Economic use of early-stage prototyping is of paramount importance to companies engaged in the development of innovative products, services, and systems because it directly impacts their bottom line. There is likewise a need to understand the dimensions, and lenses that make up an economic profile of prototypes. Yet, there is little reliable understanding of how resources expended and views of dimensionality across prototyping translate into value. To help practitioners, designers, and researchers leverage prototyping most economically, we seek to understand the tradeoff between design information gained through prototyping and the resources expended prototyping. We investigate this topic by conducting an inductive study on industry projects across disciplines and knowledge domains while collecting and analyzing empirical data on their prototype creation and test processes. Our research explores ways of quantifying prototyping value and reinforcing the asymptotic relationship between value and fidelity. Most intriguingly, the research reveals insightful heuristics that practitioners can exploit to generate high value from low and high fidelity prototypes alike.
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March 2019
Research-Article
The Economies and Dimensionality of Design Prototyping: Value, Time, Cost, and Fidelity
Bradley Camburn,
Bradley Camburn
SUTD-MIT International Design Centre,
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: bradley_camburn@sutd.edu.sg
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: bradley_camburn@sutd.edu.sg
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Kenneth Teo,
Kenneth Teo
SUTD-MIT International Design Centre,
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: kenneth_teo@sutd.edu.sg
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: kenneth_teo@sutd.edu.sg
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Arlindo Silva,
Arlindo Silva
SUTD-MIT International Design Centre,
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: arlindo_silva@sutd.edu.sg
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: arlindo_silva@sutd.edu.sg
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Kristin L. Wood,
Kristin L. Wood
SUTD-MIT International Design Centre,
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: kristinwood@sutd.edu.sg
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: kristinwood@sutd.edu.sg
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Daniel D. Jensen,
Daniel D. Jensen
SUTD-MIT International Design Centre,
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: ddjensen7771@gmail.com
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: ddjensen7771@gmail.com
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Maria C. Yang
Maria C. Yang
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Edward Tiong
Olivia Seow
Bradley Camburn
SUTD-MIT International Design Centre,
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: bradley_camburn@sutd.edu.sg
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: bradley_camburn@sutd.edu.sg
Kenneth Teo
SUTD-MIT International Design Centre,
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: kenneth_teo@sutd.edu.sg
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: kenneth_teo@sutd.edu.sg
Arlindo Silva
SUTD-MIT International Design Centre,
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: arlindo_silva@sutd.edu.sg
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: arlindo_silva@sutd.edu.sg
Kristin L. Wood
SUTD-MIT International Design Centre,
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: kristinwood@sutd.edu.sg
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: kristinwood@sutd.edu.sg
Daniel D. Jensen
SUTD-MIT International Design Centre,
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: ddjensen7771@gmail.com
Singapore University of Technology and Design,
8 Somapah Road,
Singapore 487372
e-mail: ddjensen7771@gmail.com
Maria C. Yang
Contributed by the Design Theory and Methodology Committee of ASME for publication in the JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL DESIGN. Manuscript received June 30, 2018; final manuscript received December 12, 2018; published online January 31, 2019. Assoc. Editor: Tahira Reid.
J. Mech. Des. Mar 2019, 141(3): 031105 (18 pages)
Published Online: January 31, 2019
Article history
Received:
June 30, 2018
Revised:
December 12, 2018
Citation
Tiong, E., Seow, O., Camburn, B., Teo, K., Silva, A., Wood, K. L., Jensen, D. D., and Yang, M. C. (January 31, 2019). "The Economies and Dimensionality of Design Prototyping: Value, Time, Cost, and Fidelity." ASME. J. Mech. Des. March 2019; 141(3): 031105. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4042337
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