What is prototyping? (Definition)
Prototyping is designing a version of a product or process, before you have designed the final designs.
Prototypes can be different stages or iterations to help designers, product owners, and others stakeholders, visualise what their product will look and feel like and how users will interact with it.
Prototyping early can help identify and prevent wasting time and money on designs that don’t work.
Prototypes can be anything from a physical prototype, made from paper or other cheap materials to a digital prototype, and widely different in detail from wireframe prototypes to more detailed and interactive prototypes.
History of Prototyping
Prototyping has a long history, there are many examples of people prototyping hundreds of years ago, with famous names such as Leonardo Da Vinci, who even created designs for inventions, that would not be developed for centuries; for example aeroplanes, parachutes, robots and tanks.
Early prototyping was often based on the creation of a first version of a design, which was later developed into a new version.
An example of this is the Wright Brothers and their aircraft design, they developed their design by integrating the prototype and the improvement process together, unlike other aviation inventors who began with mock-up designs.
This was also true of early software programmers who started with an existing product and created different iterations.
The trial and error method is not prototyping in the same way that we know and understand today, and the invention of computing and digital technology allows for more complex versions of the prototypes of our physical products.
Herbert Voeckler was an engineering professor who studied the application of computers to control machine tools on the shop (factory) floor in the 1960s, leading to 3D tools that we use today.
In the late 1980s, the mechanic engineer Carl Deckard developed layer-based manufacturing, which made rapid prototyping possible. By utilizing tooling and materials to capture 3D models and swamp software systems before launching into production runs, we can quickly create prototypes through rapid prototyping
Prototyping has come a long way since its original inception and it continues to be a key aspect of the product development process.
Types of Prototyping
Prototyping is an important aspect of the process of product development. There are many different types of prototyping and several different types of prototyping tools available to assist with prototyping, which is a solid advantage to using prototyping, but each different types of prototyping has their own advantages and disadvantages.
As a prototyping and testing tool, here are a few examples of the most common forms of prototyping:
1. Sketches and Diagrams
The simplest form of prototyping is to sketch out on paper your initial idea. Paper can vary in level of detail, but paper prototypes are a good starting point of capturing an idea for a new product. Paper prototypes also allow you to share ideas to formalize a design to pursue development later.
2. Physical Models
Physical prototypes can also vary in complexity from paper representations down to cardboard representations. In general, physical models give a rough concept of a design, while also representing a scaled down concept, before moving on to the larger scaled model of what you might use.
Using physical prototypes are great tools for a wide variety of designs. They could work on your small objects very well but also look significant larger projects like architecture.
3. 3D Printing & Rapid Prototyping
3D printing has provided a new process for prototyping; with 3D printing engineers can develop near real-life models for production design in a reasonable time frame.
Typically, these 3D models enable businesses to find potential shortages or areas for growth and quickly advance to the production stage.
These prototypes can also be edited or new models created, so rapid testing can be quickly executed, and large design can now be simplified into models with real scale.
4. Wireframes
Wireframes are representations or designs of a product, and they are often digital in nature and are used usually for software, websites or any other digital asset to show a visual representation of its information architecture.
They provide a visual process map to allow designers and other project staff to navigate a digital structure and place content and evaluate a user interface and user flows to provide a base for usability testing by discovering usability problems later in the system design process. These can be presented as low or high fidelity digital prototypes.
5. Virtual or Augmented Reality
Virtual or augmented reality digital tools can be used for some designs, e.g., users can ‘experience’ a design from a first-person physical place in the world. This could be employed for example for building designs, or themed parks and any design that incorporates or surrounds the real world.
6. Feasibility Models
Feasibility models can be used for both digital or physical prototypes – and are used in testing features that may be added later in the design process. The feasibility model allows prototyping designers to augment or transform a current prototype with added features.
7. Working models
Working models are more complicated than an initial prototype; they allow designers to test if a product can operate the way it was supposed to.
These are usually suitable for mechanical inventions or designs that need to move or set in a way. They allow designers to see if their designs are workable in the real world.
8. Video Prototypes
Animated videos and simulations can be products graphical representation, while video can also be used to display other prototypes to help designers, managers and customers visualisation of a product.
9. Horizontal Prototypes
Used mainly in software design, horizontal prototypes display a design view from a users perspective with menus, windows and screens so user interaction can be tested.
10. Vertical Prototypes
Used for database design, vertical prototypes are digital ‘back end’ models which test software function before the next design stage.
Steps to prototyping process
Regardless of the type of prototyping used, they are an essential part of the design process enabling designers to test, refine and develop their ideas before making a commitment to a final product. Prototyping processes are generally broken down as follows:
- Defining the vision: This task is about establishing the goals and objectives for example an aim for the prototype
- Key features: After the objectives have been identified, designers can focus on the key features that need to be incorporated into the prototype in order to achieve these objectives
- Prototype creation: This task is concerned It can range from simple paper prototypes to digital and physical prototypes
- Testing and refinement: A prototype is tested and refined until it has achieved their goals set out in step one. This can include user testing, feedback and further refinement to facilitate more improvements
- Presentation and approval: After testing and refining the prototype is finished it is generally presented to stakeholders to get approval to proceed with developing a final product
These five steps support designers to be sure the products are the required outcomes before they dedicate resources into designing a final product.
Advantages of Prototyping
The most obvious advantage of prototyping is the ability to create early versions of products and test and develop those versions The benefits of prototyping continue on as follows:
- Better product design – including spotting and ultimately testing potential design and manufacturing issues before you get to the stage of mass production,
- Faster time to market – because right off the bat, prototyping allows products to get to users faster through testing of low-cost digital or physical iterations,
- Reduced costs – including costs related to going physical and time-related costs
- Improved user experience / customer satisfaction – allows for testing and refining of a design so that risks or issues that may jeopardize your brand when the product is out in the marketplace can be prevented while helping to assess the quality of the desired objectives the product is intended to deliver.
- Improved communication and collaboration – a valued benefit of prototyping that tends to go unnoticed is the alignment it affords the stakeholders, developers and managers with the intended mission to ensure buy-in from your investors and to make sure that teams are all on the same page working towards the same objectives.
Conclusion
Prototyping is a vital part of the product design, development and manufacturing process. It is used by many different industries including healthcare to transportation to consumer goods to restaurant to manufacturing to construction to software design and beyond.
It is used to help assess the look, feel, functionality and usability of how long you can expect a product to last prior to committing resources to a mass production run.
In addition, it is a very useful method for validating ideas, gaining support from stakeholders well in advance of using resources to build something, as well as enhancing communication from teams of people and organizations working together to All these benefits, plus relatively low cost, show why prototyping is a necessary process in the development of many types of digital and physical products.
FAQ
What are some issues of prototyping?
Prototypes can’t be fully-functional final product and so there are issues. Obviously the more fidelity a prototype the easier it is to test, but that doesn’t eliminate the requirement to account for compliance and do basic testing.
Also, it is important to ensure you get the right prototyping process, and not to become distracted by spending too much time on lesser things like aesthetics. It is easy to get lost in prototype after prototype redoing rather than creating something new.
How do you choose the appropriate prototype?
Your prototype needs to be as close as possible, in real-world function, to the end product. This would apply whether I was designing something new or refining something that was close to production specifications.
The best prototype is one that resembles the product. Sometimes for example a physical prototype is preferred over a digital prototype, but advances in computer technology mean that much of modern-day prototyping is done without actually having multiple physical prototypes.
How do you test a prototype?
If you are testing a prototype you want to be able to represent your product and understand what your end goals are. Understand your users’ needs and be aware of how your product is going to meet those needs. Don’t worry about running repeat tests, run your tests, analyze them, modify and repeat until you are satisfied.
How do you revise a prototype?
Prototyping revision incorporates asking the right questions to get through prototyping toward your goals. Without setting defined goals, you can easily put in lots of time and energy revising products for no good reason.
What are some typical experiences in prototyping?
There are many experiences that are typical in prototyping, they include:
- Not having a defined end goal
- Prototyping at the wrong point in the design process
- Using the wrong prototyping tool or method
- Not iterating an idea based upon testing
- Feeling disappointed when a prototype doesn’t work
- Not learning from feedback