Best Practices for Prototyping
Best Practices for Prototyping
Prototyping is an essential part of the product development process. It allows you to test your ideas early and often, and to get feedback from users before you invest a lot of time and money into development.
Here are some best practices for prototyping:
Start low-fidelity and work your way up to high-fidelity
Low-fidelity prototypes are quick and easy to create, and they’re great for getting feedback on the overall concept of your product. High-fidelity prototypes are more detailed and realistic, and they’re better for testing specific user interactions.
Focus on functionality first and then add visual design
The purpose of a prototype is to test the functionality of your product, not the visual design. Don’t spend too much time on making your prototype look perfect. Focus on getting the functionality right first, and then you can worry about the visuals later.
Use real content whenever possible
Using real content will help you to identify any usability problems early on. If you’re using placeholder text, it’s easy to overlook problems that would be obvious if you were using real content.
Test with real users
The best way to get feedback on your prototype is to test it with real users. Get people who are representative of your target audience to use your prototype and give you their feedback.
Be prepared to iterate
No prototype is perfect. You’ll need to iterate on your prototype based on the feedback you receive. Don’t be discouraged if your first prototype isn’t perfect. Just keep iterating until you have a prototype that you’re happy with.
