Why Do Professionals Use Prototypes? | Jaycon Systems
One of the most critical parts of the design process is prototyping. Yet, it’s an area that often doesn’t get as much attention as it probably deserves. Some will try to skip the prototyping stage or cut corners in the misguided belief that it will help them save time or money.
The prototype stage, just like the design, should not be rushed. It’s essential to understand why we use prototypes and the advantages they can offer. Additionally, you will want to make sure you are working with someone who knows and understands how to produce quality prototypes that are indicative of what the final product could be.
Developing a prototype is always a good idea, no matter the type of product you create, from PCBs to plastic enclosures. Below, we’ll learn why some companies still try to avoid prototyping, discuss its benefits, and explore how to avoid some mistakes in the early stages of product development.
Why Do Some Companies Avoid Prototyping?
Getting a prototype should be one of the first things a company does once they have their idea and a design in mind. They need to see how it works and whether it works or not. Yet, many people don’t take this route. Instead, they opt to rush forward and start making the product before it’s ready.
Why do they do this? You’ll find that it’s not usually just one reason. It could be many different reasons depending on the company’s situation. For example, some worry that they won’t have the time to make an actual prototype before being expected to have their products available.
Others feel that prototyping is going to cost them not just time but also money. Getting a prototype, after all, is an added cost. Some feel they don’t need prototypes because they understand how the product should work and assume it will work according to their specifications. But, of course, they will find out before long that this is not always the case.
Regardless of the excuses or reasoning, not having a prototype is a massive misstep in today’s world. Thanks to modern advancements in manufacturing technology, getting prototypes done quickly and affordably is easier.
Benefits of Prototyping
Below, we will look at some of the most significant benefits of developing prototypes for your projects before getting too far in product development. Keep this in mind if you are thinking about ignoring the need for prototypes.
You Will Save Money
Ordering the prototype will cost money, so there is a sizable expenditure. Functional prototypes for complex projects can be complicated and may cost dozens or even hundreds of times more than the eventual selling price. However, getting the prototype is essential to ensure you can save money and advance the project. You can see whether the product works; if it doesn’t, you can rework the prototype and get it right.
How does this help you save money? First, you aren’t wasting precious cash on ordering products that will not work as advertised. If you have items that don’t work as intended, you will have returns and complaints. Poor quality products lead to diminished sales and a damaged reputation. It’s not easy to come back from that. Correcting an image is especially difficult for small to mid-sized companies that don’t have the same room for error as bigger businesses.
When you invest in prototypes, you can reduce the risk of errors and create a better product. In addition, this will ensure you don’t have to pull products or deal with unhappy customers. Ultimately, it will save money, but that’s certainly not the only benefit.
You Will Save Time
You can also save time with prototypes for the same reason you will save money. You can build, test, and see what does and doesn’t work. In addition, seeing a prototype and holding it in your hands lets you know what else a product will need to be mass manufactured and sold.
While it will take some time to get the prototype made and shipped to you, finding issues with the product now and fixing them can save you a lot of time. The more work and effort put into the design during the early prototyping stage, the better.
During the prototyping stage, you will get to pinpoint all potential design problems, if there are any. You can check to ensure the product doesn’t fail early or injure the user. Your product and business should undergo prototyping for all your large and small projects.
You Can Try New Options
You might have a great product idea that feels like it will work well and look great. However, if you rush to production, you might eventually discover that you don’t like it as much as you thought. Maybe the solution is not what you expected, and the product is not selling well because of miscalculations in style and design.
Fortunately, this is where prototyping can help again. You don’t have to remain locked into anything with the prototypes. You can start with that initial idea and develop a prototype from that. However, you can also explore other routes and try out new features, styles, and design alternatives.
A/B testing alternative messaging and advertisements to see what does and doesn’t work is essential when marketing a product. Why wouldn’t you put the same effort into the product itself? Check out some different designs and features. Give potential users access to your product and gain critical feedback from real people. Figure out the best choices through multiple prototype iterations before committing to a production run.
For example, you might consider testing a few different colors and textures when making plastic products to see which ones will work best.
The End Product Will Be Better
Ultimately, your final product will be better than if you didn’t invest the time and effort to get a prototype. Remember that you must put the prototype through its paces and be honest about what needs refinement. Then follow through with the changes to make the process worthwhile. A prototype will rarely be perfect and not need any adjustments before moving on to high-volume production.
Remember to check your prototypes meticulously for things like:
- Design flaws
- Durability issues
- Fit and viability of certain products
- Areas of improvement and last-minute changes to the final design
- investor pain points and solutions
Peace of Mind When Going Into Production
You can’t put a price on this benefit. Knowing that you have a design that is in good shape, that works, and that you are happy with is a good feeling. You won’t have the same worries that others would have if they never bothered to prototype correctly and just went ahead with mass production.
Imagine the chaos and panic someone would experience if they bought 10,000 pieces and only later found out that the sizes were slightly incorrect and the pieces were unusable. What if they had ordered 100,000? What if they asked for even more? How much could this cost their company financially and in terms of their reputation?
You don’t want that to happen to your business, so ensure you get a prototype. Just do it the right way for the best results.
Common Prototype Problems and How to Avoid Them
As you can see, there are some great reasons to prototype, and you shouldn’t neglect what has become such an essential part of manufacturing new products. Unfortunately, however, prototyping the right way is not always easy.
Below, you’ll find some of the issues that often cause problems with prototyping. You’ll find that these tend to be less about the prototyping and more about the people who are getting the prototypes in the first place.
Running with the First Idea
Let’s say that you have an idea for a product, and you know that you should have a prototype before moving forward. You are already ahead of many others, but some issues can crop up if you aren’t careful. So even though it might be a fantastic idea, it’s not always a good idea to settle on just the first one you have. Instead, giving it some time to breathe and percolate is best.
That first idea may not be fully fleshed out, meaning the product might not be everything it could be. So what you want to do is to take that idea and then think about potential ways that you could expand or improve it. Ideally, you want to do this before you get a prototype.
Otherwise, you might get the prototype only to realize that you must return to the proverbial drawing board. For example, you might discover that your initial idea was a kernel of a good product but needed more time and iterations to mature into a better product. Teams can prevent a complete reset by spending more time in the initial design stage working on improving the design before moving on to prototyping.
However, when you have a few good iterations, you can get prototypes of the different versions of your idea. These could help give you a better sense of how they will work in the real world.
Always explore different options and approaches before trying to settle on the design and idea. In many cases, you will want to use what’s called a low-fidelity prototype first. Low-fidelity prototypes can look like sketches of the product and what you need it to do. Share those with others working on the project and make improvements together. Test a lot of ideas and then move into the actual prototyping.
Loving the Prototype Too Much
We’ve discussed the importance of prototyping substantially above, and you now understand why it’s vital to a successful product launch. However, there’s also a danger of prototyping. You might get your prototype and fall in love with it so much that you feel there’s no way someone could improve it. You believe it is perfect the way it is, and that will become a severe problem.
Why is it a problem to like the prototype? Liking isn’t where the problem lies. It’s when you feel that you don’t need to do anything to make improvements because it’s already perfect. Essentially, it could make it more difficult for you to provide an objective evaluation of the product, so you can make sure it’s truly the best option for your users.
You might end up overlooking specific faults that are present in the prototype. For example, you may not even listen to feedback from designers or users, even when that feedback would be valuable in improving the product. Ignoring these details can become a problem for some people and is an excellent example of missing the forest for the trees.
It might mean you have something you love, but no one else wants. This situation might sound far-fetched, but it happens more often than expected. It can occur with any project or product, too. Creative projects like music, writing, and films can also fall victim to this. Have you ever listened to a piece of music by an artist you usually like only to wonder what happened to their style or talent? Then you find out they think it’s the best thing they’ve ever done. It could be a matter of changing tastes, but the sunk-cost fallacy may cloud the creator’s perceptions if many people feel the way you do. They put a lot of time and effort into something and ascribe it to a higher value.
You don’t want this to affect your prototypes and the end-products you plan to create.
Not Having a Purpose for Prototyping
Why are you putting together a prototype? You need to be able to have an answer to that question before you start to create one. The prototypes that you make should be there to serve specific purposes. It might be to prove that a concept works and illustrate an idea. It might be there to flesh out the idea or improve on a previous version.
Regardless, there needs to be a purpose for the prototyping. So, before moving to the prototyping phase, ask yourself what you want it to do. What do you need from it, and what questions do you want answered?
Never Moving Beyond Prototyping
Just as there are the dangers of not going through the prototype phase, there is also the risk that you never get out of this phase. Sometimes, you keep finding little things you want to change and update on the design, even though it works well for all intents and purposes. You do not want to continually work on prototypes and never move on toward the next phase — production. While this is rare, some spend too much time on the design phase.
Becoming Discouraged
Sometimes, the prototypes might not work to your satisfaction. You can reduce the risk by putting more thought into them before moving to the prototyping stage and by having professional help with the design and creation of the prototype. However, there will still be instances where your idea doesn’t work out as you hoped.
There is no doubt about it that this can be highly discouraging. It can feel like a failure, but you can’t let that stop you from pushing forward and improving the idea. Failure is just a learning experience, and it’s something that everyone goes through. You can take what you learned from the prototype and make changes to the next version to reduce the risk of problems. After all, that’s what prototyping is all about.
Find a Company to Help Get Your Prototypes Started
With a better understanding of why you need prototypes, regardless of the type of products you create, it’s time to get some help from the experts. You will want to work with a company that can provide you with prototypes of the types of products you are creating. You may even find some companies that can help with the design process, making it easier to take your projects from concept to completion.
Remember that you may need more than one prototype at different stages of refining and perfecting the design. Therefore, choose a company that can provide you with prototypes throughout the process and delivers them in a timely fashion.
Originally published at https://jayconsystems.com on July 4, 2022.
