Advantages and Disadvantages of Prototyping Complex Projects

The advantages and disadvantages of prototyping come down to a trade-off. A prototype involves users early, reduces misunderstandings and lowers the overall cost of changes, because problems surface before development. In return, users may mistake the prototype for the final product, and prototyping has an upfront cost, sometimes for a version that is thrown away.

Key takeaways

• A prototype is an early version of a website, app or system that users try out, and that the team refines until the final product can be built.
• Advantages: users are involved from the start, misunderstandings are caught early, and changes cost less.
• Disadvantages: users may take the prototype for the final version, and prototyping has an upfront cost.
• Fidelity ranges from low (quick and cheap to change) to high (close to the final product, harder to adjust).
• Development prototypes can be throwaway, extreme (for web applications) or incremental.

Do you need a prototype for your project? According to some historians, the builders of the Titanic did not use a prototype. The Wright brothers, credited with inventing, building and flying the world’s first successful airplane, built many prototypes on their road to success.

You want your projects to share the success of the Wright brothers, not the fate of the Titanic. History clearly shows the advantages of using a prototype model.

But what is prototyping software? Is there mobile app prototyping? And what does successful website prototyping involve?

What Is the Prototype Model?

The Prototyping Model is a systems development method (SDM). A prototype, an initial version of the final system or product, is built, evaluated by being used, then redesigned as many times as necessary, until a version exists that the complete system or product can be modeled on.

This method is valuable when not all the project requirements are known beforehand. It is a repetitive and, at times, monotonous process between the developers and the users.

When Should You Use the Prototyping Model?

Prototypes are frequently used to design and build physical projects, or in manufacturing. Many projects, though, are built with software, which has numerous variables to adjust and systems that are not yet defined. This is the case with websites and mobile apps.

In these cases, the Prototyping Model can be an important and beneficial endeavor.

Why Is Prototyping So Useful?

When you simulate aspects or functions of a product or system in a prototype, designers and users can uncover elements, unanticipated effects, constraints or needed functions that were not foreseeable before.

By addressing these issues, the team can create a solution or product that better meets the needs and wants of the user.

When the team identifies needed improvements early, and hears the viewpoint of the users, it can estimate costs and time more accurately and efficiently.

Because people can use and experience the solution early in its development, developers can make adjustments sooner rather than later.

This matters financially, because the cost of making changes often grows significantly as a project develops. It is almost always less expensive to adjust or fix something early in a project.

With these more precise estimates of costs and time, releasing the final solution to production goes more smoothly.

Phases of the Prototype Model

There are several phases in the Prototype Model, and they all start with design thinking, or design prototyping. To test your design thinking, you then choose the fidelity of your prototype, from low and medium to high.

The fidelity of a prototype is how close it is to the final product, in level of detail and realism. It is usually chosen based on the goals of prototyping, the completeness of the design and the available resources. Let’s take a closer look at how to go from an idea to the final product.

Design Prototyping

Design prototyping is a thinking process. You must focus not only on what the product looks like today and the problems that exist now. You must also foresee how the product today, and the changes you plan, will affect later versions and the final product.

Low Fidelity

At the low fidelity stage, the basic interaction process and functions of the software are tested for performance. The prototype has some characteristics of the target product, but stays basic and simple.

It allows quick adjustments without hassle. It is the cheapest type of prototype to produce.

Medium Fidelity

This step takes longer, because more details go into the prototype and the interaction is closer to the end product. This phase often lets users experience something close to what the final product will be.

High Fidelity

This stage is the closest to the final product. It includes many details and functions: all the features and interactions of the final solution are there. It is the most accurate and elaborate stage.

It takes a lot of time and effort. At this stage, an adjustment can be very difficult to make, but when one is needed, it is crucial to make it.

Development Prototyping

There are many forms of development prototyping. Let’s look more closely at throwaway prototypes, extreme prototyping and incremental prototyping.

Throwaway Prototype

Instead of producing a permanently fixed design or code, a throwaway prototype is built to find out the requirements of the project.

It is created from the requirements known at the start, which are often vague, so that the design or code can be adjusted as more requirements appear, before anything becomes permanent.

Extreme Prototyping

Extreme prototyping is mainly used for web applications. It usually includes three steps:

1. Static HTML, CSS and JavaScript pages are created. Users get an immediate, real feel of the product.
2. The service layer is simulated, including the business rules and logic.
3. The actual service layer is built, integrated with real-world systems, and plugged into the front-end views.

With this approach, users get an early preview of the application before it has actual functionality behind it. The back end develops gradually as the process comes to completion.

Incremental Prototyping

In incremental prototyping, parts of the system are created separately, then plugged together to build the complete application. It requires multiple development cycles, divided into smaller parts that are easier to manage.

Developing the interfaces between the components early is valuable, because integration can prove extremely challenging.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Prototyping at a Glance

Aspect	Advantage	Disadvantage
Users	Involved from the first phases, with early feedback	May mistake the prototype for the final version
Costs	Changes found early cost less	Upfront cost, sometimes for a prototype that is thrown away
Planning	More precise estimates of cost and time	A repetitive process with several rounds of redesign

Advantages of Prototyping

Prototyping Involves Your Users

One of the most notable advantages of prototyping is that it includes the user. User involvement is inherent to prototyping: users enjoy taking part in development and working with an operating version of their project.

Prototypes reduce misunderstandings and prevent unfulfilled expectations. They also help collect user feedback from the earliest phases of development. With a prototype, users can quickly share their thoughts, ask for a change in the project and modify details of the model.

Prototyping Saves Money

As the saying goes, a penny saved is a penny earned, and prototyping certainly helps save pennies. It improves the ability to detect needed changes early in the project, so the overall time and costs of the project are reduced.

Prototyping also reveals costs that were not anticipated. Changes can be addressed before the adjustment process becomes overwhelming and expensive. Problems, both immediate and long-term, can be isolated and corrected, which avoids embarrassing and costly refinements later.

Disadvantages of Prototyping

Users May Think the Prototype Is the Final Version

Perhaps the greatest frustration with the Prototype Model is that users sometimes mistake the prototype for the final product. Users may get exasperated with an early version and refuse a later, improved one, because they think it has the same failings.

The opposite is also a problem: a user may love a feature of an early model that is not included later. In both cases, the user wrongly concludes that the prototype shows exactly what the final system will be.

Prototyping Has an Upfront Cost

Prototyping saves costs in the final and ongoing phases of development, but the prototyping phases themselves have upfront costs.

There is also the risk of paying for a prototype that ends up completely thrown away. Even then, what the developers learn can be extremely valuable.

Examples of How to Use Prototyping for Web and App Development

QPSoftware is a software developer that is very familiar with design prototyping.

Our UX research and Core Model workshops, built on the Core Business Model, and our analytical work on platforms such as Drupal, PrestaShop, Magento and WordPress give us a strong approach to prototype development. Examples of our development prototyping work include:

Montagut

Known for classic French style and elegance, the French clothing brand Montagut was founded in 1880 and first entered the Chinese market through its Hong Kong headquarters. It then opened numerous stores across Asia, with up to 300 points of sale in China alone at the time of the project.

Using high-fidelity design prototyping, QPSoftware developed a fresh e-commerce presence accessible across a wide range of devices, browsers and languages, as well as an iOS and Android mobile loyalty program app to increase sales and improve retention.

TechTrek

TechTrek is a technical education center based in Beijing, China. It develops and delivers exciting, skills-focused tech courses for children, so that young learners develop the tech skills they need to thrive in the modern world.

QPSoftware developed the TechTrek website, including a virtual reality tour of its learning environment, using a throwaway prototype. To determine the needs of the project, small parts of the system were developed and then evaluated.

Users gave feedback that was incorporated into the development of the main system. The prototype was then thrown away, but it led to a website that was exactly what TechTrek needed. QPSoftware also designed and developed TechTrek’s game-based e-learning platform, a project that started with user research and a competitor audit.

Prototyping Tools

What are prototyping tools? They let designers experience the functionality of their product idea before it is built.

Prototyping tools imitate the application flow and test performance. They also support collaboration between designers and clients.

These tools give a visual overview of what is being designed. In short, they make product development faster and more effective.

Some prototyping tools are free and others are paid, and there is a wide variety of them. Designers usually combine several tools, some complex and others quite simple, depending on their needs.

What Should You Do Next?

The American inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin once observed that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. This is as true today as it was then. Prototyping in software engineering is that ounce of prevention.

The most successful teams in app development prioritize the user interface (UI), so UI prototyping is key to staying competitive. An outstanding user experience (UX) makes your app memorable, so UX prototyping cannot be ignored either.

When a project needs revisions and end-user feedback, prototyping is a necessity: it can shape the direction and the outcome of the whole project.

QPSoftware, a digital agency in Shanghai, uses the methods discussed in this article and others, such as UCDC (User Centered Design Canvas) meetings and rapid prototyping or co-creation with paper sketches, for the front end and the back end, and for all types of users. Our UX research agency in Shanghai turns research into wireframes that collect feedback early in the project. Contact QPSoftware today to find out how prototyping can help you reach your next project goals.

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