Exploring ideas

BODYSTORMING

15- 60 minutes

Case-related props and location
Paper and pen or phone for note taking.
Camera or mobile phone for taking photos can be useful.

What is this tool and what is its purpose and benefit?

Bodystorming is an activity-based way to explore a service by going through it to find gaps and generate ideas for it. It unveils automatic behaviours, reactions, assumptions, the need for ideas, and idea-generation through empathising.

Steps how to use this tool in practice

The same steps apply when working individually, in pairs or in a group.

STEP 1

Prepare the bodystorming session around the identified problem by considering the setting, props, any practical issues, and how ideas and information are collected.

STEP 2

Invite people relevant to the problem to take part in the bodystorming session. They can be for instance customers, an organisation’s staff or stakeholders.

STEP 3

Start the bodystorming session by presenting its goal, but do not tell much about the service. The session can be organised in a real location or a simulated workshop.

STEP 4

Let participants go through the service and observe how they act, interact and react, and what they say. Write these observations down and use them for new ideas.

STEP 5

Take the notes and ideas from the first session and turn these into low-fidelity prototypes. These should be rough and cheap paper and cardboard prototypes.

Bodystorming can be continued with the following steps

STEP 6

Organise a role-playing session to test the advanced ideas and create further ideas. The participants can be the same from the first session or new ones. Take notes of how participants react, act and interact, what they say, what seems to work and what not, and of wishes and needs. Use the notes to generate new ideas.

STEP 7

Look at the results of the first bodystorming session and role-playing session, and reflect them upon the identified problem. What kind of new idea solutions come out? Take these ideas to evaluate at the next phase.

Tips and hints for using this tool

Bodystorming can also be performed for example in a shop where customers bodystorm a new service. This can take place over a number of days due to the natural flow of customers in the shop.