2017/05/29 by Michael Deininger, Shanna R. Daly, Shanna Daly +2
Business, Management and Accounting · Engineering · Psychology · #Computer science #Creativity in Education and Neuroscience #Design Education and Practice #Design education #Engineering #Engineering design process #Human–computer interaction #Product (mathematics) #Product Development and Customization #Product design #Rapid prototyping #Reflection (computer programming) #Simulation #Software engineering #Systems engineering #Virtual prototyping
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.destud.2017.04.002
openalex publication_date 2017/05/29 · crossref created 2017/05/29 · crossref issued 2017/07/01 · crossref published 2017/07/01 · crossref published-print 2017/07/01 · crossref deposited 2021/05/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/08/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Prototypes are essential tools in product design processes, but are often underutilized by novice designers. To help novice designers use prototypes more effectively, we must first determine how they currently use prototypes. In this paper, we describe how novice designers conceptualized prototypes and reported using them throughout a design project, and compare reported prototyping use to prototyping best practices. We found that some of the reported prototyping practices by novice designers, such as using inexpensive prototypes early and using prototypes to define user requirements, occurred infrequently and lacked intentionality. Participants' initial descriptions of prototypes were less sophisticated than how they later described using them and only upon prompted reflection did participants recognize more specific benefits of using prototypes.