Abstract
A prototype can be generally defined as a preliminary version of a final product and it can represent both aesthetic and functional features. Prototyping, the process of building a prototype, constitutes an indispensable part of product development processes. Many classifications of prototypes which use a different range of criteria have already been developed and are known as Prototype Taxonomies. This paper proposes an agenda towards the development of a new taxonomic classification which will be based on a prototype's attributes and its intended purpose. This work is justified from the results of an analysis of 8 existing prototype taxonomies which indicate that there is not a taxonomy that explicitly uses the prototypes’ purposes as its basic taxonomic dimension. A definition of the term ‘Prototype Purpose’ is proposed through discussing the differences and relations to the term ‘Prototype Role’. This work results in a list of 23 explicit prototype purposes which arise from 7 roles of prototyping found in relevant literature: Learning, Communication, Demonstration, Integration, Refinement, Exploration and Requirement Elicitation.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1643-1652 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design |
Volume | 1 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 31 Jul 2019 |
Event | 22nd International Conference on Engineering Design: Responsible Design for our Future - Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands Duration: 5 Aug 2019 → 8 Aug 2019 Conference number: 22 https://www.iced19.org/ |
Keywords
- design engineering
- design process
- prototypes
- purposes
- design methods