Prototyping
- Emma
- Sep 2, 2020
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 10
During this week we learned about prototyping in low fidelity and high fidelity. The strongest message I took away from Mark Billinghurst’s lecture was that there has to be a need for your prototype.
The Basics
Prototyping is a way to communicate your ideas or product to someone, or it could be to learn something about the product yourself. It can be used to show:
- Visual design
- Interactions (such as buttons)
- Help you learn from actually ‘doing’ it
- Figure out the users experience (and how it could be improved)
- Communicate design ideas to others
Low Fidelity - A quick and tangible way to easily communicate high level concepts and ideas. It can help you realise flaws within a product, think visually or physically how it should look, or just help you create new ideas in the process.
High Fidelity - A prototype that is of high quality to show final ideas and the final product which could include the visual and interactive elements. Less about creating ideas or fixing problems but to show off the final design. This can help with funding your design or selling it to companies.
The Process
Prof. Billinghurst outlines the development steps from which prototyping increases in fidelity and interaction.
- Sketching
- Storyboards
- UI Mockups
- Interaction Flows
- Video Prototypes
- Interactive Prototypes
- Final Native Application
As you go down the list, each step becomes longer and perhaps a bit more tedious as you try to get the details right, at least that’s what I’ve found in my short experience.
Something important to note is that all of these steps are there for a reason, you don’t do them just because. A prototype is helping you understand and communicate ideas, it must have a purpose. Each step is looking at different aspects of the design process. For example UI (User Interface) mockups show the look and feel of an interface (could be an app, VR interface or just a game). You build it off the sketch interfaces that you did earlier, but in a digital format helping a user and the designer grasp what the interface will look like. Then the interaction prototypes will help you understand how a user interacts with the interface. Is it intuitive? Does it flow nicely? Navigation easy? Is the user overwhelmed or underwhelmed by the interface?
Each prototype has a different purpose and gives you a different outcome. Do not waste time on creating many prototypes that can tell you the same thing.
It’s Not Straightforward
This was an image that Prof. Billinghurst shared in class. At first it is very overwhelming to look at, I was intimidated by this image. But what it’s telling us is that design is not straightforward, we find a problem or need, sketch ideas, give it to a user and realise actually this isn’t the real need or this design isn’t meeting the requirements and we have to go back and design again. This is comforting in a way that we don’t have to get it right the first time, as long as we’re trying and evaluating - we’re learning.
User
This chart is looking at interaction design specifically, which is directly related to the user. Another key point of Prof. Billinghurst’s lecture, “Always keep the user at the heart of the process.” Human-centered design or User-centered design is based around solving problems from a users perspective. In Mixed Reality, the user is an integral part of the reality, everything is viewed from their perspective, they are the one being immersed in VR or using AR. Everything must be designed with the user at the center. This is why in the Interaction Design Process, Identify needs is the first step as you’re trying to find needs of the user. When designing with the purpose of human-centered design, you start with the user.
Rapid Prototyping
There are many forms of prototyping but one of my favourite forms of low fidelity prototyping is rapid prototyping. This is where you quickly sketch or create your ideas, it helps to get your thoughts into the world without stressing on the details, it can actually help you create the details.
Google Glass - Prototyping Case Study
Google Glass is a fantastic example of how effective rapid prototyping is. Tom Chi did a Ted-Ed talk on rapid prototyping and used the Google Glass which he helped create as the example. I highly recommend watching this as I found it very inspirational and learned a lot, plus it’s only 8 minutes long. Check it out here:
When trying to prototype the experience of Google Glass, it took them one day to create this experience. From a coat hanger, Plexiglas and a projector. Rapid prototyping allowed them to learn things really quickly and move forward in the design process really quickly as well.
This is Tom Chi’s first rule of prototyping, Find the quickest path to experience as this will allow you to learn quickly and move forward quickly as well.
His second rule is Doing is the best kind of thinking. From creating an interaction where you could control things on an interface like Tom Cruise does in Minority Report, they learnt that actually it’s socially awkward, and it’s impractical for the user, “We learned a lot of things about the social awkwardness of it and some of the ergonomic aspects of it, that you couldn't have figured out ahead of just thinking about it.” Actually doing it and creating that experience allowed them to visually and physically see that that piece of interaction was unnecessary.
The third and final rule is to use materials that move at the speed of thought to maximize your rate of learning. He says that using basic materials allows you to create something that is comfortable to wear, unlike a lot of headsets available which begin to hurt and feel uncomfortable over time. They also worked out that putting weight on the back of the glasses and on your ears alleviates the weight from your nose.
“If you put weight behind your ears, it allows your ear to go act like the fulcrum of a lever, and it then takes weight off of your nose on the front… we not only discovered something interesting about how to go, you know, that’s useful for developing a device like this, we actually discovered something pretty fundamental that had never been discovered about glasses, period.” (Chi, T. (2013))
The final point Tom Chi makes is about the different types of learning. One type which he calls ‘book learning’ where we take in knowledge that is already known, already discovered and it acts as the foundation for us to explore. Then there is the learning which he coins 'expansive learning’, “This is the learning you do on behalf of humanity. Right? You are creating something new, you are expanding into the possibilities.” (Chi, T. (2013)) This is where rapid prototyping and the rapid learning from it helps you expand knowledge. I find this very inspirational as a learning designer that we are not supposed to know everything, but we are supposed to explore and expand the possibilities and stretch our imagination.
In conclusion, prototyping is essential in a design process, it provides the basic foundations for your design up to the high fidelity models which can help sell your designs. It is important to remember that each prototype and each step you take is a necessity, that it has a purpose and will add to your understanding of the design. Another key thing to think about in terms of Mixed Reality is to keep the user at the front of your ideas. Base your designs around the interaction and the functionality and the user interface that the user will have to interact with. Create prototypes for the user and gain feedback from them about how to improve, just as Tom Chi says in his second rule of prototyping, “Doing is the best way of thinking.” (Chi, T. 2013.) Finally, use prototyping as a way to expand your knowledge and the possibilities of the world, it is available to everyone.
References
Billinghurst, Mark. (2020, January 22). Designing Mixed Realities. Prototyping Mixed Realities. [PowerPoint Slides]. Auckland University.
Billinghurst, Mark. (2020, January 22). Prototyping Mixed Realities. Interaction Design Process. [Image]. Auckland University.
Chi, T. (2013). Rapid prototyping Google Glass - Tom Chi. [Video]. Youtube.
Glass. (2020). Glass Enterprise Edition 2 with safety frames by Smith Optics.
Spielberg, S. (Director). (2002). Minority Report. [Film] Amblin Entertainment.
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