With the semester approaching a close at record speed, prototyping signaled that our project itself is also approaching its final stages. The process of turning our idea into reality seemed both exciting and daunting at the same time. It was exciting to finally see our idea come alive, but daunting in figuring out how to develop it into a finished product. Since our idea was to build a database of neighborhood information, such as safety or entertainment, we decided to prototype the website using Wix. While I originally thought this would be the fun part of the process, it turned out to be more difficult when the design wasn’t matching exactly what we had in mind.
At first, I thought my team would speed through the prototyping, but the process actually proved to be very long and tedious. The process of deciding on how to structure the website and what to include seemed to be the easiest part. Once we really started getting into the business of creating the website and putting it all together, then time started to pass by without much to show for it. In order to get a website that was even close to what we had imagined, we had to simplify a lot of what we had in mind. I think what my group aimed for though was a result that was polished and perfect. But in reality, the process of prototyping isn’t about going from nothing to perfect. It’s more about the development and building on the rough draft of an idea until you find the best possible product in the end. So, I guess that’s why the next step is to run a focus group!