Interactive Prototyping Overhauls Design Process

Restructuring development propelled company from zero-percent
to market leader within 18 months

At many companies, traditional development processes entail combining artists' renderings with hardware mock-ups of the product, then confirming design assumptions. Unfortunately, 2D drawings provide no venue for interacting with the features to test usability, while static 3D dummies are expensive and frequently reveal design flaws that cannot be corrected immediately. Creating changeable prototypes in-house can be even more expensive, consuming valuable staff time, while relegating customer feedback to the end of the development process. Seeking to streamline this process, Fluke Corporation, Everett, WA, sought a new interactive prototyping method from Altia Inc., Colorado Springs, CO, that would be less expensive and involve the customer earlier in the design process.

Altia Design is a feature prototyping tool that creates functionally complete, interactive computer-based prototypes for use in market research. Fluke used this software to develop an initial front panel simulation of its first process calibrator. The goal of the design was to create a product that did not require a manual for basic operation. Beta-testing technicians followed a list of instructions that prompted interaction with the product's various features; they clicked around the screen as though pushing buttons on a real instrument. With the record-playback feature, Fluke engineers could see how many people pushed the wrong buttons and which buttons were pushed most frequently, allowing them to reposition keys accordingly and re-test with little turn-around time.

While the first electronic prototype was suited better to the engineering team, the second version was redesigned to fit the end-user. Since the beta-testers were actual end-users, their involvement in the testing phase increased their enthusiasm for the new product, and many of them purchased multiple units once the calibrator hit the market. Altia currently provides WYSIWYG design software that is easy to use but generates code small enough to be downloaded into hand-held devices.

--SG