Design Methods for Prototyping

Spring 2026

HERV 523
HERV 408

 

 

About This Course

In contemporary design practice, prototyping is your key bridge between abstract ideas and real-world outcomes. It’s more than a validation tool; it’s a way to explore through making, test your assumptions, and uncover fresh opportunities for innovation.

In this course you’ll examine the many roles prototypes play across different contexts, scales, and development stages. You’ll work with a variety of prototype types, from low-fidelity sketches and mock-ups to high-fidelity digital and physical models, and learn how each can help you communicate ideas, test hypotheses, and engage stakeholders.

This course focuses on the iterative nature of prototyping: you’ll use rapid experimentation and feedback to refine your concepts and move from ambiguity to clarity. You’ll learn to use prototypes not just as tools for testing, but as vehicles for collaboration, creativity, and strategic thinking. Through hands-on projects, readings, and discussions, you’ll critically engage with testing and evaluation methods and apply them directly to your design challenges to arrive at meaningful, effective solutions.

By the end of the course, you’ll  have a comprehensive understanding of how to integrate prototyping into your design practice; balancing creative exploration with analytical rigor, and using prototypes to translate insights into actionable, impactful outcomes.

 

What You'll Learn

• A range of different approaches to prototyping, and the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
  
  
• How prototypes can be used to spark conversations, generate ideas and drive new innovations, for all the different orders of design.
  
  
• How prototyping can be used at different stages of the design process, and the value of incorporating prototyping into the design process.
  
  
• How to use prototypes to build consensus, test and evaluate concepts, and convert research into design requirements.

 

About your Instructor

Hello, my name is Nish and I will be your instructor for this course! I’m a multi-disciplinary designer, researcher and educator, working at the intersection of design, business, and academia. While my background is in industrial design, I have spent the last decade designing everything from buildings to businesses, for clients across the world. Throughout that time, I’ve used a range of different prototypes, from quick kit-bashed mockups to production ready parts that are ready for the assembly line, to even highly conceptual objects to get people to re-think their relationship with a brand or product. I’ve even written a paper on how prototypes can be used to investigate alternate and future realities.

 

Communicating with me

Throughout this semester, we'll be interacting primarily through Canvas. But you can also contact me in the following ways:

Canvas Inbox: If you have any questions regarding any of the assignments, feel free to reach out via Canvas.

Email: In case of emergency, email me at nisrik@iu.edu. If you are not able to submit any assignments on time, please reach out and let me know, and I can give you an extension.

One-on-One Meetings: If you want to discuss anything specific regarding the class material, if you want specific feedback on assignments, or if you need help with anything else design related, feel free to reach out and we can set up a one-on-one meeting.

 

Course Mode

This course is fully online using the IU Canvas learning management system. If you have not previously used Canvas, please log into the course, click on Modules tab on the left, and go through the "Getting Started" Module.

 

The course has three different types of activities:

Digest
Read, watch and ponder the posted course materials.

The readings shared will be quite varied, ranging from blog posts or podcasts, to academic papers. If you haven't read such papers before, take a look at some of the articles in the "Reading Resources" section in the "Resources" page of the "Getting Started" module. 

Do
Each week you will practice using the methods in context. These assignments will range from creating stories, to physical objects, and facilitating design workshops.

Discuss
After each assignment, you'll be given a prompt to think about and reflect on the methods you've learned that week, and how they worked in practice. You will also have to read through your peers' reflections, to better understand how they might have approached the assignment, or if a certain method worked better in a different scenario. You'll then offer your peers constructive critiques and feedback on their work, or draw parallels with your own work or reflections. 

This means you will typically complete all the readings, complete the tasks in the assignment, and then share your reflection in a discussion post by Sunday at midnight. Then, you will have until Tuesday evenings at midnight to respond to peers' discussion posts. 

 

Notebooks
Alongside your weekly assignments, you'll have to maintain 2 "notebooks", in which you'll keep track of every method/tool you've learned about, and every prototype you've created. Updating these every week is important, as they will form a big part of your mid-term and final submission.

For more information on the notebooks, refer to the Notebooks page in the Getting Started Module.

 

Team Assignments
The second half of the semester consists of a group project. You will have to select your project, create a detailed research plan and work together to execute it. The assignment submissions themselves will be individual, but you will have to work with your team mates to research users, create prototypes, run workshops, and will share data and insights. Setting expectations and maintaining a good working relationship with your team mates is important to get the work done, but the goal is to learn and understand the concepts of the course. If there are any tensions within the team, reach out to me, and we can work out a solution.

 

Classes & Assignments

The course is divided into the following parts:

Part 1: Methods for Prototyping

For the first half of the course you will explore different methods of to prototyping, and practicing creating different kinds of prototypes to address a specific problem space. You’ll then reflect on the effectiveness, advantages and disadvantages of both the prototypes, and the methods used to create them.

Part 2: Putting it in Practice

For the second half of the course you’ll be applying what you’ve learned to create a research plan, select and use different methods to create, test and evaluate these prototypes, and convert them to design requirements. This module will be done in a team.

 

Some details of the assignment might change, so refer to the Do and Discuss section each week for details.

 

Week	Date	Topic	Assignment	Grade
01	Jan 12 - 18	Prototyping in the Design Process	Select a Problem Frame	Assignment: 40 Reflection: 10 Discussion: 10 Total: 60
02	Jan 20 - 25 (Jan 19 is MLK Day)	Stories as Prototypes	Craft a narrative to illustrate the complex challenges around an issue, stakeholder or community.	Assignment: 40 Reflection: 10 Discussion: 10 Total: 60
03	Jan 26 - Feb 1	Sketches as Prototypes	Create a sketch or storyboard to illustrate a narrative, a concept or a critique	Assignment: 40 Reflection: 10 Discussion: 10 Total: 60
04	Feb 2 - 8	Objects as Prototypes	Create a speculative object to spark conversations around a topic	Assignment: 40 Reflection: 10 Discussion: 10 Total: 60
05	Feb 9 - 15	Interactions as Prototypes	Create a prototype that reframes an interaction	Assignment: 40 Reflection: 10 Discussion: 10 Total: 60
06	Feb 16 - 22	Socio-Material Assemblies as Prototypes	Test your prototypes using a socio-material assembly	Assignment: 40 Reflection: 10 Discussion: 10 Total: 60
07	Feb 22 - March 1	Systems as Prototypes	Create a systems map to illustrate the systems connected to your prototype	Assignment: 40 Reflection: 10 Discussion: 10 Total: 60
08	March 2 -  8	Reflecting on the Methods of Prototyping	Submit your Notebooks, and reflect on the prototypes you've created and the methods you've learned / used	Assignment: 50 Reflection: 20 Discussion: 10 Total: 80
09	March 9 - 15	Research Plan	Create a comprehensive research plan	Assignment: 60
	March 16 - 22	Spring Break
10	March 22 - 29	Prototyping in Practice	Prototyping in Practice	Assignment: 60
11	March 30 - April 5	Scaling Fidelity	Prototyping in Practice	Assignment: 60
12	April 6 - 12	Prototype Testing	Testing your Prototypes with Users	Assignment: 60
13	April 13 - 19	Prototype Evaluation	Evaluating your Prototypes	Assignment: 60
14	April 20 - 26	From Prototypes to Design Requirements	Converting your research to Design Requirements	Assignment: 60
15	April 27 - May 3	Presenting Design Requirements	Presenting Design Requirements to Stakeholders	Assignment: 60
16	May 4 - 10	Reflecting on the Prototyping Process	Submit your Notebooks, and reflect on the use of prototyping in the design process	Final Reflection: 60 Group Evaluation: 20 Total: 80

 

Expectations for Course Work

Being an Active Learner
Since this is an asynchronous class, you need to take charge of your own learning experience. You're expected to log onto Canvas periodically to view assignments, presentations, contribute to discussions, post questions, and read and respond to others' posts. Activities and assignments will be posted in advance providing appropriate time for completion. You will have to plan your schedules accordingly.

 

Contribute to creating a community of learning. 
Everyone is expected to be accountable to each other to create a quality of learning experience. It is important to foster a classroom climate that is welcoming and safe for everyone. Please display respect for everyone in the class. 

 

Time Management & Late Submissions
Time management accounts for 10 points of every assignment (160 points overall / 16% of your overall grade). You will lose 1 point for every day your submission is late.

Submissions more than 7 days late will not be accepted. If you have any problems, or are not able to submit on time, please message me and let me know immediately, and I can grant you an extension. However, if you message me more than 7 days after the submission deadline, I can not give you an extension.

Each week's work is worth 6% of your grade, so even a few missed assignments could have a drastic impact on your final grade.

Submission formats
The preferred format for submission is a PDF, though some assignments may require other types of submissions. If your submission is a link (for example to a Miro board or a Google Doc), then you have to make sure I (i.e. nisrik@iu.edu) have permission to access/view the document. If I can't access it, it will count as a late submission.

 

Required Course Materials

All reading material will be provided throughout the course. 

You will also need:

• A laptop or desktop computer with a web browser that support Canvas
• Reliable internet access
• A PDF viewer to read course materials, i.e. Adobe Acrobat/Reader
• A Word processing software, i.e. Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or Apple Pages
  
  

For online audio or video conferencing you will need:

• A laptop or desktop with a microphone (some people prefer a headset microphone or earbuds with mic)
• An external webcam is recommended but not required
• Access to Zoom-hosted meetings.

 

Grading

There are no final exams for this course! I’ll use a numeric scale during the semester before converting to a letter scale using the following correspondence: