What is prototyping?

What is prototyping?

Making ideas tangible is fundamental. This starts in an ideation session when it comes to developing initial ideas. Instead of spending a long time discussing an idea, it makes sense to look for rudimentary sketches and comparable visual examples so that everyone in the room is talking about the same thing. Discussing an idea only in text form triggers different mental images in everyone, making it difficult to evaluate ideas and their potential.

How realistic a prototype should be depends heavily on the goal. If it's about getting initial feedback, simple sketches and paper prototypes are enough. If a product is to be tested on the market, then the prototype should be very realistic.

In prototyping, a clickable UX design is often created, but there are many more options. Prototypes are also needed for physical products such as new food & drink, real estate or service concepts. Especially for products that have high development costs, valuable customer feedback should be obtained at an early stage. This helps to prevent a lot of money and resources being poured into an idea that no one wants. It is advisable to make packaging design mock-ups look very real, or to create real estate renderings that convey the mood of the concept in order to obtain valid market feedback.

Definition of prototyping

Prototyping is used to make ideas tangible. It is an experimental process for testing ideas and concepts with customers. Companies that have integrated prototyping into their process save costs and resources by testing desirability and functionality at an early stage.

Tom and David Kelley of IDEO have perfectly summarized the importance of prototyping with the following words:

‍

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, a prototype is worth a thousand meetings.”

Implementing prototyping in the development process may initially be perceived by many companies as somewhat expensive and slowing down the process. However, the leading consulting agency IDEO has proven exactly the opposite:

‍

“By taking the time to prototype our ideas, we avoid costly mistakes such as becoming too complex too early or holding on to a weak idea for too long.”

– Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO

‍

When does which type of prototyping make sense?

In the development of new ideas, prototypes make sense at every stage and prototypes should be built continuously. Depending on the stage of the development process, the available resources and the sprint goals, you should decide which form of prototype makes sense.

If the goal is to give the team and potential users a first idea of the solution, a paper prototype that still looks very schematic and abstract (low-fidelity) might be sufficient. If the goal is to test the prototype with end users to see how desirable it is to them or to observe how they interact with it, the prototype should look as realistic as possible (medium to high-fidelity).

Low-fidelity prototype

Typically made of paper, craft materials, Lego, theater (for a service idea)

Goal: to test whether an idea is feasible and fundamentally understood

Advantages of low-fidelity prototypes:

• Fast
• Inexpensive
• Easy to revise

‍

Medium-fidelity prototype

Typically implemented digitally with a focus on function and unelaborated branding design

Goal: Test whether an idea is understood and functional

Advantages of medium-fidelity prototypes:

• screen flows can be experienced
• functionality is in the foreground
• no distraction from elaborate UI design with branding etc.
• cost-effectiveness can be estimated

‍

high-fidelity prototype

Typically, a level of fidelity like a realistic purchasable product, a 3D model with branding, a clickable website/app

Goal: testing whether a product will be accepted on the market before it goes into production.

They are a good way to get real customer feedback. At this level, clear statements can be made about desirability because the prototype feels like the final product. They help to approve the design before production/implementation begins.

Advantages of high-fidelity prototypes:

• It looks like the final product, except that it is not yet produced/coded by the factory
  
• Rich interactions with different customer journeys are possible
• No imagination on the part of the customer is needed. “What you see is what you get”
• Customer feedback is real, marketability can be tested
• Profitability can be calculated

‍

Pitfalls

High-fidelity prototypes can easily simulate things that would be costly and time-consuming to implement in the final version. Ideally, a development specialist should be involved in the iterations from an early stage to assess technical feasibility and costs.

‍

‍

Conclusion

Test early and with little effort to test the potential of an idea. Use the appropriate visual prototypes to get customer feedback. Customer feedback has become indispensable in the development of new ideas and should definitely be planned into the process from the outset. To do this, you need the appropriate level of prototype fidelity for the question at hand. Start early with simple paper prototypes. The more mature the idea becomes, the more realistic the prototype should be in order to test the marketability of an idea. This development process usually takes a few weeks. Prototyping can save a lot of time and money. This is because prototyping involves early testing and an iterative approach to creating products and services that can survive in the market.