Prototyping is Thinking through Making

The human mind did not evolve in a glass jar. We are social animals that like to move. We think on our feet, and in conversation. We learn by watching, copying, trying and testing. In other words, us humans do our best thinking through interaction.

When we speak, when we write, when we make, we do our thinking external to an isolated mind. Our cognition is embodied and extended with the help of our tools and our environment. We do our thinking, with things, in the world.

Prototyping is thinking by making. It uses each of these benefits, to expand the quantity and quality of our thinking.

Prototyping is the simplest way to make. It is easiest way to unlock 'thinking by making'. Low-fidelity prototyping requires near to no pre-defined skills. But it offers three benefits.

• firms up our thinking, giving us details to explore.

• gives us new ideas as we explore.

• creates something that we can test with users.

Thinking by testing is an incredible benefit of prototyping. By introducing real users into the design process at the earliest possible stage we open our thinking to the people who'll use the end product. This physical conversation is useful for testing and validating the assumptions of our core concept and broad design details.

It goes further than this. It creates inputs from the people who matter - in a medium that allows them to give meaningful feedback.

In other words, we are extending our own thinking by recruiting users to think with us.

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