The Design Journey Prototype
Patrick Van Der Pijl, Lisa Kay Solomon, Justin Lokitz · 2016
There's a well-known story about how the Dropbox founders prototyped their idea with customers. Practice putting form to idea using the tools at your fingertips. Whether it's a pen and paper, sticky notes, or presentation software, sometimes the simplest things make the most practical prototyping tools. This chapter focuses on validation that there are a ton of great tools and starting points for prototyping in case you want to test your design with customers. Interestingly, experienced designers are often wary of the fallacy of pretty-looking prototypes. A beautiful prototype can look so amazing that it blinds you or others to the inherent underlying problems with the idea. Autodesk's product development teams are on the hook to deliver great high-quality software on schedule. Building a prototype together works like visually thinking out loud: more iteration, people get involved, and you create ambassadors for the idea and prototype.