ISSD Fall 2010 School of Information, UC Berkeley

A design space can be large and complex, and we can't explore it all at once. Prototypes are representative and manifested forms of design ideas to "view a design's future impact" before it gets built. Proototyping techniques are traditionally contrasted on two dimensions: • COST AND EFFORT - as constrained by a design project's budget, schedule, and designer capabilities • FIDELITY - how realistic or similar is the prototype artifact to a final product or service? But this contrast is too simplistic to describe the range of prototype techniques being used today. For example, for information-intensive services and systems it is much more important to use prototypes to assess the quality and feasibility of the information models.