The prototyping stage of the design thinking process, in my opinion, has been one of the most difficult so far. However, I think it has also been the most rewarding. Here, I think our group was a little more disorganized in our thinking than in past stages. At first, when writing down ideas for prototypes, we had very different ideas of how we saw our idea panning out. It could have taken the form of a store, or a bottle, or a machine, and we were a bit all over the place. It took us a large portion of the first class period to really narrow down our focus, which I think set us back a bit at first. However, I think it was necessary for this to happen, so that we eventually got on the right track to start prototyping the interface for our self-service kiosk.
I think a big help in this process was splitting up the work–two people worked on the storyboard and charting our thought processes, while two people worked on the PowerPoint prototype and animations. With a prototype like a PowerPoint, we felt as if having too many cooks in the pot would spoil it, and we decided to utilize our skills to who would be the best person to make it. I actually really enjoyed focusing on storyboarding, because it helped me chart our progress over time and see how our ideas have grown since the creation of our persona. The prototyping process is all about bringing your ideas to life, and it has been extremely interesting and fun to see how much progress we’ve made in just a few short weeks. I couldn’t have predicted that at the beginning of the design thinking process we would have a really cool, innovative, and sustainable idea like a self-service kiosk to expand upon further and show to our peers.
I think another big help was getting informal feedback in a small setting from another group. We’ve been working on this idea for so long, and I think by a certain point we reach a certain level of tunnel vision where we’re in our specific mindsets and aren’t able to see past that. After cultivating knowledge about CVS all semester, it’s inevitable that we will have a lot more invested in our ideas than those who don’t know anything about the company and its issues. Having another group come in and give us feedback allowed us to break out of that tunnel vision for a second and see potential ideas or concerns that we wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise. This feedback emphasizes the idea that it is never just a small group that is able to create an idea; rather, the design thinking process can involve many people and perspectives that enable the overall process from idea conception to prototype.
Overall, I think the prototyping was a great way for me to manifest all of my ideas out into physical or concrete objects. I naturally have an easier time thinking in concrete ways rather than in abstract thought, so being able to put concrete thoughts together to create something tangible was easier for me than in other stages. One major takeaway I had is that the first iteration of a prototype is never going to be the final iteration. Ideas and prototypes can always be improved upon with another perspective, and feedback should be welcomed rather than feared. It is really cool to end this stage with a tangible prototype that can be shown to others.