Prototyping plays a crucial role in product development, and we need to focus on prototyping so as to have the most effective and efficient time-to-market. However, with rapid prototyping being implemented by many companies, there are some issues that you must tackle before starting rapid prototyping. And that is the reason; if the product does not meet your expectations, the product may not get into sales. In this article, let us discuss how to deal with those same type of problems and what can be done instead. Also, how to set up an initial design sprint successfully.
Rapid prototype review
The first thing that people forget is: how long should the prototyping session be? Generally speaking the more it takes, the bigger the risk. It is generally considered to take no longer than 2 hours for each person. But it’s important that everybody knows what they are doing. So, let us say that the team members will spend 1 hour per participant instead of a normal 1 hour. This is because not only do they know the steps that they have to follow, but also what needs to be put in their mind at that moment and how much time they need to complete.
With the initial design sprint, your goal is to solve all your ideas and bring them to life. The next step is to try out other things for the rest of the day. You cannot just focus on one idea, and then go back on it later on. Let us take an example from our own personal experience. Here, I came up with my idea about the “dishware shop”. As soon as my friends who met up with me for breakfast, our plan was put in motion.
After having talked a little bit about the project, I went back to work. We were planning to design three different models of dishware, each one has 5 different sizes. But I think that the size 5 is already completed for the model number 9. At each stage, a member of the team would review my designs once again. Then, with a second pass through, they would check everything against their list and decide whether they like it or not. Not only this, but they would give an overall feedback to me, usually saying whether it was good enough, needed further change, and any improvements that I could make to improve it. A point like this will help in making sure that you do not waste unnecessary resources and time.
So when we designed another model, the third one was finished almost immediately. As far as finalizing what the first design looked like, at each stage, my teammates reviewed, again. But instead of presenting one big problem in front of everyone. I presented a series of problem in the last version. And it was awesome. But then, we started looking at the details, and we noticed that, even though it looks great in the actual design, even if it does not pass quality tests or goes beyond the given limits in the specification, that would not meet any customer satisfaction. Thus our approach went completely opposite of how we had planned.
This leads us to the second problem that people face at prototyping sessions. Once again, when we start a new design sprint for the original design, we always do an immediate mockup of all the product features for the entire sprint. After every meeting with my stakeholders and clients, we start testing them in real-time. Since each feature is based on previous ones, there is only one way to fix any problem in the previous version. Therefore, there is not a specific location for designing them. My teammate shared with me that it’s quite useful to use something called 3D printers to visualize the whole application. For instance, a small part of the logo of the brand can be printed on the tray of the 3D printer. It is relatively easy to add this piece of information on the tray with all other objects that they belong to. That way, with a single click, we can easily print a logo.
In order to avoid missing all the functionality, I used another method. Instead of using the 3D printer for visualization, I took several pictures and transferred some of them onto my computer screen in Google Draw. Even in this quick process, I was able to create a map of all the elements that the user would need. With such a detailed layout, I was able to see where exactly to place individual pieces of the current design, and which parts require additional changes. And since those extra changes can be fixed after the initial mockup, it took an extremely short amount of time to accomplish the entire task in the demo. To ensure that all the features remain functional, I used two kinds of tools: whiteboard markers and sticky notes.
To avoid wasting time, I divided the design into different categories so that when I need to update any section, I can quickly find it and update it. And I can then go on working with the rest of the design. The visual effect is very powerful, so it helps in highlighting that section while still giving the overall design a look.
The process itself is very simple. So anyone can learn how to replicate this in their works as well. Because even when it is difficult to come up with a solution, someone can share their thoughts on the subject, and that makes this process very interesting for both parties. I would personally recommend that everybody should work on the whole design rather than getting a feel of the concept. Otherwise, everyone would have difficulties on figuring out what part they are struggling with.