Prototyping is an essential part of product development in companies, and yet it is one of the least explored areas of design practice. There are limited ethnographic studies conducted within companies, specifically around the topic of prototyping. This is an empirical and industrial-based study using inductive ethnographic observations to further our understanding of the various roles prototypes play in organizations. This research observed the entire product development cycle within three companies in the fields of consumer electronics (CE), footwear (FW), and medical devices (MD). Our guiding research questions are: What is a prototype? What are the roles of prototypes across these three companies? Through our analysis, we uncovered that prototypes are tools for enhanced communication, increased learning, and informed decision-making. Specifically, we further refine these categories to display the types of communication, learning, and decision-making that occur. These insights are significant because they validate many prior prototyping theories and claims, while also adding new perspectives through further exploiting each role. Finally, we provide newly modified definitions of a prototype and prototyping based on this empirical work, which we hope expands designers' mental models for the terms.
Just as design is a fundamental part of engineering work, prototyping is an essential part of the design process. For many engineering design courses, students must develop a final prototype as part of the course requirements. And in industry, engineers build multiple prototypes when creating a product for market. Although prototyping is core to design education, there is a lack of research on understanding the perceptions and usage of prototypes from both students and professionals. Without understanding students’ perceptions of prototypes, we cannot adequately train them. Likewise, without knowing how professionals use prototypes, we cannot translate these practices back to design education. This paper reports on the pilot study comparing the perceptions of prototypes between mechanical engineering students and professional engineers. The findings indicate that the interpretation of the term “prototype” varies between students and professionals. Specifically, these mechanical engineering students have a more narrow perception and identify prototypes as only having a few key elements, namely for building and testing functionality and feasibility of physical elements in a product. Comparatively, professionals have a broad perception of prototypes. They identify a wider range of attributes, including prototypes as a communication tool, an aid in making decisions, and a way to learn about unknowns throughout the design process. Many instructors in design education are cognizant of the importance of prototyping. However, we believe that students require explicit instruction about key concepts. It is not enough to just tell students to “prototype.” As design educators, we must be aware of the various roles of prototypes, and teach these concepts to students. We provide some immediate recommendations for practice, including a list of ten principles of prototypes to create similar mental models between students.
Attrition issues with undergraduate engineering students, while concerning, are well documented. However, little research has explored post-graduation attrition. U.S. Department of Labor statistics suggest that as many as 45 percent of workers with engineering degrees are not employed in engineering jobs. As China and India increasingly compete with the U.S. in the production of engineers and enrollment in U.S. engineering programs continues to lag behind other four-year degrees, training a consistent number of quality engineers is a critical issue for the American workforce. Anecdotal evidence of problematic post-graduation attrition—that is, attrition related to controllable factors in students’ educational experiences that push them away from engineering careers, as opposed to attrition of students who wish to creatively apply their skills in other occupations—coupled with the need for engineers in the workforce motivated this research. This study investigated the post-graduation plans of senior level mechanical engineering students at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Over the course of one year, two surveys were administered to 169 students, a mix of graduating seniors and students in a Senior Capstone Project course. Students were classified into four groups based on their post-graduation plans: 1. Pursuers (35% of total sample): students pursuing an engineering career immediately after graduation without reservations or plans to leave the field in the future. 2. Returners (22% of total sample): students not pursuing an engineering career immediately after graduation but with plans for an engineering career in the future. 3. Pursuers with Reservations (34% of total sample): students pursuing an engineering career immediately after graduation who currently had reservations about their career choice and/or planned to leave the field in the future. 4. Leavers (9% of total sample): students not pursuing an engineering career immediately after graduation with no plans for an engineering career in the future. The results indicated that 65% of the sample had, at least, some reservations about pursuing an engineering career. Results also suggested five factors that may influence post-graduation attrition: 1. Feeling prepared to pursue an engineering career, 2. Internship experiences, 3. Senior Capstone Project course experiences, 4. Satisfaction with the quality of instruction in the engineering program, and 5. Career values related to financial rewards and enjoying co-workers.
where she co-directs the Virginia Tech Engineering Communications Center (VTECC). Her research focuses on communication in engineering design, interdisciplinary communication and collaboration, design education, and gender in engineering. She was awarded a CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation to study expert teaching in capstone design courses, and is co-PI on numerous NSF grants exploring communication, design, and identity in engineering. Drawing on theories of situated learning and identity development, her work includes studies on the teaching and learning of communication, effective teaching practices in design education, the effects of differing design pedagogies on retention and motivation, the dynamics of cross-disciplinary collaboration in both academic and industry design environments, and gender and identity in engineering.
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