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4.1. Process
55
the installation of WLAN in the hospital entirely for which we would have had to
deal with several issues such as privacy, security, and electro-magnetic interference
with medical devices. Instead we gained time for implementing other features the
doctors were not familiar with. This phase aims to integrate technology solutions
that are unknown to the users and as such can provide radically new perspectives
of achieving the users’ goals. In order to reveal new perspectives the prototype may
also provoke users and confront them with a selection of technology the users can
choose from. The users should be able to perceive a future idea through hands-on
experience for evaluating its feasibility. Finding appropriate cutting-edge technol-
ogy for stimulating the user is di cult, it is a creative process. However, looking
at advanced users of other domains who solved their needs can be helpful, see the
lead-user approach proposed by Hippel
[
v. Hippel 1986
]
.
4.1.5 Provide Experience
In this phase the prototype is presented to the users. The important point is to
stimulate and, sometimes, even provoke the user by providing hands-on experience
with the X’treme Prototype. This can be seen as a physical version for initiating
lateral thinking
[
DeBono 1967
]
: it takes users out of their familiar context and makes
them reflecting about new concepts and thinking beyond. The X’treme Prototype
can provoke by the new functionality it o ers. Users might not know what is possible
with technology, since their view has been shaped by what is possible and used in
their daily work now: In a sense they are locked into their worlds. The X’treme
Prototype is something that should stimulate their imagination, break their current
boundaries and lead the discussion onward. Functionality does not necessarily have
to be fully implemented. But at least guided by the developer, the user should be
able to experience a new concept through technology he has never considered for his
working domain. The case studies presented in Chapters 6 and 7 show promising
results: users tend to be much more creative, extrapolate much better towards future
usage patterns, and generate even radical new ideas with the experience provided by
the X’treme Prototype. The goal of this phase is to provide experience and to receive
feedback in return, which users would not have thought of without the prototype
experience. As a result, the prototype experience should, firstly, help the users
to extrapolate from their current work practice to the opportunities shown by the
prototype. Secondly, users should be enabled to critique and assess the feasibility of
the presented approach and reshape it for realistic settings. This is valuable input
for the developers to refine the concept and/or the prototype.
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