If you’re working on an internal project, ideating with a new product or in services – rapid prototyping is the way to go. We use it everyday as part of our process – and prototyping can be incredibly efficient – it can also help save you a ton of dev hours and build an experience your customers want.

WHAT IS RAPID PROTOTYPING?

Rapid prototyping is a tool we use in our agile and lean UX processes – instead of having dozens of hours of development set aside to prototype – we will spend an hour or two creating multiple click through prototypes on Marvel or Invision along with multiple flows to test with users. This leaves plenty of time to take in feedback, discuss, iterate and then re-test the updated version in little time.

Benefits of rapid prototyping?

Rapid prototyping is a low cost, efficient and agile way to test your assumptions, flesh out features and perfect the experience. We no longer need to spend days or weeks of development time (or a ton of money) on a prototype – we can now test and iterate on features dozens of times in a two week sprint with the rapid prototyping method.

Before you get started:

You need to have a few things in line before you begin. First, you must understand the core of what you are building and that way you can prototype with a clear understanding of your product, stakeholders and users. After you have a clear architecture and flow – decide what it is you plan on testing – and what type of results/metrics you will need to make a decision. So, make sure you have the following checked off before you move on to prototyping:

Discovery:

Research, personas, ideation, understanding your product, stakeholders and users.

Flow:

Keep in mind architecture restraints, produce user stories and be sure to understand the standards for the OS you’re designing for.

Test Planning:

Agree on the flow you want to test, what specific feedback you are looking for and how best to conduct your test.

Mockups:

Efficiency is key – but make sure the quality of the mocks/wireframes match what’s needed to test correctly.

Prototype:

See quick video below for an example of just how quickly/easy you can get a valuable and testable prototype – the speed of the video is increased – drop me a line if you have any questions.

Quick video walkthrough of Rapid Prototyping

In this video you will see a quick video walkthrough covering screen exporting from Sketch, uploading and linking them to Marvel App, assigning click/animation states and previewing a live clickable prototype.

We constantly change our process as we discover new tools and methods. I highly recommend checking out Marvel, Invision, Form or Quartz Composer – and find which is best for you. If you have any of your own tips, reach out to me on twitter @jojomarion or leave a comment below. Thanks!