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Looking to build a stunning mobile app but clueless about its significant design stage — app prototyping? No worries! This blog throws light on what, why, when, how, and the advantages of mobile app prototyping to help you bring your mobile idea to life easily and quickly.
Today, most businesses’ success depends on the user experience. It is said that every $1 invested in UX results in a return of $100 ( that’s ROI of 9,900%). That said, mobile apps play a significant role in this. And it wouldn’t be wrong to say that mobile apps start and end with users only. User experience decides whether your mobile app will succeed or experience failure.
Mobile apps have become an essential need for people and businesses globally. Literally, no one can live without mobile apps in this tech-savvy world. In fact, 70% of the time spent on digital media is completed in an app, accounting for 89% of total mobile minutes.
Ask any skilled and experienced mobile app development agency, and it will say that the mobile apps’ success is directly proportional to enhanced user experience. The superior the user experience, the better.
To refine user experience and make it better than ever before, many businesses emphasize the relevance and fundamentals of mobile app UX design; thus, strengthening mobile prototypes. Consequently, looking for a creative and innovative mobile app design agency that can stay updated with the latest mobile app design trends and help organizations build compelling UX.
So without any further ado, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of what, why, when, how, and benefits of mobile app UX/UI design and app prototyping.
Ready? Let’s get right in!
What Is an App Prototyping?
In simpler terms, a mobile app prototype is a framework that manifests the mobile apps’ functioning. In other words, a detailed sketch of the app on a piece of paper, underlining the final app model is what we call a mobile prototype. Prototyping for mobile apps is one of the most powerful tools in any UX designer’s kit.
It is a valuable exercise, resulting in visualization of how the app will function by exhibiting user flows and representing the well-crafted design and layout. There are generally three types of mobile app prototypes — paper prototypes, high-fidelity (Hi-Fi) prototypes, and low-fidelity (Lo-Fi) prototypes.
The Importance of Prototyping in Mobile App Development
Prototyping for mobile apps helps you identify and formulate the main routes of the design and save time. Mainly, app prototyping alleviates design iterations. If you get your prototyping done right, you can get everyone to agree on how the mobile app will function at a basic level.
Afterward, you can focus on honing the design aspects with colors, aesthetics, and other essential design features without having to go back and change the basic, functional part of the app. Besides, mobile app prototyping avoids expensive reworks, accelerates development and time-to-market, avoids failures, improves product adoption and user engagement, demonstrates functionality, and most importantly, boosts collaboration.
It should be clear by now that the prototyping stage is one of the most important ones to help you craft compelling mobile app UX/UI design. So start it right away!
When Should You Emphasize App Prototyping?
In the world of mobile app development, a mobile app prototype is an introductory version of your app concepts or ideas. Businesses and app developers usually draw on prototypes as a means of establishing the real and authentic versions of the app before investing time, effort, and money in building it.
The question arises — when should you emphasize mobile app prototyping?
Well, straightforwardly speaking, if you want your app to give a proper structure, keep it organized, get rid of unnecessary changes in the core functionality, test for bugs and responsiveness at the earliest to fix them up, save money, and stand out among others, you should definitely accentuate mobile prototype.
How to Prototype a Mobile App: 12 Easy Steps to Create a Successful Mobile App Prototype
What is the first step towards turning a great idea into a successful app? An ideal UX/UI app design process, including prototyping (it is a must). Mobile app prototyping is a crucial step in any mobile app development process. It helps get a thorough idea about the final app and make changes if it requires any modification. This is the reason organizations and app engineers often review the prototypes before beginning the app development.
Here are some easy and proven steps for a mobile prototype to leave a lasting impression and make the app successful:
- Determine the App Goals
- Understand the Users’ Pain Points
- Analyze Your Competitors
- Accentuate Functionalities and Features Required
- Build Strong User Persona
- Create Sketches on the Primary Screens
- Planning and Wireframing Mobile App Design
- Now Convert Your Wireframes into a Prototype
- Create an Interactive Digital Prototype
- Test and Polish
- Turn the Final Prototype into Final Designs
- Share Your Digital Prototype
Top 5 Benefits of Prototyping for Mobile Apps
- Helps Explore Innovative Ideas and Identify Improvements – Testing by the user, app prototyping opens up opportunities for the exploration of new ideas and helps you identify the app improvements early on in the development process before the app is finalized. Prototypes enable more accurate study and evaluation of the final deliverable.
- Gives More Clarity – Prototyping ensures clarity and helps you understand what and how you will build the app. Understanding of intended functionality, user flow, and even look and feel is notably hard to achieve without a visual aid. That’s where app prototyping comes in.
- Helps Validate User Experience (UX) – Running a prototype through a user test is one of the most effective ways to validate usability and user experience. Retaining users by giving constant value is a critical goal of UX design. That said, prototyping will test the app’s potential for engagement, persistence, and lifetime value.
- Saves Money (Cost-Efficient) – Mobile app prototype helps you save lots of money in the long run. It solves the problems at the beginning of the process, which is less expensive comparatively. The end result will be inexpensive if you have to go through even a single unexpected change round in development.
- Fixes Problems at Early Stages – Sometimes, when we put our ideas, thoughts, and learning into actions, they usually turn out to be pathetic. That’s why you need to prototype your app. App prototyping helps you identify the issues at earlier stages to fix them before the final development.
Mobile App Prototyping: The Takeaway
The more you pay attention to the prototype, the better it gets. As a result, you get to develop a highly appealing mobile app that your users find irresistible. All in all, app prototyping is one of the best strategies for developing successful apps.
Hope this post helped you understand everything from what, why, when, how to the benefits of mobile app prototyping. Now it’s time to put all the learnings (from this post) into action, craft a stunning app, and stay ahead of the pack.
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