February 2012
Intermediate to advanced
208 pages
8h 23m
English
Content preview from Universal Methods of Design
71 Role-playing
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
Start your free trial
RESEARCH METHOD
71 Role-playing
Acting the role of the user in realistic scenarios can forge a deep sense of empathy and highlight challenges, presenting opportunities that can be met by design.
Role-playing consists of exercises whereby the designer takes on the role of the user, assuming the routines and behaviors that he or she might experience in actual scenarios of use. It is a relatively low-cost, low-investment method; however, a certain amount of work is necessary to make the role-play credibly connected to the real lives of users.
Members of the design team have to be willing to participate and play along realistically. On the other hand, ...