And now is where the real decision is made: which prototype gets developed into a final product.
I approached this decision by sharing the previous entry, containing pictures and descriptions of my prototypes, on the Facebook page of the LARP organization I intend to market the final product to (as well as on my business and personal Facebook pages). I asked for opinions on and questions about my designs, and formed my conclusion organically from their feedback - this allowed me to account for not only overt preferences of one over another, but what elements of each design my audience liked the most. It also brought to my attention a few potential weaknesses in some of my designs that I had not noticed on my own yet.
I also did a certain amount of hands-on product testing. All three of the prototypes I had made were comprehensive enough to perform the task they were designed for, although I did have to be very careful as the materials used were very lightweight and simply pinned together in places. This was more of an insurance policy than a determining factor - it wouldn't do if a design that looked great when photographed and posted on the internet turned out to be completely impractical when put to use. Fortunately, all the designs seemed to work well enough to move forward, although the soft pack seemed to have some problems in the realm of comfortable wear.
Both audience comments and hands-on testing point strongly towards the frame pack as my best choice to move forward. When you also consider that the prototyping process provided a clear path to move forward on, that pleases me a great deal. I do, however, plan on keeping the diagonal/single-shoulder bag on my to-do list. It has a lot of potential, and I've received some positive feedback and definite interest in it, but most of that interest is either for use in a slightly different market (a futuristic LARP rather than medieval), or as a general purpose bag rather than as a water carrier, so I'm putting it on hold in the interest of continuing to directly address my Gap.
So, onward with the frame pack!
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