What Is Industrial Design Prototyping?
As the pace of product design for industry increases, designers are pushing ahead with the bridge between concept and production in the fastest time possible. Industrial design prototyping is the first step in putting ideas and concepts in product design into practice, exploring solutions for product design manufacturability by moving designs into production-ready prototypes. Product design prototyping involves applications such as proof of concept, visual presentation, functional testing, engineering and production validation, and accurately communicates design intent, functional usability, material feasibility, and the working mechanism and performance of the product to manufacturers and product engineers.
Why Prototyping is Essential to Good Product Design?
Good product design should always focus on the end user first and foremost to ensure that they get the best experience with the product. Prototype design could be anything from a simple part file to models of complex assembled parts. There is nothing that brings you closer to the functionality of the final product faster than prototyping.
Based on this, seasoned designers always transition between concept design, CAD modeling, and prototyping to validate their ideas. This back and forth conversation between design and prototype creates an iterative process in which each tool reveals new opportunities and problems to explore and further refine. For industrial designers, product design prototyping is always a crucial step within the creative process to help you better understand the user experience. This works both externally – presenting to clients and stakeholders – and internally – in collaborating more deeply with your team, or rallying them to support a new idea.