There’re many different ways of prototyping available to make decisions and sharpen your ideas and test the final solutions.
Below are the elements of prototyping and testing:
- People – Testers and them who are spectating.
- Objects – Prototype and the objects with which people connect.
- Location – Environment
- Interactions – Physical or digital, person to person, objects, and the location.
With these 4 components of testing a prototype in mind, let us look at the following methods of prototyping that you can use:
1. Diagrams
This is one of the oldest methods of prototyping. It needs the minimum effort and does not require specific skills to make it useful. Using diagrams is the easiest way to elaborate the ideas to achieve it. Practically diagram drawing is an effective method and all you need is paper and a pen. It will be more useful when the situation becomes more complex.
Eg: System flow diagrams, use cases, or sequence diagrams.
2. Paper Interfaces
Digital products including mobile applications, websites, and other screen-related products require you to make use of a range of prototyping methods during the final stages of development. Hence the paper interfaces are more helpful in the beginning stage of the prototyping. Noting down elaborating in a paper is the easiest and cheapest method of prototyping. When using paper interfaces, you can find out many areas for further advancement like usability issues that could be corrected during the early stages itself.
3. Storyboards
Guiding people through their experience is a good way to lead to achieving their target. You can use this prototyping to create a picturization of the user’s journey or how the users would tackle this issue. It will give a clear path to a complete user experience like a series or an image storyline.
The storyboarding method will give an overall plan for the developer which could be followed in finding solutions throughout the development process. It will be more useful for making a complete understanding of users and creating high-level ideation and discussions.
4. Lego Prototypes
Lego is a toy but its strength in delivering imagination is what guides a company to success. The main reason for using Lego to create a prototype is that it can easily be destroyed and reassembled. Lego parts can be removed and joined with another design and demonstrate whether it’s working or not.
5. Role-Playing
Role-playing or experiential prototyping is a way that permits your design team to find out plots within the system you’re focusing on physically. Ability in expressing the users’ emotional experience while using a product is a huge benefit here.
