Projects
See All My Projects
Admin

Prototype inspirations

Introduction

Check out some great stories of how DFA teams and professionals go from low-fidelity concepts to medium-fidelity prototypes while getting feedback to help their teams even more.

Effective ways to do this:

  1. Figure out the feedback you need to improve your concepts and prototypes
  2. Check out websites + videos of how others go about doing a medium-fi prototype
    • Google is your friend. Get searching.
  3. Go talk to your mentor, studio lead(s), and/or faculty advisor to get advice on how you can best use your campuses resources to help out.


Network Best Practices

Hack existing products and create something new like the Jerry the Bear team

After winning the Most Creative Entry of the 2009 DiabetesMine Design Challenge, the Jerry the Bear team set on to build a prototype for their first testing session. The team hacked a Furby for its eyes and hooked up Arduino boards and sewing up cloth and foam around it to make their first prototype. It’s not perfect but it’s a start to learning more about their user and test out some of the concepts - and that’s what the team wanted!

Early prototypes of Jerry the Bear (2011)


Check out the hardware store and figure out what materials can fit your concept like DFA UofI

DFA UofI team focused on helping machine workers, especially forklift drivers, more aware of their surroundings for the safety of both the drivers and those around the lift. After coming with a concept that combined a mirror and a light system, the team went out to a hardware store to start building and get some inspiration.



Resources for inspiration

Check out how IDEO identified needs, prototyped concepts, and tested mockups to redesign a shopping cart in couple days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M66ZU2PCIcM

Cool article from Smash magazine showing different levels of prototyping apps and websites. https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/design-better-faster-with-rapid-prototyping/

Great website to learn more about service design and ways to prototype services. http://www.servicedesigntools.org/tools/24

Role-play the interaction of your service. Watch from 1:40 to see how websites and forms can be role-played to gain a better understanding of user needs and user interaction. https://youtu.be/hkAFdIrTR00?t=1m40s