How can you use prototyping to identify customer emotions for your concept?

1 Choose the right level of fidelity

The level of fidelity of your prototype refers to how realistic and detailed it is. Depending on your concept, you may need a low-fidelity prototype, such as a sketch, a wireframe, or a paper mockup, or a high-fidelity prototype, such as a working app, a 3D model, or a physical product. The level of fidelity affects how customers perceive and interact with your prototype, and how they express their emotions. For example, a low-fidelity prototype may invite more feedback and suggestions, while a high-fidelity prototype may trigger more emotional attachment and expectations. Choose the level of fidelity that matches your goals and resources, and be prepared to adjust it as you learn from your customers.

4 Validate and iterate your prototype

The final step of using prototyping to identify customer emotions is to validate and iterate your prototype based on your findings. You can use different methods of validation, such as feedback, metrics, benchmarks, and experiments, to measure how well your prototype meets your customers' emotional needs and expectations. You can also use different methods of iteration, such as adding, removing, or modifying features, design, or content, to improve your prototype and enhance your customers' emotional experience. For example, you can use feedback to see if your customers feel more confident or empowered after using your prototype, metrics to see if your prototype increases customer retention or referrals, benchmarks to see how your prototype compares to your competitors in terms of emotional value, and experiments to see how changing the color, shape, or sound of your prototype affects your customers' emotions.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?