User Test Flow

User Test Flow

Recipe step number

Day 3, Activity 3

Description

Outline the storyboard at a high-level

Reading Time

10 mins

Recipe: Design Sprint (Day-3)

  1. Deciding on ideas
  2. Rumble (optional)
  3. User Test Flow
  4. Storyboard
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Materials needed: - Mural (digital whiteboard) - Microsoft Teams (or other video conference tool)
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More resources - links etc go here

Overview

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Why do the User Test Flow? Because it can be a tricky task to go from one 3-panel sketch to an 8-panel storyboard of the concept, and it’s tough to facilitate and keep a group on track through the process. Note: This activity is not from the original Sprint book. It was created as an in-between step that makes the transition to Storyboarding much easier and is now widely used around the world.

Here's a video from the inventors of the exercise, Design Sprint agency AJ&Smart, that shows the key steps.

The purpose of the User Test Flow is to plan the high-level flow of the 45 min concept test you'll conduct with customers (AKA "users") in 2 days time.

The test will consist of guiding the customer through a realistic flow of steps that showcase all the key features/ideas while observing their natural actions and reactions.

The User Test Flow makes use of the Note & Vote method to help the team quickly decide on the basic flow of steps that customers will be guided through.

You'll use the "winning" flow of 6 simple steps as the basis for the Storyboard. This makes the next step, drawing the details of each step, much simpler and faster.

Key Tips

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Key tips from Advance Concepts™

How to do this activity

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Allow 2.5 hours

Here's what it looks like in action:

Original image source (annotated):

And close up...

Notice that each sticky contains a verb, e.g. "student
Notice that each sticky contains a verb, e.g. "student asks..", "student receives..", "student shares...". This format ensures that we are crafting steps of how the customer will move through our test.

How to do it

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Allow 30-40 mins
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[5 mins] Recap the winning Concept Sketch(es) to the team
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[10 mins] Each person writes 6 steps
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[3 mins] Group vote
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[10 mins] Decider vote