DECO7230 Journal week1
Prototype
In my opinion, prototype is a useful tool for designers to test their products. There are many types of prototype, which are helpful in different period of design process. Basically, it can be divided into two categories, which are low-fidelity prototype and high-fidelity prototype. I have made some prototypes in my previous courses, both low- and high-fidelity.
Low Fidelity Prototype
Paper prototype is one of the most popular low fidelity prototype. It’s very easy to create. Designers can use paper prototype to test layout of website or interface. Also, it can help to make sure the task flow is in a logical way. I made several different paper prototypes during my Web Design course and Human Computer Interaction course.
In the Web Design course, I did a website project which intended to show a section of novel in an interactive way. When I was designing the website, I focused on the basic layout first, including navigations and content. I used paper prototype to conduct a series of tests to make sure the navigation was obvious and easy to understand. Also, It helped me decide content layout.


While in my Human Computer Interaction course, my team project was to develop an iOS fitness APP. At the very early period of our developing process, we used paper prototype to make sure elements in our APP is easy to find. Based on the results of paper prototype test, we made some improvement on some details.
High Fidelity Prototype
High fidelity prototype is usually very close to the final product. For the digital product, it should be a digital prototype which allows users to interact with. However, the specific function may not be implemented in digital prototype. Compared with low fidelity prototype, it’s more complex and costs more time and money to create.
In my Human Computer Interaction project, we created a digital prototype at the end of semester. We used some digital tools, such as Adobe Experience Design to build it. It can work on a mobile phone like a real APP. Users can use gestures to interact with our digital prototype.
