No prototype... no deal
(Free photo by Med Badr Chemmaoui on unsplash)
At the beginning of any project we tend to believe that we know everything useful to the project; we believe that if we spent a lot of time working in the project design we are completely ready to deliver a product or a solution that will be perfect for our users. That's not completely true, even if we did a great design phase, it is a fact that changes through the project development phase will be something mandatory to do. So, how do we know that we need to change something? How do we realize that there was something that we were missing in the design?
Well, the answer is that the only way to be sure is to test your idea and see how it works in a real environment. Like we learned in the chapter 2, prototyping is a way of making your ideas tangible, and find out quickly if you should devote more time and resources to them.
But, why are we talking about a chapter's 2 topic? Have the authors of this book ran out of ideas? There are no other important things to talk about at this moment? Well, no. Don't forget that design is a cycle, in which we are constantly checking our solutions. Prototyping is not only important when we are at the beginning of a project, there are multiple types of prototypes and multiple ways of prototyping, because in each phase of a project it is important to make them and test them with real users.
The life cycle of a project, that have already go through the design phase, should be: development - prototyping - development -prototyping and so on. A prototype gives you fast feedback and multiple insights about your idea. You need to use this tool to its best extend, try to check for everything you are not sure if is working, and pay attention even to the things that you think are perfect. Ask the users what they think about your solution, listen for suggested changes, and learn from each time you do this process. Prototyping is not only the release of a beta version of a product, is the process in which we spend time looking out for the release, gathering interactions in detail, trying to find the flaws and/or the improvements we can do.
Then, what about if you do a prototype now? At this time of the course, you have the UX, and you have already decided the colors and fonts for your application. Use one of more of the following techniques to make your prototype:
Manual Sketching
You can make a mockup by hand, drawing and using the right colors. You can even create a video to show how you think your app should work. But please, remember not to do vertical videos:
(Video from Glove and Boots. The video is published under the Standard YouTube license).
Remember that sketches and wireframes are used for the UX model, but mockups with colors, fonts, icons, images, etc are used for th e UI model.
Digital Prototyping
Arts are for sure something that we as engineers are not good at (most of us, it is not our intention to hurt you if you are an Engineer with an artist heart), thus, graphic design is not for us, but, the following web applications will help our UI model look pretty good:
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