Rapid Prototyping

Iterate to Perfection

In the software development life-cycle, rapid prototyping can be an invaluable tool that allows for quick iteration early in the UI design process. It is also an essential tool for evaluating additions and revisions to an existing product. By exploring concepts in a less refined form, the inefficiencies and inadequacies become more readily apparent. This saves time by allowing only the best concepts to be explored fully. With the proper rapid ui prototyping tools and the help of experienced UI / UX experts, you can utilize rapid prototyping to build or expand your product efficiently and effectively.

Why Develop with SitePen

At SitePen, we believe that quality is the single most important aspect of any project we undertake. Our commitment to delivering clean, elegant user experiences is a critical aspect to our approach to software design.

You will start to experience this as soon as you reach out to us. Our Sales and Project Management teams work with you to understand your goals and expectations, identifying the characteristics that have the most significant influence on the application's design.

Our design team will then develop the solution with these goals in mind. Through the use of wireframes, rapid prototyping, and visual UI design, they will create a solution that will enhance your user’s experience and will also scale easily into the future. Whether working directly with your team or SitePen’s own engineers, they will prepare production-ready assets and work with developers to see the work through to implementation.

What is Rapid Prototyping in Software Testing?

Rapid prototyping UI design is a part of the design process that allows for quick exploration of a proposed feature / improvements to your software. Prototyping low to medium fidelity mockups allow for early feedback from stakeholders and users. These prototypes often include interactivity. Higher fidelity prototypes can also be utilized later in the process to gather additional feedback and for communicating requirements to developers.

Competitive Analysis

In the early stages of your project, competitive research and analysis is an integral part of the software development process. As competitor research is conducted and unique selling points are established, it becomes important to explore the efficacy of your proposed direction. Rapid prototyping UI design helps to allow for quick exploration of core features and key differentiators. This allows for much-needed clarity as you evaluate the prospective features of your product.

MVP Development

Rapid prototyping UI design is an indispensable tool when establishing a minimum viable product. As you develop the vision and direction of your product, it is important to work efficiently and keep nonessential details to a minimum. Rapid prototyping helps streamline the design process and allows key features to be explored and presented to stakeholders. Any unnecessary feature or flourish will naturally be discarded during prototyping in order to champion the MVP.

Interactive Prototypes

While static mockups offer plenty of utility, interactive prototypes allow for a deeper level of analysis. Designers, stakeholders, and user testers can click through the prototype to better evaluate the flow of the app. It also helps them understand the context surrounding a feature. Additionally, interactive prototypes help developers understand the expected functionality of the UI. Most rapid ui prototyping tools (such as Figma or Sketch) have interactive prototyping built in. Static mockups can also be converted into interactive prototypes with apps such as InVision

Usability Testing

Rapid Prototyping allows you to get your product in front of testers early and often. Interactive prototypes allow the user to click through the prospective interface as they would in your final application. This allows their interactions to be studied and allows them to provide direct feedback. By quickly iterating on user feedback, your application can avoid costly rabbit holes that don’t provide value to your end product.

Software Prototyping Services

Often Rapid Prototyping can fall short of your goals if you’re not leveraging vetted UI | UX experts. At SitePen, we have a team of designers that are not only well-versed in leading-edge tools and methodology, but are also grounded by years of experience in user-centered design. We provide comprehensive solutions that meet user expectations while also achieving business objectives.

Technologies We Use

SitePen utilizes the best leading-edge technology for our design process. We have in-depth experience with industry standard applications such as Sketch, Figma, and the Adobe Suite. Our abilities are not limited to mockups and static screenshots, but also incorporate clickable prototypes built with InVision, Framer, Axure, and Figma. We leverage existing design libraries and design systems such as Google’s Material Design and Bootstrap, and we are experts at developing custom systems ourselves. Whatever the need, we have experience with the right tools and technology to deliver fast and beautiful results for your project.

Our Rapid Prototyping & Design Process

In a typical project we start out with a discovery phase followed by business analysis. Once the objectives of a project are defined, the UI / UX design process starts. During this phase we leverage rapid prototyping to establish the core features of the application. Throughout the design phase we iterate on the proposed designs to help them align with user expectation, business requirements, and technical limitations. Once complete, the designs can then be released for development.

While rapid prototyping is usually a part of a dedicated design phase, it is often utilized earlier in the discovery phase to exhibit a proof of concept. It can also be utilized later in the process to adjust existing features or troubleshoot user experience issues.

Industries We Serve

Among SitePen's greatest strengths is its wide-ranging experience across multiple industries. We have worked with some of the most notable names in numerous markets, with each engagement serving to refine our ability to address each enterprise's individual needs. Among the industries that we have worked within are:

Financial services
Healthcare
Hospitality
Public Safety

Choosing the Right Software Development Company

Every project has unique challenges and demands. It is therefore important to avoid “one size fits all” solutions that don’t adapt to the needs of your product. At SitePen we take the time to understand your business objectives. We work with you to craft a solution that fully realizes those objectives. Don’t have your objectives fully fleshed out? SitePen can provide you with the business analysis needed to define your product more clearly and prioritize objectives.

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Rapid Prototyping FAQs

What Tools Are Used in Rapid Prototyping?

Figma is the most common rapid ui prototyping tool, followed by Sketch. Figma has fairly advanced built-in prototyping tools, while Sketch’s prototyping tools are less fully featured. Sometimes Sketch is paired with InVision to turn static mockups into more flexible, shareable prototypes. Axure in another commonly used tool when the sole focus is low-fidelity rapid prototyping.

How Does Rapid Prototyping Improve UX?

Rapid prototyping improves the user experience by allowing for quick iteration and early feedback from users and stakeholders. Once feedback has been analyzed, it allows further refinement to the application. This helps to weed out unproductive rabbit holes, unnecessary features, and user experience problems.

How Long Does the Rapid Prototyping Process Take?

Rapid Prototyping, as the name would suggest, is a more expedient step within the design process. Rapid prototyping for a single feature within an app can take as little as a day or two. However, often, an array of features are designed together over several weeks or months – depending on the size of the project. The length of the rapid prototyping phase will ultimately depend on the project objectives.