Prototyping
Building an interactive, clickable model of a product so a flow can be experienced and tested before it is engineered.
A prototype simulates how a product behaves — screens linked together so a person can click through a real task — without the cost of building it for real. Fidelity ranges from rough tapping-through-wireframes to near-production mockups with working transitions.
The purpose is to learn early. A prototype turns a debate into a test: put it in front of users, watch them attempt the flow, and fix the problems while they are still cheap. It is the bridge between wireframing and engineering, and the raw material for usability testing.
Related terms
WireframingSketching the low-fidelity skeleton of a screen — layout, content blocks, and hierarchy — before any visual styling is applied.Usability TestingWatching real users attempt real tasks in a product or prototype to find where they struggle, hesitate, or fail.MockupA high-fidelity, static representation of a screen showing the final visual design — real colors, type, and content — but without interactivity.Design SprintA time-boxed process — classically five days — that runs a big product question from idea to a tested prototype with real users.