Prototyping the Need: Using Prototyping Early in the Design Process to Strengthen Understanding of the Need and...

In traditional design courses, prototyping is initiated after a problem has been identified, constraints have been defined, and multiple solutions have been conceived. Accordingly, students tend to narrowly perceive prototyping as a step toward a designated endpoint (e.g., building and testing a final product) rather than as a flexible method for expanding their understanding throughout a design project.

We designed a "prototyping the need" exercise and piloted it in an undergraduate course focused on the early stages of the health technology innovation process. Students defined important questions about their unmet needs and then built models to help them explore the answers and deepen their understanding of the problem, the population it affects, and/or the desired outcome if the need is solved.

The exercise provided students with the opportunity to build hands-on prototyping/modeling skills earlier than usual in the design process, expanded their understanding of prototyping as an exploratory tool, and strengthened their engagement and empathy. In this article, we describe the "prototyping the need" method, spotlight two student projects, and share lessons from the pilot.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43683-025-00198-2.