Build a Prototype

By Michael Newman, Lead Product Engineer

A good idea for a new product is always an exciting first step. The next important step is to figure out how to translate that idea into a real thing. A prototype is the way to do that. It doesn’t have to be a work of art, but it should be more than a sketch on a napkin. Through prototyping, an idea’s  weaknesses and strengths are brought to light which helps a designer decide whether or not the idea is worth pursuing or not.  Think of the stages of an idea development as the following: a thought, a sketch, model, parts, assembly, and finally functional product. Each stage is more powerful than the previous.

If you are working on a physical product there are easy ways to make prototypes. You can use PlayDoh, or polymer clay if you want to mold or sculpt a simple idea. 3D printing is pretty tangible now, even if you don’t have the tools yourself. There are plenty of resources out there. Sketchup is a simple 3D modeling program previously owned by Google, http://www.sketchup.com/products/sketchup-make.  Shapeways  http://www.shapeways.com/ offers many ways to design and print items in many materials and even offers a market place to sell them.

Remember, the idea here is to work out the concepts, so things don’t have to be exact. If for example the intention is to make something eventually from metal, use a suitable plastic now and switch after you proved the concept to keep costs low.

Does your idea need electronics to work? Adafruit Industries is great resource for more intense electronics prototyping.  http://www.adafruit.com/

If you need a simple microcontroller to control your device or product try an Arduino http://arduino.cc/. Radioshack has even beefed up their selection of basic parts that are useful for making prototypes.

Head to the local hardware store or even look around the house for items you can use. Look for something that’s similar or close to your idea, take it apart or adapt it to your design.

Even if your idea isn’t a 3D object, if you have an idea for a software, or mobile application, you can build a prototype for non-tangible products, known as a wire frame.   

A wireframe is an artistic rendering – something as simple as using MS  Paint to draw some quick sketches and then transferring your sketches to Powerpoint to pull the whole concept together. It’s even easy to simulate functionality by creatively linking pages with different objects and text in the app. You can use a program like Pencil Project. http://pencil.evolus.vn/ This is a great tool for developing ideas for the Android and iOS platforms.

There are also plenty of other utilities available:

·          http://theappentrepreneur.com/54-amazing-wireframing-tools-apps

·         http://mashable.com/2013/04/02/wireframing-tools-mobile/

Any basic search will reveal the many, many options out there.

Some of these are just graphic tools: you just manipulate icons to look how you want them too in the app. Others can actually be programmed if you know how to do that and can actually function as intended. The above list is no way inclusive, but shows how there are many resources out there for an eager inventor The main objective behind a prototype is to demonstrate that the concept works.

The farther you progress through the stages of development, the more detailed and focused the idea becomes and the more powerful the idea could become preparing the stages that lay ahead.