Product Prototyping & Revisions
Prototypes are used to test your product and identify areas that can be improved. During product development, it’s very common to go through several revisions of prototypes. In fact, it’s extremely rare a product is developed perfectly on its first revision.
All the changes you make to a product’s design will be related to the form, fit, and function of a product. Every project is unique and will have a different set of challenges, but you might need to make changes to the features below.
Form
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a physical prototype of your product is worth far more. Sometimes a part may appear to look fine on a picture or 2D drawing of your product, but then the actual aesthetics of your product don’t look as good as you had envisioned when you produced a product.
Your product might be too heavy and a lighter material will be needed, or vice versa. The color might not look as good you originally thought and maybe you need something more matte or glossy. Other features related to the form of the product include shape, size, and mass.
Fit
If your part has a lot of different components to it, it may take a few different rounds of prototyping to make sure that all the parts fit how you want them to. Sometimes a part may not fit in to another properly, and can be too tightly secured or too loose. It could also be that the way parts of a product connect with each other needs to be improved. How a part is joined with another by if they are glued, clipped, or velcroed together, there are a wide variety of options to get your product to hold together.
Function
How your part works is going to be one of, if not the most important aspect of your product. Prototypes are key to making sure that your product functions how you need it to. The changes you can expect to make to adjust the function of your product will be relative to the type of product being developed.
It may be your part doesn’t perform what you envisioned as well as you want and you need some components tweaked. The changes needed could be as small as adding a few nuts and bolts to the right places or in more extreme cases, redesigning most of the project. You really won’t know until you are holding a prototype in your hands.
Sometimes you may get a product tested by a laboratory and it turns out you need to use a different material because the one you chose can’t pass stress tests
Product Development & Prototyping with Experience
Prototyping is a crucial part of the product development and design process. You may not be able to avoid having to make revisions, but you can make sure you develop the best possible version of your product for your customers by developing prototypes. If you are interested in getting a prototype made or your product developed, contact us!
We are a US based company located in Chandler, Arizona, near Phoenix, and we serve customers internationally.