Abstract
Prototyping plays a fundamental role in an efficient iterative design process. Constructing, programming and debugging the interactive prototypes electronic connections and communications computational systems elements, remains a demanding activity for designers. This fieldwork study explores, describes, and analyzes the practices, tools, and technologies used by design students in the construction of interactive prototypes on a university course. The research investigation reviews the interactive prototypes and presents and analyzes excerpts of interviews with students. Our results provide insights into the socio-technical dynamics which influence digital component choices. The study describes the types of digital connections and communications among prototype components and the practices adopted by design students to build them. Last, our results show that practices to identify components and users’ interactions were based on sophisticated time- or event-based strategies. Finally, implications of findings of the study are discussed.
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Alessandrini, A. (2023). A Study on Prototyping in a Design Course. In: Abdelnour Nocera, J., Kristín Lárusdóttir, M., Petrie, H., Piccinno, A., Winckler, M. (eds) Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2023. INTERACT 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14145. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42293-5_41
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