Mockup

The shuttle sitting outside theSpace Shuttle Americaride is an example of a mockup

Google Street Viewmockup inFreiheit statt Angstdemonstration, Berlin, September 11, 2010

Boeing 2707mockup at theHiller Aviation Museum

Inmanufacturinganddesign,amockup,ormock-up,is ascaleorfull-sizemodel of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. A mockup may be aprototypeif it provides at least part of the functionality of a system and enables testing of a design.

Mock-ups are used by designers mainly to acquire feedback from users. Mock-ups address the idea captured in a popular engineering one-liner: "You can fix it now on the drafting board with an eraser or you can fix it later on the construction site with a sledge hammer".

Mockups are used asdesign toolsvirtually everywhere a new product is designed. Mockups are used in the automotive device industry as part of the product development process, where dimensions, overall impression, and shapes are tested in awind tunnelexperiment. They can also be used to test consumer reaction.

Military acquisition

Mockups are part of themilitary acquisitionprocess. Mockups are often used to testhuman factorsandaerodynamics,for example.In this context, mockups includewire-frame models.They can also be used for public display and demonstration purposes prior to the development of a prototype, as with the case of theLockheed Martin F-35 Lightning IImock-up aircraft.

Consumer goods

Mockups are used in the consumer goods industry as part of the product development process, where dimensions, human factors, overall impression, andcommercial artare tested inmarketing research. Mockups help to visualise how all design decisions play together, they are convincing and closely resemble the final product, it can be easily revised rather than much later in the production stage, It also helps in visualisation of package design projects in 3D & speed up approvals.

Furniture and cabinetry

Mockups are commonly required by designers, architects, and end users for custom furniture and cabinetry.The intention is often to produce a full-sized replica, using inexpensive materials in order to verify a design. Mockups are often used to determine the proportions of the piece, relating to various dimensions of the piece itself, or to fit the piece into a specific space or room. The ability to see how the design of the piece relates to the rest of the space is also an important factor in determining size and design.

When designing a functional piece of furniture, such as a desk or table, mockups can be used to test whether they suit typical human shapes and sizes. Designs that fail to consider these issues may not be practical to use. Mockups can also be used to test color, finish, and design details which cannot be visualized from the initial drawings and sketches. Mockups used for this purpose can be on a reduced scale.

The cost of making mockups is often more than repaid by the savings made by avoiding going into production with a design which needs improvement.

Software engineering

The most common use of mockups insoftware developmentis to create user interfaces that show the end user what the software will look like without having to build the software or the underlying functionality. Software UI mockups can range from very simple hand drawn screen layouts, through realistic bitmaps, to semi functional user interfaces developed in a software development tool.

Mockups are often used to createunit tests- there they are usually calledmock objects.The main reason to create such mockups is to be able to test one part of a software system (a unit) without having to use dependent modules. The function of these dependencies is then "faked" using mock objects.

This is especially important if the functions that are simulated like this are difficult to obtain (for example because it involves complex computation) or if the result is non-deterministic, such as the readout of a sensor.

A common style of software design isService-oriented architecture(SOA), where many components communicate viaprotocolssuch asHTTP.Service virtualizationandAPI mocks and simulatorsare examples of implementations of mockups or so called over-the-wiretest doublesinsoftware systemsthat are modelling dependentcomponentsormicroservicesin SOA environments.

Mockup software can also be used for micro level evaluation, for example to check a single function, and derive results from the tests to enhance the products power and usability on the whole.

Systems engineering

Mockups,wireframesand prototypes are not so cleanly distinguished insoftwareandsystems engineering,where mockups are a way of designinguser interfaceson paper or in computer images. A software mockup will thus look like the real thing, but will not do useful work beyond what the user sees. A software prototype, on the other hand, will look and work just like the real thing. In many cases it is best to design or prototype the user interface beforesource codeis written or hardware is built, to avoid having to go back and make expensive changes. Early layouts of a World Wide Web site or pages are often calledmockups.A large selection ofproprietaryoropen-sourcesoftware tools are available for this purpose.

Architecture

Further information:Architectural model

Architectural mockup for a new urbanist community in McKinney, Texas, US

At the beginning of a project's construction, architects will often direct contractors to provide material mockups for review. These allow the design team to review material and color selections, and make modifications before product orders are placed. Architectural mockups can also be used for performance testing (such as water penetration at window installations, for example) and help inform the subcontractors how details are to be installed.

See also

• Digital mockup
• Human-in-the-Loop
• Military dummy
• Operations research
• Pilot experiment