Using prototypes to see into the future
“The vision of the future provided by a prototype will help you make decisions and reduce risks.” — Mark Skinner
“No one is going to buy shoes online without trying them on first,” investors said many times to Nick Swinmurn, who ended up founding the successful e-commerce business Zappos, bought by Amazon for $1.2 billion in 2009. Nick proved the idea could be successful by creating a prototype of how the business would work online and proving that people would indeed buy shoes online without trying them first.
Service Designer Mark Skinner, our speaker at UCD Bristol 16, kicked-off his talk at the meetup with the Zappos story to show the importance of prototyping and the many forms a prototype can have.
“Why tell this story?” — Mark asked. “To inspire and encourage people to use prototypes,” regardless of their high or low fidelity characteristics. “The tool you will use depends on the goal and the resources available.”
Prototyping = time travel + learning tool
Prototyping is something that “allows you to see what the future could bring and learn from it. It’s something that doesn’t exist today and that you need to understand. This vision of the future provided by a prototype will help you make decisions and reduce risks.”
Mark shared a couple of unexpected examples to illustrate this: the PalmPilot wooden prototype or the more than 5,000 prototypes created by James Dyson before creating the first successful bagless vacuum cleaner.
Three-step process
Prototypes allow you to explore (learn through making), evaluate (learning through research), and communicate (learn through sharing). But why should you prototype? And when is the right time to do it? Structure the process into three simple steps:
- Identify the problem to solve
- Choose the right solution to fix it
- Deliver the right solution in the right way
Prototyping is a flexible and dynamic activity, and allows you to research the potential of future services, products, tools, processes and more. “Basically, everything you can design, you can prototype, especially if it’s something that doesn’t exist yet.”
“You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledge hammer on the construction site.” – Frank Lloyd Wright said. Prototype early and prototype often. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Prototypes are crucial to reduce risk and expand the boundaries of research.
Before beginning a prototype
To make sure you’re doing it right, start by asking ‘why’:
- What are you looking to learn?
- Can you learn it using a prototype?
- Are there secondary uses for it?
- What are you not looking to learn?
Follow with the ‘how’ :
- How will it be used?
- Is it for exploring, evaluating or communicating an idea?
- What skills do the team have?
- When is it needed by?
- How realistic does it need to be (regarding fidelity)?
- Do you know enough to make it efficiently?
Finish with the ‘what’:
- Based on why and how, what is the best prototype for the situation?
- What is the best tool?
- What will give us the best return for the smallest effort?
Now you’re ready: go forth and prototype!
The video of Mark’s talk will soon be available on YouTube and will be added to this blog. UCD Bristol will be back on Wednesday 17th April. More information will soon be shared on our Meetup page.
We are currently accepting talk submissions, so if you would like to feature in one of our next meetups as a speaker, complete this short form. We can’t wait to hear about your awesome ideas!
