To gain a better sense of how teams' designs matched the actual
experience of interacting with a lifebook, students focused
on conducting some simple validity tests of their concepts.
Companies such as IDEO perform these kinds of tests on concepts
to understand how well the product "story," or concept,
communicates the value of what will be designed. Because the
prototypes delivered by design students are demonstrational,
rather than functional, teams essentially tested the value
communicated by the concepts instead of the product functionality.
Teams then incorporated this feedback into a
new iteration of product form and interface.
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