Testing Concepts Through Prototyping

What is this?
Prototypes are inexpensive, easy-to-make mockups of potential solutions. 

When should I use this?
Once you’ve turned your fact base into insights and your insights into concepts, you’ll create prototypes to test your concepts with real people. You’ll use the feedback your prototypes generate to improve your concept. 

More about this...
Creating prototypes for something as complex and abstract as an education policy can be tricky, but the basic idea is to allow the people who will be affected by a new policy to experience how it will make their lives different and then get their feedback. This section of the “Designing for Public Services” toolkit by IDEO and NESTA (pages 50-66) explains how prototyping can work in the policy realm and provides multiple methods to try, ranging from simple paper prototypes to randomized control trials.