Working Through a Design
Two common reasons for prototyping are to get internal buy-in and to gauge technical feasibility. But one of the best reason to prototype is to work through a design.
This little insight came through an interview I did earlier this week with Jed Wood. Jed mentioned that for him, the way product designers use sketching to work through a design, he sees prototyping as a way to work through a design.
That got me thinking about something I saw earlier this week during First Friday's here in center city Philadelphia. One of the artists was throwing pottery (shaping it) outside his studio. The interesting thing about throwing pottery is that if something goes wrong during the process, you can simply scrap the piece you're working on, collapse it onto itself, and start over again from scratch.
The same concept follows for prototyping. Prototypes are not meant to be a final product - they're typically meant to be a throw away. So, don't get too attached to your prototype – you need to be willing to throw it out.
Comments
Completely agree with you. In fact, the prototype not only tests the design, but can provide new insights into the design as well. And therefore it cannot be overemphasised that the prototyping is a fundamental part of design.
In that sense, mainataining the detachment with one snapshot of a prototype is a good idea, since the prototype should be evolving in nature and therefore a snapshot of the prototype now is no more valid later. Maintaining attachment to the act of prototyping, is however essential.
Posted by: Himanshu Gupta | July 11, 2007 5:13 AM