Thinking in Prototypes

The first assignment for the class of Prototypes III was to read a very interesting article, the name of the article is “Thinking in Prototypes” (Bart Eisenberg)

Now a days a product’s development involves a complex design process and using prototypes have become a very important tool during that process, this is because they help to understand how the product will behave and how will it interact with the final user.

Taking the main ideas into prototypes to test them and see with ones are working and which ones won’t work, helps the designer to take decisions and to choose the path to follow.
Another important part is to let the user get involved in the design process, as it's written in the article “Prototyping is ultimately about getting the people who are going to use the product to experience it so that they can articulate what they like and don’t” I think it’s very assertive because by using prototypes we can let the user to experiment with the product in order to get a good feedback and making an integral design with no errors; sometimes it’s not the same what we think as designers as what the user is thinking or experimenting by having the product in his own hands.

The advance of technology and development of CAD (Computer Assisted Design) programs have been helping designers and engineers to take their ideas to rapid prototypes, by the method of “trial and error” they can see all the details that a product can have until they reach a state where the product is complete. This helps to see all the mistakes early and to prevent any surprises when the product reaches its final user.

I like the comparison that they used in the article about “art” in which the artists remove or add all that it’s necessary and they keep trying new things until their art is complete; and making prototypes can be very similar because we have to do everything that is necessary until we have a good and complete product.

Finally I think that prototypes are very useful in the design process because they help taking decisions because although it’s necessary to see the product in the computer it’s also necessary to have it physically to see the size, shape, texture , ergonomics etc. because at the end all these facts are important for developing a successful product