What do Prototypes Prototype?


"Users experience the combined effect of such interrelated features; and the task of designing—and prototyping—the user experience is therefore complex."

The task of creating a project will always require us to test it through multiple user groups multiple times. Once any one has finished any type of design, the next is to test it out to see what could be improved or fixed to make it better. The whole point is for users to experience a product in the best way possible, without them getting frustrated. When users get frustrated it causes them to want to quit or abandon the product, which would decline the products company significantly. All this allows us to test out many features and combinations that are used to create the best experience for the products we design.


"Making separate prototypes enabled specific design questions to be addressed with as much clarity as possible."

When we as designers create different prototypes it allows for us to test out multiple scenarios. By creating different scenarios, it creates solutions and problems that can become part to the integrated design. Solutions can help to determine how much detail the product can handle while the problems show us exactly what can’t be done. Attacking the design from multiple points of views allows you to implement solutions from one prototype into a separate prototype. This enables a more complete test of features and user interface to take place.


"Some prototypes are built primarily to answer technical questions about how a future artifact might actually be made to work."

Most teams create implementation prototypes as a means to testing and experimenting with the feasibility of the artifact. This allows the design team to also gain feedback from users on any performance issues, as well as the interaction users have with it. These prototypes are mostly used to discover methods that have adequate specifications for the final artifact to achieve. With more specifications it allows the design team to not have to worry about defining its look or feel and the role it plays for users.



Programming Design Systems


"Using loops to procedurally draw shapes is a powerful concept, as it allows designers to do more with less code, thus alleviating us from the pains of manually constructing every design object by hand."

I’ve always found it quite interesting how code can come up with different systems to help simplify and alleviate the pains of having to remember everything. These different methods help for figuring out what you want to design, but with loops it simplifies that even more. We use these loops to create concepts that we want to express, but by using loops we can do within less steps. This makes it easier for us conceptualize what we want to do as well as allow us to manipulate it into what we want it to do.


"Anyone willing to take the necessary trouble will find that, with the aid of the grid system, he is better fitted to find a solution to his design problems which is functional, logical and also more aesthetically pleasing."

Grid systems are the most beneficial tool to use in any system, as it also helps to solve any necessary troubles users come into. It focuses on the user geometric compositions and how they help designers create organized and beautiful layouts. These layouts can be as simple as a ratio, including the rule of thirds where we split the page into three equally sized rectangles. These sophisticated systems also allow for the control of alignment with text and other shapes and objects.


"Graphic design is the art of using form and color to successfully convey a message, but this is not as easy as it sounds."

Design takes multiple rounds of trial and errors, and after multiple rounds of iterations we soon get closer to what our design is trying to communicate. Even experienced designers have a growing array of visual relationships that they use to guide them to the end result. These connections are essential components of most effective designs, and they're also a terrific method to introduce visual communication principles.



Radical Technologies by Adam Greenfield.


"We can understand these devices as hinges between the body and the network."

Devices that connect humans to the network aren’t given enough credit as there is a very detailed science that come with it. We are basically using our bodies at data points that are then processed and stored to be sent directly to network. After the data is sent to the network, this is where the cool part happens, where once the data has been stored and for a period of time it can used to create insights about its user. The insights it gathers allows it to create a sense of personalization, that their users can use to better adapt themselves to do things better. This allows the network to create a path of further improvements while it consistently update with every new data and insight gathered.


"A conscious, coherent effort to enlist our intimate spaces as a site of continuous technological upgrade, subscription-based services and the perpetual resupply of consumables."

Smart home devices are growing bigger and better by the second, but not because we want more technology, but for the fact that we want our lives to made easier. The promise of effortless convenience can succeed any argument because at the end of the day who doesn’t want to be able to order food without moving a finger. Now many home assistant are still not what they should, with most of them just being a circle that recognizes speech and can access certain task for their users. It’s not all that enticing or immersive that can bring seamlessness to the users lives, especially with these devices mostly called virtual assistances, there isn’t much assistance.


"This tendency toward laziness is near-universal throughout the internet of things world, and beyond cameras it afflicts just about any class of objects that can be connected to the network. "

Cyber security has become a huge topic especially with home assistant heard to be spying on us in our own homes. That’s scary to know that are home assistant devices could be listening and tracking everything we do or say. A digital intruder could also access this information as well as with most networked device going unprotected and simply exposing its own controls. Just as easily as one device can be accessed, an entire network of devices connected to it can be accessed and controlled offering attacks at any points. These attacks can be detrimental to anybody but especially towards the unprotected who don’t realize how easy it can be to stop these attacks from happening.