives you something to work towards. It lays out the ideal flow of your concept and the ideal conditions and circumstances surrounding it.

“In the real world…” storyboard: Conversely, the “real world” story lays out potential flaws, uncertainties, or hold-ups that might impede or diminish the value and power of your concept. By anticipating these curve balls and impediments, you can help prepare for the unexpected and uncertain when transforming your concept into a durable prototype.

Draw out the interactions required for participants to use your product, service, or system concept. You’ll find that drawing the interactions helps you identify the places where you’ve made assumptions about how easy an interaction might be.

Consider making different storyboards for different use cases. For example, how might your concept play out in the early morning rush hour? How might it play out in the closing hours of the work day? How might it play out in a rural setting? An urban one?

Reuse: Use storyboarding through multiple rounds of making, testing, and refinement. If your designs are entirely embodied in human-to-human interactions, you can use storyboarding from first version to final scenario. Your boards will help you as you design and test, because they show participants what you think the interaction could be like, and they also act as a record of the interaction design when you move to the pilot phase.

Storywriting framework

What: Storywriting can help you capture the spirit, or the gist, of your design concept—not its specifics—to clarify what you need to make. You don’t have to be Hemingway to tell this story. You simply need to jot down your thoughts and order them. Use what you learned in your discovery research as a starting place, and write a brief story in which the people you’re designing for will recognize themselves. You needn’t include every little detail; just give people a feel for your concept and the experience(s) it may evoke.

When: Storywriting is useful when, despite all your analysis and study of the previous stages, you and the team are still not quite sure what to make. This could be because the specific need of the participants remains vague or undefined, or because circumstances like team composition or leadership have shifted since the discovery phase ended. Don’t worry if you find yourself in this position; storywriting is an accessible, economically responsible way to draw lines around what you might need to design to address participant needs.

Why: By writing the story of your concept’s debut, you can gain clarity on what you need to design, and begin anticipating—and planning for—the expected and unexpected.

Get started: Follow the “Six Ps’’ writing method: Principle, Paramounts, Players, Place, Path, and Point of View. Use this framework to define and document six aspects of your story.

You may also want to review the federal plain language guidelines to ensure that you write with clarity from the start.

Reuse: You can use this framework for the first two rounds of fidelity-making, just as in the methods above.