Stage 06 of 9
Prototype
What does the smallest version look like?
Before the final piece, make three bad ones. Prototypes are cheap; regret is expensive. Test the idea at low stakes — study, sketch, mock-up, single unit of a series.
Prompts to sit with
- 01What is the minimum viable version of this work?
- 02What could you make in an afternoon that would prove or kill the idea?
- 03Which variables do you want to hold constant, and which to sweep?
- 04What will 'good enough to continue' look like — and who decides?
Small practices
- Make 3-5 studies at ¼ scale. Line them up. Kill 2. Continue with the rest.
- Adopt a fixed constraint — a rule you refuse to break (same size, same palette, same time limit) — to make prototypes comparable.
- Photograph every stage. You'll want the record later.
Follow one project throughAn interactive daf — A contemplative reader that keeps the argument — traced through all nine stages, in progress.A running example, one entry per stage. Click to expand.
Three bad ones, cheap. (1) A single passage, static HTML, daf layout, no interaction — does the page hold? (2) The same passage with the grammar as hover-glosses — does the commentary help or interrupt? (3) The same passage with the grammar as a permanent margin — does the reader still read the centre? Line them up, show three people, kill two. The Thurman water mock is the ancestor of #1 and taught me that beauty alone is not enough.