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The perpetual beta is one of the phrases that describes one of the characteristics of a Web 2.0 company. Perpetual beta is defined by Tim O’Reilly as

Engage(ing) your users as real-time testers…

As a student at the Institute of Design, a huge proponent of user-centered design, that concept is really intriguing. We are taught that design solutions should stem from user needs, wants and desires. One the techniques we often employ to gain this understanding of users is prototyping. What makes perpetual beta so intriguing, then, is the fact that the actual live product/service is being used as a prototype.

Tim O’Reilly hit on something big when he added

…instrument the service so that you know how people use the new features

That is key to this whole thing. Perpetual beta is different from “almost done”. Perpetual beta, or live prototyping (as us at the ID would call it) is only useful when you have specific trackable feature changes that are ready to be monitored. The danger is if designers and developers use perpetual beta as an excuse to release half-baked concepts out to the marketplace without any real intent to gage user response.

Here, then are some of the things we do at the Institute of Design to make sure our prototypes are as useful as possible.

  • Limit Changes: It’s important to limit changes otherwise things will get out of hand and be difficult to manage from an internal perspective and use from an external perspective. You want to give your users an impression of constant improvement not constant inconstancy.
  • Inform the Users: Create a system that can inform users when things change and inform user what has changed. The bigger the changes the more information users should get.
  • Give Users an Outlet: Create a clear, usable outlet for user to give feedback and suggestions to the things you changed. Make it as quick and easy as possible.
  • Respond to Users: In order for users to accept a product/service that is changing more than they are used to, they have to be re-assured that if/when they give you feedback someone is listening and interested.

I think if companies “instrument” their products/services in such a way that they are intelligently monitoring user feedback, perpetual beta is a very powerful prototyping option.

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