As we’re designing something, it’s very unlikely that we will design something out of nowhere without a base or reference first. This base or reference is what’s called prototyping. Often times in design small sketches with couple of lines can already be considered prototyping, and if we look into web design, prototyping often times are just a couple of shapes without any color and text. It’s just the first look of what your design will eventually be like.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that prototyping is important. But how important is it? Here in this article we will be explaining to you why prototyping is important and necessary in your design making process.
- Things to follow
It’s easy to lost track of what you’re doing while you’re designing something. But that won’t be an issue if you have a prototype that you can use. It can be used for reference point and as guidelines as to how the finished product would look like.
2. Evaluate an Idea
By making a prototype, we will be able to see what can and can’t be implemented in your design. Sometimes implementing certain features or elements or graphics can be surprisingly hard, especially when you’re almost done already with the project. By making a prototype, you will be able to know in advance and thus reduces the hassle of redoing most if not all of your work just because of one small hiccup.
3. Feedback
As a designer of any kind, feedback from your stakeholder or customers are very important. We can’t just throw a finished product to a stakeholder and except them to be happy with it. Most of the time, there will be something that needs to be changed, or maybe something that’s not quite to their liking. If we have a prototype we can just send them the prototype that will represents the final product, and as such modifying what needs to be changed will be easy for the same reason as above.
4. Planning
Planning is of course a very necessary process in anything that we do, and the same can also be said for design. A prototype will often times be considered as the project specification of a design, and thus helps the entire team making a product that fully satisfies required specifications, and as we’ve mentioned above this can’t be done without a prototype, because planning requires a set of steps to follow, and as such it can’t be done if there’s none.
5. Lower Risks
Prototype will directly affect these three things: resources, budget, and time. The existence of prototype will highlight these shortcomings that usually only appears on a finished product, and as such saving resources, budget and time for both parties.
That is all for our short explanation on why prototyping is important and necessary in your design making process. If you’re looking to dive into design world, be sure to make a prototype of any project you started. As having a documentation of your work is never a bad idea and can only benefits you in the future, and prototyping is exactly that.
Enjoy!!
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