Web is a business of "show, don't tell". What you see is what you get and there goes a lot of work behind what you see to make it worth seeing. Whether it's a website or mobile application, no one in the business circle, no investor, no collaborator, not even your developers will be able to deliver the best results that you were hoping for until you have a solid vision.
But how to convey that vision? How to "show" that vision to your investors?

Two magical words : Rapid Prototyping.

Rapid Prototyping is defined as creating a mock up of a future stage of any website or an application. In simpler words, it's a demo of what your product is going to look like when it is complete.

The premise is simple. Show what your product can do and lure the money in. Don't need to boast. Don't need to lie. Just a solid, beautiful prototype that allows people to interact with your product to judge its worth, its feasibility. Because when you give people the power to make informed decisions, that's when they truly stand behind you.
Rapid Prototyping is a segment of web development which is used both by designers and developers alike for the same reason. Clarity. When you build a prototype, you establish clear parameters of what the end product is going to look and function like and how it will engage the user.

There are different orientations of Rapid Prototypes. Three major differentiations are:

• Low Fidelity: A simple sketch, a rough visual draft of your product on the paper that shows what the product is going to look like, what aspects and facets it will contain and how it will function certain tasks.
• Medium Fidelity: A formal wireframe that provides visual information on how the workflow functions. The Task progression, a basic minimal interface for reference and foundation of the end product.
• High Fidelity: A working interface demo that allows a user or an investor to engage with the UI and gauge the UX design, how it truly accomplishes the tasks assigned at a basic functional capacity.

In addition to these, there are three different variations in Prototypes:

• Visual Fidelity:From a sketch on the paper to a stylized version on the screen for the user to see, engage his senses and take a measure of how usable the product is.
• Functional Fidelity: From a static page depicting flowcharts to an interactive functional wireframe that allows the user to click and accomplish events, experience the functionality of the product first hand.
• Content Fidelity: Moving from Lorem Ipsum stage to embedding real relevant content on your product in order to truly initiate a conversation with the client, whether as a CTA or an introduction.

What is the real use of a prototype?

Prototyping is a three part cycle:

Build – Review – Refine.

With every new refinement, the prototype and by extension, the product is further debugged, further reviewed and further streamlined in order to provide a UX design which truly engages the users.
The differentiations mentioned above are neither exclusive nor stand alone. More often than not, initiating a prototype by default falls under two or more categories at the same time. Which means that not only as a Startup you enable your product to be available for gauging user engagement from the get go, but you also are able to follow up the feedback with quality assurance checks in order to debug, review and refine your product/concept further.

Why is it such a good idea?

Measuring the progress is often abstract. But Prototyping provides absolute parameters in order to track your progress. Every prototype relates to a certain stage. When a new idea comes in or a previous one is discarded, when a certain error is encountered and when a certain success is achieved during the course of product development, these events are measurable by charting the prototype.
Additionally, as we stated at the very beginning, web is a platform for "show, don't tell". When your investors and potential customers can actually see the product taking shape, they can be invited to establish trust with your product, maximizing the engagement.

The primary tenet of psyche that works here is that when an investor interacts with the prototype, he gets a clear idea of what the product is, what problem it truly solves and what its future is like. A Prototype is exciting because it truly exhibits the features while promising more to come. This article is first in the 3-part series about Rapid Prototyping and its relevance to a Startup Business. Stay tuned for the upcoming articles that elaborate further on how startup web development considers Rapid Prototyping as an essential tool and how to conduct Rapid Prototyping geared for success.
Vinfotech has cultivated a passion for Startup Web Development and in that course; our Rapid Prototyping services have allowed us to be best in class web development firm for startups across the world. If you are a startup that requires web-intuitive development packages, contact us.