PROTOTYPING
Prototyping Questions
There are many questions surrounding the idea of prototyping. Some of these include:
How can prototyping help to get your idea across the line?
At what stages of the design process can prototyping help?
How can prototyping accelerate the link between design and production?
Prototyping can help get an idea across the line by testing assumptions made during the design process. This allows problems to be rooted out, solved and retested. As the design process progresses from the ideation phase, prototyping can still be useful to guarantee that additional features or iterations function to optimal ability. This can accelerate the link between design and production by exposing possible flaws in the design and allowing issues to be solved prior to using time consuming, expensive production methods(Make Anything. (2017, November 10). Experimenting with 3D Printed Fabric [Video].). An example of this could be to use 3d printing technology to test a design before moving on to crafting the final product.
Rapid Prototyping
There are many types of prototyping, one of which is Rapid Prototyping. Rapid Prototyping is used for quick prototypes of ideas, which can then be reviewed, tweaked and refined. This process is repeated until the result is satisfactory. One of the major benefits to rapid prototyping is being able to visualise and contextualise the idea (Gookin, C. (2018, December 20). The Advantages & Disadvantages of Prototyping. Rapids Reproductions.). It can be used to validify the idea or product, giving a social licence to operate, reducing the risk of progressing further with an idea. As well as this, rapid prototyping enables more accurate end user feedback, as it can simulate the final design accurately (Engineering Product Design. (2020, November 10). What is Rapid Prototyping, prototyping techniques, benefits and limitations.).
How could my submissions have been improved from more prototyping?
There is not a set amount of times recommended for prototyping, rather I think that the prototyping is only really finished when you are happy with the final design. Even what you may think is the final design, could turn out to be just version 1 of a much more refined project. I think that my designs definitely could have been improved by more prototyping, as it would allow me to see the tweaks and adjustments that could be made in order to enhance the functionality of my designs.
An example of this is with my laser cut pen holder design. I prototyped this design on 2mm thick cardboard, and assumed the translation would be similar to 3mm thick wood. This turned out to be incorrect, and so the lid of the box does not work how I intended. Prototyping with a thicker and more sturdy material would have revealed this to me before the final submission. However, as laser cutting is a common method of prototyping I can consider this as a prototype for version 2, which would have more informed decisions made about the type of living hinge needed.
