Why Prototypes are Essential to Great Product Design

Prototype design is critical to getting closer to the real functionality of your product. Sketches, wire frames, blueprints and mock ups are great, but the prototype is what’s going to bring your product to life. You, your investors, and your future customers will want to touch, feel, smell, and use the product for a true experience.

Prototypes are essential for truly experiencing the product and refining it for the end user.

Proof of the importance of prototype design

Prototyping will help you understand the user experience better and expose any flaws or fixes you need to make before you reach the next step of your product design.

Prototypes like Personal Drink ID have shown people the difference a product can make on women’s safety by helping them detect whether or not their drink has been drugged. This example shows the importance of prototyping, since they will want to ensure the product properly performs the way it’s supposed to. Providing accurate information to its users once it’s launched is obviously important. As you can see, if prototyping was skipped to save time or money during the design process, it could cause major issues and larger expenses/delays when the product is launched.

We helped bring to life The Pet Bot. A product that involved mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and industrial design. With so many moving parts (pun intended), prototypes were needed for testing and refining.

Advice from a prototype design expert

Todd Zaki Warfel wrote a book on prototyping which outlines some of the benefits of it. These universal benefits are summed up as the following:

• Assists with communication and collaboration
• Helps gauge feasibility, while reducing waste
• Help you sell your idea
• Tests usability earlier
• Sets your design priorities

These points are expanded on in Todd’s book but also here.

Prototype design is a practice that is strongly advised in product development. Although restrictions may come into play making prototyping not as attainable for some, it’s important to find a way to make it work in order to reap the benefits of setting your product up for success.

About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!