Prototyping Framework – A guide to prototyping new ideas
This toolkit is a guide on how to carry out prototyping and testing. The purpose of the process is to test and improve the ideas at an early stage, before committing a lot of resources to it. The tool provides a step by step guide with simple descriptions on the techniques in each phase and things to watch out for.
The prototyping process is divided into the phases:
- Doing the Groundwork
- Prototyping phase 1
- Prototyping phase 2
- Learn and Evaluate.
The document contains short descriptions and links to tools in relation to the relevant phases in the process, as well as an overall resource list at the end.
This prototyping guide is a very thorough examination of the topic, which makes it a tool that is easy to implement and use. The guide has a very appealing graphic layout, which makes it entertaining to learn from. At the same time the clear descriptions, models and examples makes it is easy to use the guide concurrently with an actual project, as a reference guide. It has a consistent structured approach to the process asking ‘why’ and ‘how’ for every activity along the way. The pictures and graphical elements support the message and together with well-placed handy tips, the process of prototyping is actually manageable. This pedagogical setup makes it easy to get started, not only for the first-time practitioner but for everybody. Even though this is a basic guide with easy-to-understand examples, this is also worth a study for the more experienced practitioner. Unfortunately, most of the hyperlinks to the tools do not work, but the guid itself is still worth a study.