Week Nine - Prototypes

The essay What Do Prototypes Prototype by Stephanie Houde and Charles Hill describes the prototyping design process, and proposes changes to the way we generally think about this process.

Example 2 is a Look and Feel prototype of a 3D space planning software. This type of prototype is used in this instance because the prototype was not exploring the full breadth of the power of the final artifact, and while some exploration of role was carried out, it functioned mostly to show the proposed visual identity and visual clarity of the digital interface.

Example 10 is a pizza box prototype of an architects computer. This type of prototype was used effectively due to the minimal effort needed to create it. It was simply a weighed down pizza box, but it yielded valuable information about the geometry and weight of the proposed artifact in a very low stakes environment.

I think that the prototype we are creating for our final project is a look and feel prototype. We are implementing baseline interaction and small scale versions of the various verbs in the game we are cloning to portray the feel of our final artifact. However, as we are not focusing on the visual identity just yet, I am inclined to describe it as more of a feel prototype. Additionally I might describe our prototype as a working prototype as we are using it as a test case to solve the technical challenges present in cloning Grand Theft Auto.