It may seem familiar to you: you’re testing a new app, turns out that all-important swipe feature doesn’t work well after all. Bummer, because the programmer is already busy developing. Is such a thing not preventable? Yep. The solution is called agile prototyping.
After all, it’s risky when the first interaction with your app doesn’t come until the development phase. At that stage, it takes more time and money to customize functionalities. With iterative development and continuous improvement, you can eliminate that problem. And, importantly, it delivers a working piece of software with valuable feedback from potential users.
Rapid prototyping and rapid application development ensure that a concept quickly becomes visible as a visual design and working software. This allows you to use an iterative process, where changing requirements are easily integrated in a subsequent iteration. This avoids large investments in separate phases and creates a shared understanding between developers, designers and stakeholders.
Summary: An app stands or falls with a positive user experience. With the agile methodology, you test the interaction of your app from day one. A working prototype is the foundation of your project, and that prototype is constantly being updated and improved. Your team and your customer will get a clear picture of the app this way, problems will be tackled early, and you’ll come up with better solutions. This saves time, money and frustration. And most importantly, it leads to a better end product.
Prototyping: a simulation of the final product
A prototype, in other words. You probably already have an idea what that is. Still, let’s take a look at Wikipedia’s definition:
A prototype is an early model of a product […] the operation or fitting of parts is tested and the production is prepared.
In short: a working prototype is a simulation of the possible final product. A prototype gives your team a clear picture of where the project is going. That working prototype can be as sophisticated as you want it to be. You can show a user path with linked wireframes, or detail the design with a tool like Invision.
Agile protoyping: developing apps using the protoype as a guide
Agile prototyping stands for continuously innovating and improving your app, using the protoype as a guide. Through extensive testing and an iterative approach, the prototype is constantly refined via feedback from the field. Your team, as well as your end users, get a clear picture of the app and can provide feedback at an early stage. As a result, problems are tackled before they really become a problem. It gives your team a good foundation to work with, and build on. Let’s list the benefits of the agile principles. The process of building functionalities in sprints ensures results, flexibility and change, all supported by short timelines and sharp focus on key functions.
Agile prototyping provides clarity
It seems like an open door, but a working design gives a much better picture of your future app than a few static screenshots. By prototyping, you map out an app’s functionalities and user paths clearly and quickly, without first having to establish ten user stories.
It motivates and inspires
Such a working prototype is not only functional and handy, but also gives your team an ideal foundation to use as a handle and move forward. After all, a prototype simulates what it could be like. By “playing” with the app in advance, you’ll discover what works and what doesn’t, find other solutions and get new ideas.
Designers and programmers work in harmony
Protoyping is not just the domain of designers. On the contrary! It is an outdated idea that the worlds of designers and programmers are separate. Multidisciplinary work is the future, and with prototyping you do just that. Gone are the days when a programmer has to make up what the functionalities are from unclear design. He can see those functionalities at work within the prototype itself. Problems are discovered quickly; solutions found more quickly.
Save your customer frustrations: choose agile protoyping
Agile prototyping helps you communicate between teams, but it’s also nice for your customer to get to try out their app quickly and provide feedback. This is many times more valuable than making your customer stare at a bunch of screenshots, or making him wait a long time for an update. Agile prototyping saves you time, money and frustrations and is indispensable in developing a successful app.
Benefits of agile prototyping
-
Clarity: a working design gives a better picture than static screens and promotes shared understanding.
-
Motivation & inspiration: rapid results and new insights stimulate both designers and developers during development.
-
Effective communication: customers and stakeholders get a concrete experience early on, which helps validate expectations and requirements.
-
Cost and time savings: potential problems are identified early, preventing large investments in later phases.
-
Flexibility: iteration allows you to easily make adjustments and test the feasibility of ideas.
-
Strong foundation for further development: with working software, realistic sprints and regular integration, the foundation is laid for product development, engineering, implementation, planning and management.
