Prototyping Strategies: Literature Review and Identification of Critical Variables

Abstract

Abstract Prototyping Strategies: Literature Review and Identification of Critical Variables AbstractPrototyping is an initial instantiation of a concept as part of the product development process.Prototypes serve numerous purposes both from a business and an engineering standpoint.Businesses use prototypes to gather detailed customer feedback on issues like aesthetics,ergonomics, and theme, as well as for marketing research and cost analysis. Prototyping is usedby engineers to provide manufacturing and assembly data, to investigate system integrationissues and to develop analysis and testing strategies. In some cases, prototyping is also used inthe concept generation phase of the design process to assist designers to either expand or contractthe set of possible concepts. Clearly prototyping is an important part of most design processes.We define the prototyping strategy as the set of decisions that dictate what actions will be takento accomplish the development of the prototype(s). Prototyping strategies include a variety ofdifferent options. In the broadest sense, prototypes can be either physical or virtual. Virtualprototypes can include computer simulations and/or engineering analysis. Physical prototypescan be developed either for a subsystem or for the entire system. In addition, physical prototypescan be either full size or dimensionally scaled and can be either fully functional or be created toexhibit only partial functionality. Additional choices that are part of a prototyping strategyinclude whether one chooses to develop prototypes for a number of concepts in parallel andwhether one plans to develop a sequence of prototypes of a concept. The choices made for theprototyping variables identified above can make tremendous differences in the length, cost andeffectiveness of the prototyping work. However, very little research has been carried out toidentify how these variables should be chosen for a specific design project.In this paper we document an extensive literature review in the general area of prototyping.Prototyping strategies currently in use by a variety of different product developers are identified.When it is possible to identify either a business or engineering perspective, that perspective isnoted. The wide variety of different prototyping strategies currently in use are identified andgrouped into categories with similar characteristics. Specific differences in the prototypingstrategies for business vs. engineering focused work are noted. Based on the literature review,the current state of the art for prototyping strategies is established. Of particular note is the factthat there is a dearth of information in the literature of how the decisions that constitute aprototyping strategy are made. In light of this fact, an additional contribution of this paper is tohypothesize a set of characteristics of a design problem that can be used to optimize prototypingstrategies.