Skip to main content

SME design validation

How Design gets validated in days, not weeks: agents generate a clickable prototype, SMEs walk through it in structured 30-minute sessions, results are scored, and the feedback lands back in the flows and screens the same day. This is the SME engagement validation slot applied to Phase 2, and the evidence the Design Review gate checks for.

The method​

  1. Generate the prototype — an agent produces a clickable prototype directly from the UX flows and screen specs. Hours, not sprints — which is what makes weekly validation affordable.
  2. Script the walkthrough — tasks derived from the PFD scenarios, one task per critical scenario, written as goals ("submit a mid-term adjustment") not click-by-click instructions.
  3. Run 30-minute sessions — one SME at a time: tasks, think-aloud, a facilitator who prompts but never leads, a note-taker (or transcript) capturing where reality and design diverge.
  4. Score it — per task: completed unassisted / completed with help / failed, plus where and why it stalled. Per session: a SUS questionnaire for a comparable usability number across iterations.
  5. Feed back same day — every finding becomes either an edit to a flow or screen spec, or an entry in the open questions. The next iteration's prototype regenerates from the updated specs, so nothing validated is lost.

Scoring thresholds​

  • Every critical task completes unassisted before Design Review — an SME who can't complete a task on a clickable prototype is a defect found cheap.
  • SUS is a trend, not a trophy — use 68 (the industry midpoint) as the floor and watch the direction across iterations; a falling score after a change is a signal even if it stays above the floor.
  • SME sign-off on the flows — recorded at the end of validation, per the gate.

Prototypes are for validation, not production​

The prototype is throwaway. What Build receives is the design handoff pack — the flows, data model and screen specs the prototype was generated from — never the prototype code itself, however tempting its head start looks (see the design phase playbook).

Pending decisions

The prototyping toolchain depends on the open design tooling ADR. Session recording of SMEs needs a consent and retention decision under UK GDPR before transcripts are stored — one for Delivery + the DPO.

Standards referenced: SUS (System Usability Scale), ISO 9241-210.