The Bridging Design Prototype (BDP) approach is a human-centred design method that aims to strengthen the activity of design in new product development undertaken by small organisations with incomplete inter-disciplinary teams (e.g., individual designers, start-ups or SMEs).

A BDP is a rapid functional prototype built with features familiar to a user community and with novel features that a designer incorporates after careful analysis of relevant data. It capitalises on a user community’s prior knowledge and recognises their context realities. These characteristics bring users into the development process early: users incorporate the prototype into their real activities, while a designer or R&D team employs it for learning about the user community. Early adoption of a concept idea in the form of a rapid functional prototype may lead to socially inclusive products, active community participation, or might help in raising early capital for a small enterprise. A user community will only be prepared to incorporate a new product in their context, when through personal experience they qualify such a product as being useful, usable, and desirable.

BDPs must be fully functional rapid prototypes. Experimentation should not require the presence of designers. By functional, it means that users must be able to implement them into real activities. But, BDPs are not necessarily minimum viable products, as the digital or tangible materials with which they are built could have a limited lifespan.

The participants will be walked through the six BDP principles. Illustrative cases are drawn from projects in education, energy, and health. The presenter or her students have carried out these prototyping projects independently or in collaboration with a start-up or SME.

Learn more and find publications at https://www.gloriagomez.com/bd...

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

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