The big idea: The guide names five things a physical prototype tests: scale, aesthetics, materials, function and performance.
A prototype is built to answer one of them — which is why five prototypes of the same product can look nothing like each other.
One handheld vacuum, five prototypes. Step through to see how differently each is built.
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Scale — is it the right size?
Aesthetics — does it look right?
Materials — does the material behave?
Function — does the mechanism work?
Performance — does it last?
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The discipline students find hardest is leaving things out. A prototype that looks finished when it did not need to is wasted work — and worse, it misdirects the people testing it.
Built for the question
- Function prototype in a rough open frame
- Testers comment on whether it works
- Made in two days, so there is time to iterate
- Rejecting it costs nothing
Built for the photograph
- Same mechanism, inside a painted shell
- Testers comment on the colour
- Took two weeks; there is no time for a second
- Nobody wants to scrap it
A useful habit: Before building, write the question down. If a feature of the prototype does not help answer it, leave the feature out.
How this is tested — explaining how and why physical prototypes are used to develop a product. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 — multiple choice
- Identify which of the five a described prototype tests.
- Pick how a prototype should be built for a stated purpose.
Paper 2 — analysing a product
- Explain how physical prototypes would develop a named product.
- Explain why a prototype is deliberately left unfinished.
The trap: Describing a prototype as a small version of the product. Scale models are only one of the five, and most prototypes are not miniatures of anything.
A company is developing a reusable coffee cup with a leak-proof lid. Explain how it would use physical prototypes to develop the product.
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