Campbell Interactive

Via: Airbag Industries - Longboard

There is a new book on the horizon about prototyping from Todd Warfel. I’m not familiar with him or his work but I am interested in different points of view on this aspect of design, particularly as it relates to interactive, because it is one of those areas in the process where things can be wildly different for each designer.

When I was at Evo in LA we had an approach to each new project that had each designer take a stab at their view of the end result, this wasn’t available as an option all the time, we had some rather insane deadlines for many of our projects but occasionally we were able to take this route after we had done our initial architecture and established the feature sets of the site. I found this part of the process both exhilarating and rewarding. We were a small shop with extremely talented folks that worked with us off and on during our run there and it really made the process feel alive for me at least. I recently interviewed with a larger firm and remarked about this way we approached a project and my affinity for it and it was met with a snicker and an explanation of how this was termed a “gang-bang”.

I respect that firms, particularly larger firms, may need to institute more structure in a build, something with clearly defined roles and a process in place to maintain profitability but I found this categorization a bit offensive. For us I felt it was a part of what was right there, I admit that there were times when there wasn’t a lot right but as far as the experience and the end results of our work I will reserve the right to feel pride in that and while this may not seem to be the best way or perhaps even a good way of working on a project to some I feel it worked for us. We had structure, we had roles and everyone worked within those roles but they also worked as a team and I wasn’t about to discount the input of anyone on that team regardless of their role.

I may have digressed here but I think it illustrates an interesting aspect of this part of the process, the initial exploration of a project in prototyping can be worlds apart for designers and design firms and while they may not be ideal for one they can be a wonderful method for another. Something that is collaborative, educational, and fun as well as profitable.

I look forward to having Mr. Warfels perspective on prototyping, he obviously has a great affinity for it and I find that actually enjoying what you do can be a big help in doing it well.