Presentation on Prototyping: Methods, Tools, and Comparisons

This presentation delves into the concept of prototyping, a crucial design process used to create preliminary versions of systems for evaluation and testing. It begins by defining prototyping and highlighting its benefits, such as refining customer requirements, reducing development costs, and accelerating development timelines. The presentation then differentiates between two primary types of prototyping: throwaway and evolutionary. Throwaway prototyping involves creating a model that is discarded after evaluation, while evolutionary prototyping develops the system incrementally based on user feedback. The advantages and disadvantages of each method are thoroughly discussed, including the ability of throwaway prototyping to detect problems early and the flexibility of evolutionary prototyping in research projects. Finally, the presentation introduces several prototyping tools, such as Solidify, Hotgloo, Webflow, and Flinto, that designers use to meet their needs. The content is derived from a student's presentation and is available on Desklib, a platform providing AI-based study tools and resources.

Prototyping
Students name

Introduction
• Prototyping according to Enventys (2019) is the designing of a crude version
of a system which helps the developers to evaluate and test the design if it
meets the requirements of users in the market.
• It helps to make the requirements and specifications given by the customers
better.
• It reduces the cost required in designing and developing the system to meet
the customer’s budget. It reduces the time for development especially if it is
created faster.
• However, the developer may not understand the objectives of the user
hence not capturing all customer features and confusion from customers
not differentiating the real system and the prototype.

Types of prototyping
Throwaway prototyping
• This is a model which in which some section is developed then the user is given
to evaluate after which he gives a response on whether it is okay or some
features need to be added to develop the main system. The prototype thereafter
is thrown away or discarded for it is no longer useful(Lavin, Padilla, Lundrigan,
Nelson, and Hutchings 2010).
Evolutionary prototyping
• According to Enventys (2019). This type of prototyping is developed as the
system project is being developed.
• You first develop a part and take it to the customer then you develop a prototype
based on customer’s response. It is suitable business or commercial projects.

Advantages and disadvantages of throwaway
prototyping
Advantages
• Through the use of prototypes, the model has been tested severally hence
it is most likely going to meet your requirements.
• It is less expensive because the prototypes usually detect problems and
help to prevent them from happening when introduced to the market.
Disadvantages
• Due to haste done during prototyping some features can be omitted hence
not solving some problems. It may require a lot of time to solve them.
• It is mostly preferred for big and complex systems not suitable for small
systems.

Advantages and disadvantages of
evolutionary prototyping
Advantages
• Developers can stop developing the system when they foresee big
problems after doing some iterations.
• When doing research projects, it is suitable to use this type of
prototyping.
Disadvantages
• It is not possible to tell the exact time of completing the development
because it is open-ended.
• It is not easy to oversee and monitor the system project.

Prototyping tools
• Designers usually require prototyping tools which work to meet their
needs(Lavin et al. 2010). With time, new tools are added to replace or
update the existing ones. Some prototyping tools include:
• Solidify- it is a tool used for testing prototypes by users.
• Hotgloo-this tool is used for designing and testing interactive and
responsive wireframes.
• Webflow-it is a prototyping tool which designers use to control the
design.
• Flinto- it is a prototyping tool used to customize animations.

References
• Enventys (2019). Prototyping and Types of Prototypes | Enventys
Partners. [online] Enventys Partners. Available at:
https://enventyspartners.com/blog/prototyping-types-prototypes/
[Accessed 3 Feb. 2019].
• Lavin, C., Padilla, M., Lundrigan, P., Nelson, B. and Hutchings, B., 2010,
December. Rapid prototyping tools for FPGA designs: RapidSmith.
In Field-Programmable Technology (FPT), 2010 International
Conference on (pp. 353-356). IEEE.