Welcome to In Process
A space dedicated to the messy, brilliant, and essential journey of making things real.
Why do we prototype?
Regardless of the product, service, film or story we are developing, it is notoriously difficult to see the hidden assumptions we make about functionality, constraints, ecosystems, humor, and human needs. A prototype serves as an illuminator—a tool that brings these sometimes invisible biases into the light.
Prototyping is a way of thinking that transcends industries. We see it in the 1:1 scale models of architects Herzog & de Meuron, in the ”story reels” Pixar uses to build entire worlds long before a single frame is finalized. Sometimes early-stage quirky ideas build the whole concept for a new product
The Beauty of the Unfinished
From a design process perspective, prototypes can be more interesting than the finished result. In the prototype, the joy of discovery is still intact. It represents a state of pure potential where an idea or the cut out shapes of paper can be more valuable than a million lines of code.
To borrow a perspective from Richard Dawkins: Nature has no prototype phase. Mutations are tested directly in the harsh reality of life, where the price of failure is extinction. But we humans have been gifted with a unique ability: we can create temporary universes. We prototype so that we can let our ideas die, so that we don’t have to.
About this site
In Process serves as a personal gymnasium for my own thinking and professional development. A garden of thoughts. By documenting these processes, I hope to provide a lighthouse for others navigating the ”messy middle”, making the gap between idea and reality feel less daunting for everyone.
#TODO: Expand on the topic of sustainability
Admittedly, you will find content related more to industrial manufacturing. This is included because the act of “making things real” is rarely a straight line. Glimpses of the prototyping spirit can be found even in the most rigid factories (such as the book Designed by Apple in California) and because any manufacturing process is—carefully worded—not without challenges of its own.
Note on this site: This site is itself a prototype, and therefore slightly rough around the edges. All content is copyright of the respective holders. I believe this curated material falls within the limits of fair use, but if you are a copyright holder who wishes to have material removed, please reach out.
Join the process
In Process is written and curated by Pelle Beckman and contributors. Do you have a glimpse of a process, a failed experiment, or a brilliant workaround that deserves to be seen? We encourage you to contribute. You can submit ideas via email or, even better, open a pull request on our GitHub repository.
Contributions