Prototyping: creating a shared visual artefact

April 18, 2005, 2:38 pm

I’m thinking about buying a Lear jet. I’ve got a million or so in the bank and I want to buy a plane and I’m told that Lear Jets are pretty good. I’m going to want it customised to my requirements. I’m told they can do that. What am I going to do? Hand over my requirements with a large pile of cash and hope I get what I want?

I’m told there is a more agile way where I can watch my jet built bit my bit and work iteratively with Lear to develop it as we go along. That’s better, but hell, if I’m going to spend my millions I at least want to sit in a Lear jet seat before I part with my cash. I want to sit in a cockpit and see what it could be like. I want to know that the Lear jet is going to be what I want. What I Really Want.

Let’s take a tangent. Let’s forget about Lear jets, (could never dream of affording one working at ThoughtWorks anyway). Close your eyes and think of a car. Picture yourself sitting in the car. Hear the music playing, build up the experience of the car in your mind. Got it? Great. I can guarantee it is different to mine. Everyone’s picture is going to be different. We are all thinking of a car but our models are totally different. Let’s try and capture the model so we can share it. We write a story, it’s a blue car, it’s a large car, it’s a country road, blah, blah, blah… our mental models of the car are beginning to converge, but we are still not quite there. My car is still different to yours. We could spend more time describing the car, defining it in detail but we don’t do that. We don’t have time for that.

How about if I do this…

http://www.dancingmango.com/sadbus/img/15window.jpg

Suddenly we all have a common frame of reference. We no longer have to think, we no longer have to digest and make meaning out of words, we have a visual expression; the picture speaks a thousand words. And that is what the prototype does. It allows everyone to see a vision of what we are designing, to comment on it, to add to it or to change it quickly and at minimal cost or pain. There is less ambiguity and everyone has a common frame of reference.

Prototyping is a fundamental first stage in physical product design. Cars, buildings, a toothbrush, all will have been subject to physical model mock ups to test and validate the physical design. Polystyrene, clay, Lego, cheap and simple materials for creating visual representations of the final product. That visual representation can be used to share with all stakeholders to gain buy-in to the approach, with the obvious caveat that it not the final product, rather a step towards it.

The prototype need not be complex. In the first instances it can be rough pen and ink scribbles. The simpler the prototype the better. The essence is that we have a tangible visual model to nod our heads against and say “yeah” that is what we think we want. So next time before you go head long into the project, how about taking some time to think about what those stories will look like. And maybe get a GUI guy in to help.