Prototype to calibrate your creative compass to the values that are important to your product.

A prototype is not just a demo of a future product, it’s a tool that helps you understand and define what a future product could and should be.

Prototypes are usually used to refine a selected concept, but at Above we found prototyping invaluable earlier in the design process.

Prototype the context, not just the product!

Incredibly important, but often overlooked, is realizing that the product is only one aspect of the experience.

Creating the appropriate context for testing prototypes is as important as the prototype itself, and should be approached with the same mentality. What are the most important social contexts for this interaction? Where would the product be located spatially? What mindset would the person be in when using this? As an example, we once created an interaction that people were delighted by, but we positioned the prototypes so the interaction was convenient to achieve.