Prototyping

After creating a great product idea, the next best step is to create a prototype to understand exactly how users will interact with the product. It is not necessary to produce a finished product to be tested because that could require a lot of time and effort. In the initial prototyping stage, we wanted to create a simple scaled down version of our product just to see reactions to our design. The worst thing you can do is invest all of your resources into a weak idea so with the simple prototype you can gauge how strong your idea really is and it is possible to make instant changes and try new iterations if necessary. Our prototype consisted of a dispenser and water-soluble face wash pods. To create the dispenser, we used a mason jar, wood, popsicle sticks, glue, and a paper cup. We ordered the water-soluble pods which were actually water soluble single use shaving cream pods. We filled the mason jar with our pods. A user could then move a lever to retrieve one pod. Additionally, our product which we called Sustina, had a QR code on the top which could be scanned. Once scanned, the user would be taken to our website which we created and would allow them to automatically order more pods to refill their dispenser once it got empty. Some challenges we faced were directly related to building the dispenser. We wanted a simple prototype but we also wanted it to be clean and professional and sawing wood was a bit challenging. Additionally, the functionality aspect of the lever was a bit of a challenge that we hope to improve when we create a more advanced version of our product. I was very impressed with my team and especially George who put together our Sustina website. The website definitely exceeded my expectations, is user friendly, and fun to look at with bright and vibrant colors. My biggest takeaway from this stage of the design thinking process is that prototyping is a great way for us to bring our vision to life and get peoples’ opinion which can be used in order to make improvements and iterations to better our product.