Prototype

What is a prototype?

A prototype is a working model of a product that people can interact with before it is fully built. Tap a button and a screen changes. Fill a field and something happens. It turns a static design into an experience you can test, react to, and improve while the cost of change is still low.

The line between a wireframe and a prototype is interaction. A wireframe shows structure on a flat screen. A prototype connects those screens so a user can actually move through a flow and feel where it works or breaks. Fidelity varies. A low fidelity prototype might be linked sketches that test whether a journey makes sense. A high fidelity prototype looks and behaves close to the real product, useful for usability testing and stakeholder sign-off. When a team wants to know whether users can complete a sign-up without help, they hand them a prototype and watch, rather than guessing from a mockup.

Iterative prototyping is the engine of good UX. Build a version, test it, learn, change it, test again. Each loop is fast and cheap compared to fixing the same problem in shipped code. The goal is to fail early and on purpose, so the product that gets built is the one that already survived contact with real people.

Prototypes at Dallonses

We prototype to learn before we commit. Rather than debate a flow in a meeting, we build an interactive prototype and put it in front of real users, then let what we see settle the argument. Iterative prototyping keeps the user experience honest and stops expensive assumptions from reaching production.

This is how we work with clients, not for them. We test together, read the results together, and decide what changes next together. We have run this loop on complex products for global brands, and the discipline holds: prototype, watch, improve, repeat, until the experience earns its place in the build.

Want to test an idea with real users before you build it? Let's prototype it.

Talk to us about prototyping