Prototyping

In product design, the word “prototype” is commonly used as a noun, a verb, and an adjective. For example, product designers produce prototypes of their concept ideas; engineers prototype full-scale mock-ups; software engineers write prototype programs. A prototype can be classed along two dimensions. The first dimension is the degree to which a prototype is physical as opposed to analytical. Physical prototypes are a tangible approximation of the intended product, whereas analytical prototypes generally represent the product in an abstract mathematical format. The second dimension is the degree to which a prototype is focused as opposed to comprehensive. A focused prototype tends to concentrate on only one to a few of the product’s attributes, whereas a comprehensive prototype is a full-scale, fully operational version of the product. A focused prototype can be produced faster and cheaper than a comprehensive one; these prototypes can usually be grouped under “looks like” prototypes and “works like” prototypes.

Prototypes are created to inform the design and decision-making processes. While they have traditionally been perceived as highly developed physical models, contemporary designers now use the term to describe any kind of representation that is created to help designers, users, and clients to understand, explore, and communicate what qualities a product has, and how a user might engage with it. They can range from the concept sketches described earlier in the chapter through to storyboards, scenarios, and a variety of models that explore and communicate propositions and context.

Prototyping assists the design and development process by enabling designers to understand existing user experiences and context, explore and evaluate ideas, and communicate them to an audience. They are a vital device for resolving a product. They are often fully working and robust enough for trialling with endusers over periods of time, and can play a vital role throughout the whole design process, not just at the concept stage. They enable the design team, users, and clients alike to engage with a concept and prompt dialogue between all the stakeholders. Prototypes facilitate informed decision-making, and help ensure a streamlined development process that avoids costly mistakes or delays in bringing a product to market.

The number of prototypes required varies project by project and depends on the scale and the budget available. The need to evaluate a product’s form, composition, materiality, and production processes can be properly met only through intensive prototyping. The development of the Dyson vacuum cleaner, for example, required thousands of prototypes before innumerable issues were resolved and the concept reached production.

Prototyping tools

There are a number of prototyping tools commonly used by product designers today, ranging from lo-fi DIY techniques through to CAD approaches.

Quick-and-dirty prototyping

“Quick-and-dirty prototypes” are used as a quick way to communicate a concept design idea to other members of the product design team. From this the team can then evaluate, reflect, and refine their ideas before progressing further. The benefit of this method is that prototypes can be created quickly and with any materials that may be at hand. The focus of this method is on speed over quality of prototype building.

Paper prototyping

Paper prototypes can be used to quickly visualize, organize, and articulate basic design concepts. Product designers can use this method to sketch out functionality and usability aspects of concepts and evaluate them.

Experience prototyping

An experience prototype can be a useful tool for detecting unanticipated problems or opportunities as well as evaluating ideas. These are used by product designers to learn what it is like using the product in a given situation.

Role-playing

In role-playing, participants adopt and act out characters or roles to help understand users’ personalities, motivations, and backgrounds. By enacting the activities surrounding a design problem, within a real or imagined context or scenario, the design team can begin to understand and empathize with actual users. The key stakeholders involved with the design problem are identified and these roles assigned to members of the design development team. A series of improvised scenarios and activities are then acted out and recorded for later interpretation and evaluation in design decisions.

Bodystorming

In bodystorming, designers imagine what it would be like if a concept existed and act out a scenario as though it exists. It helps you to quickly generate and evaluate behavioral concepts within a defined physical context. In this technique, the design team sets up a scenario and acts out roles, with or without props, focusing on the intuitive responses to the physical enactment.

Empathy tools

Empathy tools can give designers a greater appreciation of what it is like for users with disabilities or special conditions to use products. Tools like clouded glasses and weighted gloves help designers experience better the abilities of different users, seeing the world through their eyes, and gaining a deeper understanding of their issues, needs, and desires.

Be your customer

This is a useful method for detecting a client’s perceptions of their customers. Start by asking the client to describe or enact their typical customer’s experience. This is useful as it allows the client to highlight their understanding of their customers as opposed to actual customers’ experiences.

Try it yourself

Try it yourself is a method used in product design and development that allows the design team to sample the product being designed themselves. The rationale is that the design team will gain valuable insights into how the actual users feel when using the product being designed.

Scenario modeling

Scenario modeling can help product designers communicate and evaluate design proposals within their intended context. By devising a scenario carefully with characters, narrative, and context, designers can evaluate whether their design ideas will work with their intended users.

Scenario testing

Scenario testing involves the creation of future scenarios using media such as photography, film, and video and asking users to provide feedback on them. This is a useful method for communicating and evaluating early concepts to clients.

Storyboards

Storyboards are an effective way to share your concept design with others; they can be particularly valuable in cross-cultural contexts. A good storyboard will tell a rich and convincing story of how particular users will use the product idea that you are proposing. Storyboards can also be a great prompt for discussion in focus groups and interviews. They can be as effective as a rapid prototype for getting high-level feedback.

Storyboards are a great way of demonstrating how a product can alter through time and use. This example by Martí Guixé uses his Galleria H2O Chair, 1998, to show, through his quirky cartoon drawing style, how the chair allows you to adjust the seat height by adding books, growing in height as you grow in knowledge and age.

Diamond Chair, by Nendo, 2008, is produced through powder sintering rapid prototyping (RP). As there is a limit to the size of objects that can be produced by RP machines, the chair is produced in two parts that are then fitted together once both pieces have hardened. The molecular patterned chair takes a week to produce and as such is not designed for mass production, but it can be produced anywhere in the world with an RP machine, as the files can be digitally sent for local bespoke manufacture.

Informance

Informance is an “informative performance” scenario role-played by the design team that is based on insight and observations collected previously. Informance is an effective method for creating a shared understanding of a design proposal and its implications.

Rapid prototyping

A range of methods that create detailed physical models of products from computer data is known as rapid prototyping. Stereolithography, which creates models in plastic, is arguably the most commonly used process; other techniques produce models in paper or metal. Designers produce detailed designs on screen, and then output this technical data for production. Rapid prototyping is often used to check the design of parts before committing to production tooling. However, a number of designers, including Patrick Jouin and Marcel Wanders, have begun to produce one-off and batch-produced products using the technique as a viable manufacturing process.