(6) Prototype design of design thinking

Prototype design: the process by which a design team finds a solution according to the first three steps.

Benefits: effectively prevent designers from ignoring important elements and avoid inaccurate and unreasonable assumptions.

The attributes that should be possessed:

1. The cost is low, and the model focuses on some functions of the product. It is recommended to use easily available materials.

2. Easy to communicate, the prototype should be easy to understand and promote the communication between developers and demanders.

Rapid prototyping can promote the optimization of the scheme, thus achieving efficient communication. After designers get the optimal solution in divergent thinking stage, they need to present it initially in prototype design stage. The prototype design stage is not in one step. It is isomorphic with the three steps of demand understanding, problem definition and thinking divergence, and forms an internal small cycle in the six steps of thinking design. Internal feedback and design optimization are the driving forces to promote the small cycle. Only when the prototype reaches the expected design goal will it jump out of the internal small cycle.

Prototype design-thinking by hand

Step 1: Make a model with tools.

-You don't need a precise prototype, you just need to express your ideas.

Step 2: Discuss the model and find the problem.

-After the prototype is developed, let a small number of users and insiders test it, evaluate the feasibility of the idea in different usage scenarios, and record it in time.

Step 3: Iterative optimization

—— According to the results of the prototype discussion, keep the good design scheme and discard the poor design scheme, then redesign the scheme according to the new problems and make a prototype for testing.

Example: IDEO Design Company uses prototype design to help Starwood Hotel expand its business.

Target: Yalexuan, facing young and fashionable urban consumers.

Difficulties: I don't know how to verify the effect of the scheme. No, the kennel spent a lot of money to decorate the house in order to verify the user feedback of Yalexuan.

Solution: Build a three-dimensional model of Yalexuan on the network platform. Users can intuitively see the decoration, design and overall layout of the hotel. At the same time, there is also a questioning module, which allows users to put forward their opinions, and the design team can also improve the model according to the feedback.

Highlight: The website here is not only a carrier for contacting users, but also a platform for collecting feedback.