Prototyping is critical to getting a working design. On a complex new design, no one gets it right the first time — at least no one who is being honest with you.

When prototyping, I have found two opposite extremes that are easy to fall into:

• Analysis paralysis
• Hacking

Analysis Paralysis

It is very easy to spend all your time sketching the “perfect” design. You can play with variations on the design, manipulate it in your mind, run through all the scenarios, and redesign it when you think of something you forgot.

The problem is, if you never build it, it is never real. In a practical sense, the worst prototype is better than the grandest napkin sketch. It doesn’t work until it works. And sometimes the quickest way to find if something works is to try to build it. What worked on paper may not work at all when you go to build it.

I once heard it said, ”If something is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”

I love that quote. While it should not be taken too literally, it does convey a good message. Of course the usual way you have heard it is “…it is worth doing right.” And we all want to do it right. But perfect is the enemy of good. The key is finding the good enough point. At some point you have to put down the pencil and start building. Another way to say it is “talk is cheap, show me.”

A former boss of mine had a blunt way of putting it. He said, “There comes a point in every project where you have to shoot the engineer.” The truth is that engineering is never done. You can always design something better. But the design is not an end in itself. A good design leads to the construction of a good prototype; a good prototype to the construction of a good product. So put down the pencil and shut down SolidWorks. Don’t make your boss have to shoot you just to be able to call the project done!

Hacking

Of course, the equal and opposite error is hacking. If you go straight from a napkin sketch and instantly start building hardware are cobbling together software, the results are not likely to be impressive.

I doubt this section needs much explanation. We all know how to hack. And we know when we find ourselves in hacking mode we feel just a little bit dirty. So clean up the mess, put out the fire, and head back to the drawing board.

Balance

As with many things in life, I have found the key to successful prototyping is finding a balance. We develop all of our projects using formal design methodologies. We have standard documents and a process that we follow. The more complex the project, the more important it is to use those kinds of design tools. But there are some points in a design where you just need to jump in and try out an idea. You have to prototype your prototype, or bits of it anyway.

Read More

There is a great article on the National Instruments site with some helpful pointers:

Eight Rules for Prototyping