- Before the advancement of computer technologies,
prototyping had been about creating
a fully functioning version of a well-defined concept.
Today, it's an exercise valuable throughout
the design process, where we can learn
about technologies, validate concepts,
and perform user studies just to name a few.
This prototyping revolution has introduced
a slew of new tools, technologies, and approaches.
So how do we select the right approach?
For many, this is a dark art that's hard to get right.
One of my favorite modern proverbs is,
you can have a good, fast, or cheap,
but you cannot have them all.
I will let you in on a little secret.
Picking the right prototyping approach
is about framing the output appropriately.
We frame it by focusing on speed,
precision, and depth.
Using that output, we'll identify the two categories
that align closest with our goals.
Lastly, we'll use these to create a framing statement
that becomes our selection criteria
for the prototyping approach.
Here's a scenario for you.
Your team's got 16 weeks to come up
with a new software product concept
to be featured at the Consumer Electronics Show.
After you go through the exercise,
you should have a framing statement like this.
We need speed to explore several concepts
iterating rapidly and precision is necessary
to convey our new design language.
What approaches might be eliminated
by that statement alone?
Would that help you and your team
select the right approach?
Let's work through it together,
like you would with your team,
to experience how it comes together.
We'll start with our triangle,
speed, precision, and depth.
To derive the most value from our prototyping,
we must focus on no more than two.
Now let's work through the focus questions,
answering them within the context of prototyping.
How often will we need to iterate
on the concept and design of our prototype?
In this case, we're gonna iterate often
while exploring several concepts
as we work towards that CES-worthy concept.
Do we need to represent one device, program, or service?
Or, is our goal to represent something much larger,
like an ecosystem?
In our case, it's gonna be a singular experience,
occurring just on the smartphone platform.
What degree of complex interactions
and design details are necessary?
It's gonna have to use our new design language system,
so it cannot be low fidelity.
Speed and precision stand out as must-haves,
while depth is not as important.
Now let's review our framing statement.
We need speed to explore several concepts
while iterating rapidly, and precision
is necessary to convey our new design language.
See how it clearly frames our prototyping approach?
If you don't take the time to frame your approach,
you could go down the wrong path,
and instead of having the opportunity
to iterate on your work, you just might have
to start all over again.
So apply this to your next project
and do share your experience with the course community.
Oh, and read other classmates' experiences too,
and ask yourself, would you have come
to the same conclusion?