Existing Prototyping Perspectives: Considerations for service design

Abstract

With new design disciplines that challenge the borders of design practice and inquiry comes new possibilities for prototyping techniques and approaches. The basis for such an evolution is a firm understanding of the existing knowledge generated in design and the challenges posed by new design disciplines, such as service design. This study identifies a framework of perspectives for prototyping to reveal what the existing toolbox of prototyping contains based on a literature overview. Going through published literature from the early 1980s and onward, the framework is constructed using the following perspectives; purpose, fidelity, audience, position in the process, technique, and representation. These perspectives make knowledge about prototyping explicit and summarise contemporary approaches. Based on current challenges and characteristic attributes of service design the framework is then reconstructed to better cater to design for services. The conclusions are that validity and author are two perspectives that complement the existing framework, and that prototyping so far does not support a holistic approach to prototyping services.