How to Create a Prototype for Mobile App: Tips from the Pros

As the digital economy is prospering, mobile devices have become the universal tools assisting people in every aspect of their lives. The number of mobile phone users worldwide has reached 5 billion, confirming these gadgets’ crucial role.

Given the reinforced presence of brands on the digital landscape, mobile experiences are essential in building brand affinity and loyalty. Therefore, a journey towards an engaging and convenient minimum viable product (MVP) should start with mobile app prototyping.

What is a Mobile App Prototype?

Before a business starts to construct any product, it makes sense to ensure to which extent the solution meets customer expectations. Prototyping is a kind of research intended to validate the overall design direction of a solution. Basically, it’s a working model of a prospective mobile app.

Such a draft helps to understand how an app looks and operates, to test its functionality and the UX design, and substantiate the project for investors.

When businesses create prototype for mobile app, they become empowered to improve their solution early and plan the next steps efficiently.

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Why Create a Mobile App Prototype?

Which benefits can an interactive model bring before you start building an actual MVP? Below is a brief overview of the most significant ones.

• Exploring new ideas and identifying areas for improvement.
  Numerous iterations of the solution at the early stages enable authors to fine-tune the product until it is marketable and matches business goals.
  
• Maximizing cost-efficiency. Business owners can drastically reduce expenses by addressing the arising issues at the beginning of the development process. According to the chart below, the prototype research helps you cut your expenses by up to 100 times.

• Involving clients and stakeholders. When developers approach prototyping collectively, they can ensure that all ideas and features are implemented, all the troubles are fixed, and the solution meets the initial goals.
• UX Testing. A user-friendly design and continual value determine the solution’s longevity. When you create mobile app prototype, you can validate usability and UX before embarking on a full-scale project.

Winning Tips for App Prototyping

Consider several recommendations for designing an efficient interactive model of your product.

Test early and often

Testing aims to help UX teams validate design ideas and uncover usability issues. Testing can start with making paper prototypes and filtering ideas during the design concept phase. The consequential high-fidelity prototyping enables app optimization to satisfy user demands.

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Leverage design patterns and libraries

If you become obsessed with design details in the early prototyping stages, you can overinvest in them, leaving little time for testing and production. Instead, it is worth trying design patterns and libraries to reduce your workload and facilitate results.

Test prototypes on various devices

Developers can make sure that their app delivers superior performance only by checking a prototype on multiple devices or screen sizes. Otherwise, a poorly functioning solution may lose its user audience. Therefore, designers should ensure that their apps for prototyping undergo a comprehensive functionality test.

Prioritize goals for prototyping

Although prototyping may be immersive, it should not transform into a full-blown project. Do not try to test absolutely everything, but rather determine which aspects need to be modeled. If you have complex features to check, you should better split them into separate prototypes. Defining the scope and purpose of each model would help to focus your efforts.

Cooperate with other departments

Involving participants from other departments helps to unite teams within the organization, create excitement over a new solution, and obtain fresh insights. Internal testing is instrumental in getting feedback to spur improvements that UX teams might have missed initially.

Final Thoughts

The challenging task of building an efficient mobile app can become more manageable if you start with creating a prototype of your solution. It enables you to validate the concept, check functionality, reveal potential issues early, cut costs, and streamline the whole process. Follow the pros’ advices to avoid common pitfalls on your way and implement your ideas in excellently performing applications. Contact Equal to help realize your ambitious ideas and turn them into MVPs.