Prototyping

Focus:

Designing and creating a low fidelity model of a concept to solve a problem.

Process:

First, we were given a target user and problem: Cat/dog owners who were concerned about their pets’ health due to their long hours away from home. Then, to think of this problem in terms of something to solve, we determined a research question: How can we address the two major health issues of exercise and healthy food portions? First we sketched the typical scenario that our future product would be needed in:

Scene by scene sketch of what the product should do in order to satisfy and solve our users’ problem.

Next, we thought through the details of our device in order to determine what features our prototype needed to feature. To do this, we visualized a mobile application and what the user would have to select in order for the outcome to be what they desired — so we thought, our problem focuses around dog and cat owners, and exercise vs. feed, each of these different combinations needs its own outcome:

Map of our device’s features, showing which choices the user has and the 4 possible outcomes at the end that our device will perform. Note: although the feed branch only shows one outcome, it would dispense different types of food depending on the pet selected, so it would be two different outcomes.

Lastly, we built our prototype to test its feasibility, desirability, and usability.

Using littleBits, we generated a low fidelity prototype to test our concept.

We determined that the feed option would dispense a predetermined amount of food so that the user can be sure their pet is not overeating, the cat-exercise would involve a moving laser that the cat would chase around to get exercise and the dog-exercise would play a pre-recorded phrase(by the user) that the user knows to get the dog excited; for example: “who’s a good boy!?” will typically get a dog to run around the house due to excitement. Through these four outcomes, we believed we had the main solution down for the problem we had at hand. Further explanation is in this video:

Reflection:

Being a very hands-on learner, I really enjoyed the process of prototyping my concept. Not only was I able to visually see how it was working, I got to build it myself. Through prototyping, I believe it’s easier to discover ways to improve a product. During the conceptual phase of this process, I thought: “Our device is going to be flawless! There couldn’t possibly be anything that needs improvement.” However upon building the prototype and seeing it work, I realized that there were many potential issues still to be addressed; for example: if a cat is sleeping, how can it see a moving laser to chase? I also enjoyed that this process incorporated several different techniques, such as a scene drawing, map of the device, and of course, prototyping. After using each technique, the concept became more finely tuned, and the prototype was more accurate than if we had jumped straight to that step. All in all, this was a great experience and truly showed that sometimes in concept a device seems flawless but when seen from a different, (physical) perspective, flaws begin to emerge and only when you see the flaws can you fix them to create a better product for the user.

Now What:

This technique can and (probably) is used all around us — companies often compete to release the superior product and a superior product can only be superior if it performs better, with less flaws, but more features. As I previously stated, sometimes flaws are hidden conceptually and it is only when seen from a different perspective that they come to light. Because of this, prototyping is crucial to designing a product; it must solve the user’s problem efficiently, accurately, and reliably. Prototyping allows the designers to test feasibility, desirability, and usability as well as reliability. These four points are crucial to users because if a product is not feasible, it would be difficult to use in day to day life, which would lower both its desirability and usability. But the product must also be reliable. If it only works once, but is supposed to work over and over, then the user’s problem is still unsolved. At the end of the experience, I believe there can never be too much prototyping, just as a product can never be perfect. However prototype testing can only go a certain length until you need real consumers to test the product and provide feedback. Prototyping is crucial to design and finding and solving problems. In the future, I would like to build several prototypes in order to test out different ideas, then choosing the most promising prototype to expand on. I believe that this way will allow more room for creativity and visualizing how different concepts may work. While some concepts seem better than others in theory, sometimes it’s only when we can physically see them working that we may realize it’s the other way around.