Prompt

Now that we've brainstormed and sketched and prototyped and FINALLY landed on a solid idea, it's time to delve into the realm of iterative design.

Iterative design is when you take your initial idea, get feedback, and improve upon that idea and your prototype in a cycle that can happen an infinite number of times (until you hit your deadline, of course!)

For this project, we will be doing two iterations that focus on FORM and FUNCTION. 

Instructions

Part 1: Form

Discuss the following questions with your partner:

How can you improve the FORM of your design?

• Can you add another level of elegance, refinement, or more creativity to your design?
• Does the shape of each component of your design have anything to do with its function or use?
• If your object is interactive, how can you invite users in using only the visual nature of your design?

In design, there should be a clear progression from one set of prototypes to the next as you make design decisions. 

Important: Make sure you really examine the full range of materials available to you in this studio and make thoughtful choices about which materials you're using and why.

Part 2: Function 

Discuss the following questions with your partner: 

How can you improve the FUNCTION of your design?

• Does it move in the way you want it to?
• Does your prototype work the way you want it to? What are some mechanical kinks that you need to work out?
• Can you find additional precedents* for the type of mechanisms and functionality that you are incorporating into your design? Do a quick search to see if there is a project like yours out there. What inspiration can you gather from it? 

Note: It is okay if your project does not feature interactive elements. However, if you're skipping this step, you must invest more energy in the visual design. 

About interactivity...

The key element of interactivity is taking an input and converting it to an output. Luckily, there are a lot of simple ways to add interactivity to projects. Now that you've learned some Arduino basics, think about how the inputs and outputs of the Arduino could be added to your project, if applicable.

Deliverables for Summative Assessment

Once your prototype is complete, record your work with many photographs of your Final Prototype. 

Upload all pictures and video to your Design Journal and post on the Task on Managebac. It should include the following:

1. 3 photographs of your final prototype 
2. 3 close-up photographs of your final prototype that show the quality of the design 
3. 3 photographs of your final prototype that clearly communicate how people engage with it 
4. If you added interactivity, write 1-2 sentences describing the interactive elements you added to your project

The Summative Assessment is for Criteria C+D