Prototyping
Prototyping is an important part of development for any product, physical or digital. The procedure transforms an idea into a tangible concept with a physical structure. A prototype is a crude functioning model of a product or computer system produced for illustration purposes or even as part of the development process in software development.
A prototype is a pre-production sample, model, or release of a product that is used to test an idea or methodology
Prototypes are an important aspect of the design phase and common practice across many professions. Prototypes are created by builders, engineers, product designers, and even services designers to test their designs before investment in mass manufacturing.
In terms of software solutions, the primary goal of prototyping is to test the concept and design of the final product. Useability studies can be conducted on prototypes that are critical for identifying and resolving customer pain points with users.
UX (User Experience) and UI (User Interface) teams visualize and optimize the user experience during the design phase by testing prototypes with end-users.
Importance of prototype
The prototype is considered the most important in the development process because of the following characteristics:
- Validate the product’s design.
- Make a presentation to potential investors or licensees.
- Defend intellectual property.
- Remove any doubts on what the final product will look like.
