Imagine a situation.
You have an idea about making a sandwich and you start doing it. At some point, though, you realize that you don’t quite like how you did it. Perhaps more ham would be a better idea... Well, it’s too late now, but you can do it better next time.
Nothing to lose your sleep over, right? But now imagine that instead of you, there’s you and a team of 12 web developers. Instead of the sandwich, there’s a 50-page website for your new startup. Hoping for a second chance in this case wouldn’t be a great idea at all (especially money-wise).
It’s the most straightforward explanation of why prototyping is so important in web design projects. A lack of prototyping can turn a promising project into a dramatic failure, and you don’t need that kind of learning.
In this article, let’s go over:
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Common reasons why designers neglect prototyping
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Methods to ensure effective prototyping.
Before we go to these things, though, here’s a quick intro to prototyping to get you in the right mood.
What is Prototyping? Why is it so Important?
Prototyping in web design is a process of creating an interactive mockup of a digital product (most commonly, websites).
Designers create prototypes to test the usability and get a good idea of the user journey and experience. It’s like being a user who gets their hands on an early product version.
Although the prototype may not always include all features and elements of the final website version, it still provides improvement ideas. Implementing these ideas on the early development stages, in turn, helps to avoid mistakes and make more user-centered products.
So, creating prototypes is something you NEED to do, as many times as it takes. In some cases, however, it’s not the case. Many designers neglect doing so, just to find a lot of problems further down the road.
Here’s how it happens.
The Most Common Prototyping Mistakes [and Consequences]
These are “the smoking gun,” the situations where web design projects take the wrong turn. Unfortunately, they can happen even without people realizing it.
1. Falling in Love with the First Idea that Makes Sense
The designer works on the prototype. They are brainstorming when, suddenly, an idea pops up into their head. They think it’s brilliant, so they go with it. The prototype looks excellent, and they think they got it.
They show the design to the project manager, who loves it. Even though the manager’s UX knowledge isn’t great, they agree that the idea is awesome.
But there’s a problem: a lack of prototyping resulted in the designer not exploring different approaches. Ultimately, this led to too many assumptions, which didn’t quite work for real users.
That’s why you should never go with the first “best” idea. Let it be a foundation for testing rather than a final version.
What to do when a designer comes to you, looking excited, with a great prototype? A great idea is to give them credit and ask to keep their creative process going because one more idea could be just around the corner.
2. Too Much Focus on Theory
Like many others working in web development, designers like to talk about their work. That’s totally fine, but sometimes, an inexperienced designer can spend a lot of their time pitching, describing, and explaining their prototypes.
What this seemingly fine situation turns into is a lot of theoretical discussion. Figuring out real-life problems and challenges becomes secondary, and the project results in the development of a poor product.
To avoid wasting a lot of your time and money, you need to convince the designer to show the real value behind each decision they made. If they can’t explain the solutions in the prototype and focus too much on design essentials, chances are they need to go back to the drawing board.
Make sure that the prototype is made the way the users would want it to be. Not just because a UX strategy or book say so.
How to choose a designer that makes this right? Are freelancers just as good as a dedicated team? Read a guide below.
Guide: Outsourcing Challenge: Upwork Vs. Finding Your Own Outsourcing Company
3. Prototyping Without Clear Goals
“Why prototype in the first place?” - the way the designer answers this question has a great effect on the success of web design projects.
If the answer is a broad one like “Create a great product” or “Decide where to put UI elements,” then the outcome might not be ideal.
To set a reasonable goal before actually designing the product, you can follow these steps:
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Know the perfect project outcome. Have a good understanding of the intended outcome of prototyping
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Study UX findings. Consider the findings of UX research to know the real user’s needs
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Understand the overall project purpose. This is something the designer needs to ask the client and get their vision.
A lack of clear goals will have the designer rely on their intuition rather than the needs of target users. That’s a recipe for disaster. To avert it, always have at least several well-defined goals before building the prototypes.
How to Build a Website Prototype Effectively?
The success of your web development projects ultimately depends on two things:
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User research
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Ability to use prototyping tools.
First, user research. It’s really hard to overestimate how important it is to take the time to design the prototypes and troubleshoot potential problems. This must be fueled by a great knowledge of the intended users’ needs.
Failing to understanding and anticipate user’s problems is something that many companies struggle with. In many cases, the reason is a lack of the capabilities to conduct the research needed to build prototypes for testing.
If your company doesn’t have in-house experts to take on the user research challenge and create prototypes, no problem. You can always hire a web development firm to do “UX research as a service” and build prototypes (even interactive ones).
In other words, they will give you the definitive answer to whether your business idea is worth turning into a website or another digital product.
Next, prototyping tools. How to use them? What are the best ones?
The Design Tools Survey of over 3,000 designers found the following. Sketch is the most popular one, closely followed by InVision and Figma. The pencil and paper also made it into the list, by the way.
Source: The Design Tools Survey 2019
The ability of a designer to use the most popular prototyping tools is a factor. So, always ensure that the designers you’re working with are proficient users of at least a few of just-mentioned apps.
Prototyping Matters
No one wants to be in a situation where they need to go back and re-design. It just doesn’t make any sense, especially in the business where companies might lose a lot of money due to insufficient prototyping expertise.
To make your business idea a success, pay close attention to prototyping. Many entrepreneurs go as far as hiring a dedicated team to do just that. The potential problems with a website or another digital product aren’t always noticeable from the start.
Prototyping is your best weapon for protecting your business idea and making sure it has a good chance to pay you back nicely. May it work for you well!