The fifth stage in the Design Thinking Process, Prototyping, is the release of an incomplete version of your artefact to the public, to test it and receive feedback from the audience/users. The aim of prototyping is to convert the concepts devised in the Ideation stage into a practical form, whether physically or digitally. After this, the Prototype may move forward into the Testing phase, or revert back to the Ideating or Defining stage, depending on the feedback gained.

Career Foundry explains that “Putting the user at the heart of the process requires you to test your designs on real users”. The Prototyping Phase is incredibly important in figuring out what works best for your audience, as it lets Users test what you’re promoting and offer insights as to what they would prefer or what works better, after all, the Artefact must serve the User as effectively as possible.

Prototyping relies heavily on Feedback Loops, the process of gaining feedback, and adjusting to better address the issues identified. The Feedback Loop works through five key steps:

1. Observation – recognise an absence or issue
2. Define – develop observations into ideas
3. Ideate – develop ideas into potential solutions
4. Prototype – create tangible physical/digital models of the solutions identified
5. Test – evaluate how well each prototype works and adjust the model appropriately

Alternatively, the Feedback Loop Process can be simplified as:

1. You produce something – create and publish something online
2. Measure information on the production – receive feedback from users
3. Use information to improve production – reiterate based on feedback

Although it has 1,686 views (as of 10/10/19), accessing feedback is the one area that North Gong Daily is severely lacking. Though each post has a comment section, it isn’t the type of site that warrants comments, since most people just use the site to check the surf then leave. There isn’t a lot else to see or do aside from the picture gallery, merch and various videos.

One thing that was changed early on after publishing was the site’s layout, after realising the site required a header image on each post, as seen below.

Having these images helps to further the beach aesthetic, which is why prototyping is such an important stage in the process – it lets you identify what isn’t effective and change it for the better. It has also helped to identify NGD’s starter pack audience, as seen below:

Feedback can be gained from Twitter posts, as seen below, however, this only works if people actually check out the site. Instagram posts work the same, in that if people haven’t checked the site, they might not be willing to take the extra time to look and give feedback.

I spoke to Kel and Michelle, NGD’s creators, on the weekend, and discussed the idea of monetising the website, I told them what that would mean for the site and how it would work, however, I didn’t bring up splitting the payments, as I am unsure as to how that would work with two different accounts, and very little earnings.

In The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Raymond, E states “too often software developers spend their days grinding away for pay at programs they neither need nor love.” Something surf-related had to be the way to go for my Digital Artefact, as surfing is a big part of my life, and something I want to continue with beyond University. From this reading, I’ve learnt that it’s important to ensure what you’re doing is something interesting, otherwise, it becomes boring and time-consuming, without reward.