Prototypes as learning tools for exploring biomaterials

Design as a discipline over time has increasingly drawn closer to other fields, fostering its contamination with other multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and skills. This seeking of connections and contamination resulted in the construction of profiles such as designers skilled in conceptualizing, developing, and communicating responsive solutions to the principles of innovation, ethics, usability, etc. These skills are gained through experience and practice with multiple tools and techniques, among which the effectiveness of the creation of mock-ups and prototypes stands out. The prototyping activity is an already recognized and well-established moment within the design process. No one can write without editing; in the same way, the design process stipulates that, after an initial phase of formal definition of the conceived concept, moments of verification are necessary. These verification moments can be effectively achieved through the creation of tangible artifacts, such as mock-ups and prototypes, terms often used interchangeably.