Prototyping

Prototyping is the practice of building working models of a product or service to explore, share and test design ideas before committing to full development. Teams use prototypes at every stage — from quick pen-and-paper sketches in the alpha phase through to realistic code prototypes in beta and live — to discover usability problems early, align the whole team around a shared vision, and explore design options faster and at lower risk than using production code. Prototypes range from low-fidelity sketches that validate basic navigation and user flows, to high-fidelity interactive models that simulate the final product with real content, transitions and data. The choice of fidelity depends on the question being asked: early questions benefit from fast iteration, while later testing demands realistic interactions that reveal how users behave.