Exploring Possibilities Through Prototyping

The Creative Capacity Lab partnered with KUT/KUTX staff to explore prototyping methods, iterating on an Austin Audio Tour idea across four workshops.

The goal was not the Austin Audio Tour, but to explore the tour’s utility through the lens of this practice.

KUT and KUTX are Austin’s public radio stations, dedicated to serving the community through trusted journalism and music discovery. KUT delivers in-depth local news and storytelling, while KUTX champions Austin’s vibrant music culture by spotlighting both emerging and established artists. Together, they are recognized as cultural leaders and key voices in Austin’s identity.

Despite their strong presence, KUT and KUTX sought to explore innovative ways to reach audiences beyond traditional radio. An early idea, the “Austin Audio Tour,” presented an opportunity to extend their storytelling into new formats. The challenge was to test the concept’s feasibility and desirability, ensuring it aligned with the stations’ mission while offering a fresh, engaging experience for the community.

“Doing something quick, cheap, and kinda janky but prioritizes in-person conversation with people can be really enlightening.”

— Creative Capacity Lab Participant from KUT/X

Design Thinking Strategies

01

Warm Ups

Spark connection and creativity through playful making.

05

Externalizing Fieldwork

Make your learnings visible.

02

Wearable Tracy

Prototype in public to challenge comfort zones and gather real-world insights.

06

Observe, Listen, Learn

Give feedback that moves the work forward.

03

Refine and Test Your Idea

Turn a concept into something you can test.

07

Group Synthesis

Make meaning together. Find what matters most.

04

Going Out Into the Field

Move from idea to action by going out the real world.

08

Making Decisions

Based on our new knowledge, how do we proceed?

We did the work and talked about it

We split into teams where we created two rounds of low-fi prototypes, and tested them in the wild to collect “soft” data. Between prototype testings, we shared our findings, answered pointed questions, and refined our ideas. In addition, we outlined the user experience through journey maps.

Expanding The Field Guide to Austin

In our research, we recognized the current value of KUT’s Field Guide to Austin, as well as its potential to serve Austinites even better. There was a craving for knowledge about our city - from history to quirky stories to “best of” lists.

Expanding the Field Guide to Austin - to improve navigation and include different modes of content delivery (video, lists, maps, etc.) - will require additional resources.

While that might not be feasible this year, we believe there’s a strong case to allocate resources to it in the future.

Developing KUT Trivia

We created a fast-paced, on-the-spot trivia game to connect people with the stations through a fun and memorable experience. KUT Trivia is an idea that can be realized quickly and with relative ease. Each of the questions were tied to a specific ATXplained story. The second half of the experiment turned each game into an engaging social media video to give the game a much longer life than that one in-person moment.

“The whole experience was a great reminder to set aside time to think big. To think creatively. To figure out barriers together. But the main thing is making time.”