Paper-prototyping interactions and value exchanges among people, artifacts, and environments
Business origami is a service design activity where stakeholders build a physical representation of a system and then prototype future or alternative states.
Paper tokens represent actors, artifacts, environments, and technologies on a horizontal whiteboard “stage” where interactions play out to tell a story.
Lines and arrows labeled on the whiteboard represent the interactions between tokens, articulating what value people get out of the exchange.
The method gives all participants an equal voice in the prototyping activity, bridging different perspectives by providing a common reference for further discussion.
The experience of physical modeling is critical, making the value exchange explicit within a scenario.
Paper pop-up “origami” tokens represent people, locations, artifacts, technology, transportation, channels, third parties, social media, and proprietary tools, with lines and arrows illustrating relationships.