Creating Prototypes: Products of the Design Thinking Process

Abstract

In a product design scenario, the design thinking process (made up of five phases: Empathy, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test) helps to find solutions to problems by putting the needs of the target audience first. Studying how people connect to a product (or to their environment in general) and collecting data based on those findings allows designers to craft answers to everyday problems in a myriad of unique and creative ways. Relying on the accompanying steps of the design thinking process for its effectiveness, prototyping can be the deciding factor in the success or failure of a project. There are a number of different tools and techniques used in prototype creation. From physical to digital, advancements in technology have helped to shape the design world, providing endless opportunities for designers to stay up to date with the ever changing design needs of society. On the current forefront of that technological trend is mobile application design. Utilizing cutting edge software such as Adobe XD to produce high fidelity mobile application prototypes, designers can take projects from the brainstorming phase to a fully functional mockup in no time.