How to Create a Product – Understand the prototyping needs

“Dyson has launched a combined tap and hand dryer, which it says washes and dries hands without the user having to leave the sink. The Dyson Air blade Tap hand-dryer uses Dyson’s Air blade technology, which sees sheets of high velocity air travel through tiny apertures at 430mph ‘scraping water from hands like a windscreen wiper,” as per the news from “design week” dated Tue, 5 Feb, 2013. Well that is called product design. Before we go into the product design and its applications we must understand how to create a product, and what are the most essential requirements that go into creating a product.

One of the earliest essential steps of how to create a product is the creation of the prototype. Prototype is the three dimensional vision of the product. Creating a prototype is one the primary steps of any invention process. Developing a prototype ideally helps you to tap the creativity and using those skills that inspired your invention idea at the very first place. It is a well known fact that how to create a product cannot have a one word or a short answer to the query. On the contrary, it is an extensive process and requires deft expertise to work on it. There are generally four stages that an early-stage company would go through in creating a product. Firstly, there is a development of the idea. Secondly there is a crude prototype creation through the use of DIY method which is also known as the “mock-up”. Thirdly, there is a creation of the pre-production prototype using the third party rapid prototype provider. Lastly, there is the finished product or technology state when the end result is commercialized.

Before we go into understanding the prototyping needs, we must also take into consideration the various other things that go into creation of a product. Before a product is designed and created, one needs to have the total idea conceptualized and illustrated. This is known as the product design. A good product design helps in a long way because it is the representation of your ideas, thoughts, plans and aspirations and all that you have thought about the product documented in the image or pages. A good product design therefore makes a vital point in any product category and is one of the essential steps of how to create a product. After the product design, comes the prototyping. Without prototyping, it is virtually impossible to analyze or ascertain whether the product design can be transformed into something tangible which will have long term benefits as well.

So, in order to know how to create a product, one needs to understand the prototyping needs so that the product design comes out nearly flawless prior to manufacturing.