The evolving role of prototypes in design research: a discussion on terms and meanings.

In this paper, we present the preliminary findings of an ongoing research project addressing the role of advanced prototypes in design research. The project aims at investigating the evolution of the role of the prototype in design research, given the recent advances in prototyping techniques and processes. In the first phase, we collected a diversity of definitions from literature, outlining both traditional and emerging traits of the use of prototypes. We observed that researchers tend to classify prototypes based on a variety of different purposes, which are tightly bound to the type of enquiry being carried out and the specific area of research in which they work. The emergent heterogeneity of terms and meanings shows that the definition of prototype is anything but univocal. This multiplicity of definitions led us to develop an overview of the assortment of terminologies and purposes that researchers use to describe the role(s) of the prototype.