The Benefits of Prototyping Design and Why

Remember when you developed your first web or mobile app? Remember what a hairball it was until you decided to lay out your ideas and get organized?

If these not-so-fond moments are distant memories to you, odds are you realized that successful web or mobile app projects must incorporate some kind of prototyping prior to launch. However, if you’re in the beginning stages of developing your first web or mobile app, some of these concepts may be new to you.

Learn from the mistakes of others, and fully investigate prototyping, design sprints, and product roadmaps. Read further, as we briefly discuss each below:

…Period.

A prototype for your web or mobile app allows you to see exactly what the design and development team will be creating—without the added expense of actually creating it. You’ll be able to determine which features need and do not need improvement more accurately. Without an initial prototype, you’re essentially just hoping your team knocks it out of the park the first time around.

A design sprint is a time-saving, cost-reducing risk management strategy for product or service development. This five-stage implementation process usually involves the following:

Understanding the audience, competition, and challenges of the project

Diverging creative ways that these problems and challenges can be overcome

Converging the ideas that can come later in a product’s life cycle

Prototyping as explained above

Testing with real people

These are more than mental exercises. A design sprint provides a comprehensive overview of what tasks need to be done, when, and for whom.

Product roadmaps are more or less exactly what they sound like: tools that show the anticipated or desired progression of a product. They essentially keep your project headed in the right direction. Product roadmaps usually have less to do with technical design aspects (although it can sometimes include them), and more to do with the business side of a project—elements like budgeting, future development, and goals.

No coding experience? No problem. If you’d like to learn more about prototyping for your next project but you’re feeling a little intimidated, take a look at our post from last year about How to Prototype Your App Without Any Money or Coding Experience.

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