Rethinking Prototyping

Image © Melanie Bossert: WorldsBestSpintop

Image © Melanie Bossert: WorldsBestSpintop

Our design culture influences our thinking culture and vice versa. Design prototypes have a process character; whereas, technological prototypes are the results of R&D work. How does the process and result change when one thinks of prototyping together? The “Rethinking Prototyping” project focused precisely on this question.

Questions and Content

The “Rethinking Prototyping” project was organized into three research groups composed of interdisciplinary partners.

The subproject “Hybrid Prototyping” focused on the combined development of products and services, the so-called product-service systems (PSS). In virtual product development, prototyping is applied along the entire development process to ensure the results; trials for services have been investigated to a lesser degree so far. The research group’s task was to find a new interdisciplinary approach for prototypical representation from integrated goods and services. In doing so, the Smart Hybrid Prototyping (SHP), a concept developed by the TU Berlin, which has successfully been used in product development, was tested for suitability in respect to assuring integrated product and service development.

The researchers in the subproject “Blended Prototyping” were from the fields of design research and usability research. They linked low and high fidelity prototyping methods within the development of mobile interfaces. Creating Android apps from hand movements (low fidelity) with a special projection table, these were then loaded onto a mobile device and used. These prototyping apps (high fidelity) are able to deliver valuable information about use behavior quickly.

The third research group “Beyond Prototyping” used rapid manufacturing technologies to produce one-off pieces, which previously had been created in serial production facilities. For instance, a table engraved with an individually selected city map. Another field of investigation was the production of products from individual data, e.g. a lampshade whose blueprint comes from the consumer’s fingerprint. Thus, each object is unique; the idea of the prototype possibly becomes obsolete. The project investigated the intrinsic motivation of consumers (What is the added-value of such products and why is the consumer willing to pay more for it?) and the changing roles for designers, manufacturers and consumers in this new production and value chain.

Benefits and Target Audience

A connection was drawn between the ways prototypes are used in individual disciplines and their meanings. Reflecting on the approaches within unique areas of expertise and beyond their borders, allows for new perspectives on prototypes and prototyping. Research results have direct relevance for instruction at both universities. Alongside academic articles, a popular science publication was published at the end of the project, where the results are presented for a general audience in that field.

Ciphering, © Jussi Ängeslevä Ciphering, © Jussi Ängeslevä

Publication and film

The book published at the end of “Rethinking Prototyping” shares the transdisciplinary scientific knowledge gained in this research project that can be used for future basic research and also has potential for future application. In addition to the articles on the results from the research project itself, the anthology provides a multi-perspective view of the broad theoretical and practice-relevant field of prototyping through inclusion of additional external perspectives provided by guest experts. Furthermore, this book also describes the experiences gained from the coordinating support for the project, which can be useful for the planning of future transdisciplinary projects.

Support from the Hybrid Plattform

The Hybrid Plattform instigated the topic area through a workshop and connected the project actors with one another; the Plattform also compiled and submitted the application as consortium coordinator to the Einstein Foundation Berlin. In November 2011 the first transdisciplinary investigation of prototyping as a topic took place during the Hybrid Talks and the Hybrid Symposium.

Gengnagel, Christoph; Nagy, Emilia; Stark, Rainer (eds.):
Rethink! Prototyping. Transdisciplinary Concepts of Prototyping.
Springer, Berlin 2016

Hybrid Plattform on Vimeo