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      What is a Prototype? What are the Roles of Prototypes in Companies?

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          Abstract

          Prototyping is an essential part of product development in companies, and yet it is one of the least explored areas of design practice. There are limited ethnographic studies conducted within companies, specifically around the topic of prototyping. This is an empirical and industrial-based study using inductive ethnographic observations to further our understanding of the various roles prototypes play in organizations. This research observed the entire product development cycle within three companies in the fields of consumer electronics (CE), footwear (FW), and medical devices (MD). Our guiding research questions are: What is a prototype? What are the roles of prototypes across these three companies? Through our analysis, we uncovered that prototypes are tools for enhanced communication, increased learning, and informed decision-making. Specifically, we further refine these categories to display the types of communication, learning, and decision-making that occur. These insights are significant because they validate many prior prototyping theories and claims, while also adding new perspectives through further exploiting each role. Finally, we provide newly modified definitions of a prototype and prototyping based on this empirical work, which we hope expands designers' mental models for the terms.

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          Most cited references45

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          Product Development Decisions: A Review of the Literature

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal of Mechanical Design
                ASME International
                1050-0472
                1528-9001
                June 01 2018
                June 01 2018
                March 23 2018
                : 140
                : 6
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Mem. ASME Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Idea Forge, 2445 Kittredge Loop Road, Fleming Building, FLEM 77, Boulder, CO 80309 e-mail:
                [2 ]Mem. ASME Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Idea Forge, 2445 Kittredge Loop Road, Fleming Building, FLEM 130F, Boulder, CO 80309 e-mail:
                [3 ]Mem. ASME Department of Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Center, University of Colorado Boulder, ECES 150 1111 Engineering Drive, Boulder, CO 80309 e-mail:
                Article
                10.1115/1.4039340
                2e8b3cf3-33ea-4f95-9c5d-241e0b3e6e4c
                © 2018
                History

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