Why Prototyping is Essential to Your Design Process
- June 13, 2024
- 5 Mins read
Category
Mobile App Development
Proceeding with an assumption that your design “will be liked” by the users because it is “so advanced” or “so user-friendly” could lead to disaster.
It’s no wonder that over 90% of new products launched every year fail. Product development teams often miss the truth about where their product stands – regarding design and functionality.
How do you determine if your product’s design is a hit or a miss? The answer is simple, yet one that works in the real world: you create a prototype and test it with the product’s intended users. Based on their feedback, you decide whether the design is a hit or a miss.
The problem is not necessarily that prototyping is missing from the design process; even if it is present, it lacks purpose.
The Right and Wrong Ways to Prototype
Developing a prototype like most people do it or developing it like you have always done it is equally off-base.
Instead, every prototype must be developed with a specific purpose; the most common purposes for developing a prototype may include the following:
Feature testing: Testing specific features of a product with the end user.
Presentation: Presenting how a product will look and feel to an audience who doesn’t have an idea or a reference to draw comparisons to.
Demonstration: Demonstrating the functionality of a given product either and getting feedback.
Specific Mistakes to Avoid
Not validating the product idea
If the product you are, no matter what results you get from prototype testing, your product will probably not do well in the market.
Before proceeding to prototype development, validate your product idea for desirability, viability, and feasibility.
Basing your Testing Results on One Source
Solely relying on the user’s verbal feedback can cause you to miss crucial insights into how they interact with the product. On the other hand, relying only on the data from the tracking tools can get you overly occupied.
Combining the user’s feedback and data from tracking their interactions will give you a complete picture.
Not Paying Attention to the Setting
Testing on the Wrong Sample
Misinterpreting User Feedback
The most effective approaches to prototyping
Exploratory prototyping
Rapid throwaway
Spiral prototyping
When is it best?
Experimental prototyping
When is it best?
Let your prototype be an evolving product
Incremental development
Evolutionary system development
When is it best?
A case in point is how Slack evolved to be a hit.
Conclusion:
No business intentionally creates products that would fail – however, it happens far too often. This fact highlights the importance of prototyping in business. If done right, prototyping can be a game-changing step – helping businesses improve the chances of your product being a hit.
At its base, it is about having a purposeful approach to prototyping based on specific goals and objectives. In addition to having a clearly defined approach, businesses must avoid the mistakes highlighted above and proactively address the challenges. If that sounds too complicated, seek to collaborate with a technology partner like Hyperminds.
About the Author
Samar Ayub is an accomplished Project Manager with over 8 years of dedicated service in the field of Mobile and Web Applications development. Having overseen the development of more than 15 live applications, which are available on both the App Store and Play Store, Samar’s work has directly impacted the lives of over 500,000 users worldwide. With a keen focus on Product Discovery and MVP Development, Samar brings a wealth of expertise to every project she undertakes. She is available on LinkedIn for further discussion.