A very good (PDF) read on prototyping – The Anatomy of Prototypes. The article explores manifestation dimensions of prototypes and extends the more popular dimension of fidelity to less talked about dimensions such as scope and material. Then the idea of prototypes as filters is proposed where through their incompleteness, only the qualities of interest are made visible.
Y.-K. Lim et al, write about two prototyping principles:
Fundamental prototyping principle:
Prototyping is an activity with the purpose of creating a manifestation that, in its simplest form, filters the qualities in which designers are interested, without distorting the understanding of the whole.Economic principle of prototyping:
The best prototype is one that, in the simplest and the most efficient way, makes the possibilities and limitations of a design idea visible and measurable.
