Prototypes

A prototype is built to show that something can be done and to make the tradeoffs visible. It is not a product, it has no maintenance commitment, and it is labeled as a demonstration wherever it appears.

What is in this group

Charts that survive without color demonstrates chart encodings that carry their meaning without depending on hue, using position, ordering, and direct labels instead. It exists because the argument is much easier to accept once the alternative is on screen.

What a prototype here has to include

The technique it demonstrates, the case where it stops working, and what would have to change before it could be relied on. A demonstration that omits its failure case is a sales asset.

Why these are not offered as deliverables

Prototype code is written to answer one question and is not hardened, documented, or accessible to the standard applied to delivered work. Where a technique from one graduates into practice, it is written up under methods and held to that standard instead.