Technatic | Have you ever heard of the term prototype? Software product development is currently experiencing developments in terms of appearance and focuses on user experience or UI/UX Design. This leads to a prototype, an application that aims to find out in advance the shape of the product that is in the development process.
An understanding of the process of making a prototype, what methods and types are, will be discussed thoroughly in this article. Therefore, let's watch until the end!
What is a Prototype ?
A prototype is a form of system design scheme that forms a model and size or scalability standards which will then be worked on into a product. Every developer or user can interact directly with the model without having to create a real product. This prototype system is tailored to the initial needs of software development. This aims to find out several features and functions that have been previously defined.
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This way, users are able to catch errors early before implementing and releasing the entire product. It can be concluded that the prototype is not a final product, but is a trial product. The use of prototypes can reduce errors when users start to use them.
Benefits of Prototypes
Here are some of the benefits of prototyping as follows:
1. Know User Needs Early
The developer and designer team is able to determine the priority needs of users in order to create more suitable products. Therefore, the development process becomes faster and in accordance with the predetermined deadlines.
2. Save Product Development Costs
One of the other advantages of using this design scheme is that it can save and reduce development costs to a minimum, so that the funding allocation can be used for other needs.
3. Get a more concrete picture
With a prototype, you can provide a more real and concrete picture by creating a sketch display, either in low or high-fidelity.
4. Facilitate product presentation
By using a prototype, developers are able to understand the flow or design of the display that will be created more precisely, so that the description of the product idea is easy to understand and does not only involve theory.
5. Accommodate User Desires
Application developers are very open to receiving various input from clients or product users regarding the results of the prototype that has been created. Opinions or input from system users can give rise to other ideas for adding new features in the future. This is very useful for assessing the feasibility of a product feature and functionality that will be released.
Prototype Types in UI/X Design
The final result of the UI/UX development process is a prototype. Several types of prototype models include the following
1. Sketch
A sketch or sketch is a drawing made with a pencil or other writing instrument on paper. Generally, sketches are used in the initial design stage for designing a product. The function of the sketch is to identify design flaws that can cause problems in terms of user experience.
Sketch is also an example of a low-fidelity model, because designers can re-engineer design projects quickly at an affordable cost.
2. Wireframes
Wireframe is a concept that focuses on arranging a design layout with elements in the form of content. Most wireframe models use grayscale and black. This type of prototype is also included in low-fidelity, because the design team can make sketches with the help of tools, such as Whimsical, Balsamiq, Figma, and others. The wireframing process usually takes a short time, so the design team can apply it to light project needs.
3. Mockups
The final type of prototype is a mockup, which is a design that is completely created based on the combination of colors, layout, typography and content within it. The advantage of a mockup is that it can represent the final product more clearly and look real.
The process of creating a high-fidelity mockup will take longer than the previous two types of prototypes. However, the results of this type are more specific to provide examples of products that are close to user needs.
Stages of the Prototype Method
After that, it is important for you to understand the steps in the prototyping method to make it easier to manage the resources of a prototype. What are the stages of the prototype method? Here are the detailed steps:
- Carry out information gathering and initial observations
- Create a prototype based on the analysis results obtained
- Carry out an evaluation process for models that have been successfully created by the design team
- Carrying out testing on prototyping products
- Carry out re-testing of the system before entering the model release
- Testing the prototyping system with users and related stakeholders
Prototype Example
The following are several examples of creating prototype systems in building application products, as follows:
- Paper: Is an example of a product demo model using simple paper and stationery. The final product of this design aims to provide several options regarding shortcomings in terms of appearance and function of a product.
- Low Fidelity Model: The next example is low fidelity or a simple design concept. With this, users can interact directly with the design. However, the appearance is still in the form of a sketch with predominantly black or gray colors only.
- High Fidelity Model: The final example is a design with a more complex visual appearance and can represent the product in terms of User Interface (UI) by combining a more comfortable and better user experience.
- Using HTML: The prototype method using HTML is quite complicated, because this type of sample is specifically for designers who have more skills and understanding regarding coding and programming languages.
This method is composed of basic HTML which is able to save time resources for the creation process. With this method, it is hoped that it will make it easier to develop prototypes in the future. That's a complete explanation of prototypes, starting from the definition, types, methods and benefits that you need to know.
In essence, prototypes are also used when designing a website. This is very important to pay attention to so that the resulting website matches your wishes.