The most common definition of the prototype is, “A simulation or sample version of a final product, which is used for testing prior to launch.”
There are a lot of different approaches for prototyping, and some have more advantages towards the others depending on the stage of the production. A well-prepared prototype will be very handy during internal pitches too.
In this article, we’d like to focus on the usability testing aspect.
Start building your prototypes early and update them often.
The goal of a prototype is to test products (and product ideas) before sinking lots of time and money into the final product.
Prototyping is essential for resolving usability issues before launch. It can also reveal areas that need improvement. Once a draft of your product idea is in the hands of real users, you’ll finally see how they want to use the product. You can then go back and adjust your initial guesswork.
The most important aspect of any prototype prepared for usability testing is to imitate the real product as much as possible. If your prototype is not representing the product good enough, please wait till you are ready.
If your prototype is not representing the product good enough, you are relying on the imagination of the participants. That would lead to false positives and guess works.
Make sure, the visuals, content, interaction and the medium is ready for testing. Any bugs or data consistency issues may drive your participants off and will impact the study and so the findings.
It helps to prepare the prototype for your own device and use them for testing. So that, you can control and limit the hardware and operating system. Having said these, you need to keep users’ familiarity with the device in mind. i.e. it is a good idea to keep devices for iOS and Android users.
Unfortunately, We can not use our own devices all the time, especially during the remote studies. This makes our job more difficult.
Here are some tips that help us during the prototyping:
- Don’t be scared of coding. It is easier than you think
- Start preparing in the early stages.
- Create component libraries instead of whole screens, and keep them updated.
- Connect to a data file/database to ensure data consistency
- Get ready for the different screen sizes. How will your app will behave? Zoom in?, Align? Both?
- Experiment with the tools available
We love creating the cutting-edge prototypes, and we like challenges. In the past, we have imitated a search engine (the biggest one!), a remote control for a washing machine, a mobile banking app that can do OCR tracing, and many more.
We use many different tools, and it changes/evolves in time. Currently, our favorites are Axure, Framer X, HTML, and PHP.
