For creating a good web design, it is important for you as a web designer, to test your idea even before you head towards jump-starting your project. Testing your idea helps you make sure that your planned approach is the most effective way to achieve your project goals. Prototyping provides you with a great opportunity to test your idea and most of all, to be able to visualize what looks great, what fits the bill for your project and client needs regardless of whether their requirement is related to a website or a software.
What is a prototype
A prototype is an elementary version of a design from which the advanced forms and versions can be developed. A prototype gives you a sneak-peek into the possibilities of the form and function of your design for you to take the right direction into making the desired changes to fulfil the project needs. In this article, we seek to discuss why and when it is important to prototype your design and what the popular different ways of prototyping are.
How to prototype
In the modern times with the availability of numerous tools, it has become easy to prototype. The prototyping tools are easy to integrate with your design process currently in use. From your basic approach of using the friendly paper and pencil to the most advanced of the downloadable software and web tools that can run in your browser, the choices of prototyping tools are many.
Reasons why to prototype your design
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The prototyping of your design concepts is a great way to present your design ideas to the decision-makers of the project so as to get their approval/sign-off. So, it serves as a great tool for illustration or presentation
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For the designs focused on user-experience and usability, what matters the most is the end-user feedback. Prototyping gives you the opportunity to test your design with an initial set of target audience to get genuine feedback to improve it in terms of user-experience.
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Prototype puts your entire project into visual perspective and once you can visualize how the end-product of your project is going to look, it becomes easier for you to produce the required elements in a more meaningful manner. So, a prototype serves as a visual guide to the designers.
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With a variety of tools available to prototype your project’s design, we can safely state that a prototype seamlessly integrates into your design process which could be a great reason why there is no harm for the designers to begin with prototyping their project to higher the chances of its market success.
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Prototyping also brings in a culture of collaborative work in your organization since it gives your teams a chance to work on a project in perfect sync. With a prototype in hand, the team members can simultaneously work on the same or different components of the project even if there are changes still pending for the design. And with the same big picture in their minds owing to a better visualization now, they can communicate about the development of the project more effectively.
It is quick and rather inexpensive to create a prototype and it helps you ensure that you start your project on the right foot. So, there is no reason why you should not prototype before beginning with the actual design process.
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