This hands-on, four-day course introduced the fundamentals of prototyping as an iterative design process. Students explored rapid prototyping, wireframing, and minimum viable product (MVP) development, using tools ranging from quick sketches to high-fidelity mock-ups.
Through experimentation, they learned when to use low- vs. high-fidelity prototypes to validate ideas. By the end, they had a complete toolkit for transforming concepts into refined prototypes that effectively communicated design intentions.
The course emphasised prototyping as an ongoing process that drives innovation, equipping students with critical thinking skills, practical experience, and a deep understanding of how to refine ideas through iteration.
Jose Chavarria is an Interaction Designer and Creative Technologist with a background in Industrial Design Engineering. He's a CIID alumni and has been working in the Interaction Design field since 2015.
Jose started as an Interaction Engineer and later became an R&D Lead at a design studio in San Jose, Costa Rica where he created interactive art installations. He then joined CIID as resident faculty, managing the digital fabrication lab and mentoring students.
After that, he worked as a Creative Technologist and Strategist for an architecture firm, designing AR and VR solutions, digital products, and interactive installations.
Jose's work has been recognised by the Core77 Design Awards in 2021 for Speculative Design and Costa Rica Design Week in 2022 for Interactive Design.
Passionate about human perception and Life-Centred Design, Jose aims to create technology solutions that benefit all forms of life, not just humans.
But in short, he builds stuff and wears hats.
Ubaldo is a precise, strict, Product Designer. Before becoming a designer he attended a course in physics for a few years where he realised he needed to bring science into something more creative like design, a creative discipline where still to thrive you have to set constraints and think in a holistic way.
He loves to plan and optimise his days trying to fit as much knowledge as possible in his free time, when he is not doing medieval reenactment, of course. Andrea is a messy, curious, maker.Andrea loves to cook and talk about food, especially Italian food. He loves to fix stuff, being a broken utensil or a messed up computer.
Whatever he is doing he is always thinking about what to build to make that task easier or more fun.The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy is his life manual and he loves hiking and camping always knowing where his towel is.
Both Ubaldo and Andrea attended the Product Design course at Polytechnic University of Turin and the Interaction Design Programme at CIID in 2018 as a single body. They sometimes try to prevail over each other and sometimes collaborate together in a tension that will make them progress faster. Currently, they are trying to put together the scientific method learned from physics with the build, test, repeat mantra from CIID and try to build a career in Prototype Design, whatever that means.
