What is Software Prototyping And Why It Is Important?

Do you know how many businesses fail to build software that meets the exact customer requirements? Around 70% of software projects failed to deliver what customer needs. This is a huge number of projects that are falling short.

To avoid this pitfall, businesses need to know their target audience and test the idea in front of users before jumping into development. This method allows them to know the consumer’s feedback and highlights the scope of improvements.

In addition, it is easier to have a great idea, but it is just the beginning. Businesses need to take the next step before putting all effort into developing software. It will ensure that the product aligns with audience expectations and help in improvisation for a better user experience.

The crucial step is software prototyping which allows businesses to refine the product based on user feedback. It even gives the extra opportunity to create an excellent final product by implementing the feedback.

Hence if you want to make a standout product, this blog uncovers all the essential and technical aspects of what is prototyping in software development, its importance, and more.

What Is Prototyping in Software Development?

Before diving straight into software prototyping, it is vital to know what is digital product engineering. It refers to the process of developing digital product solutions such as software, websites, etc to resolve real-world problems. Also, prototyping is a part of digital product engineering and is all about creating a preliminary model or prototype to test the idea’s viability.

In simple words, software prototyping refers to how the actual software will look and work. Also, it involves the process starting from building the idea in visual presentation and turning it into a clickable prototype that looks like real software.

Prototyping in software development mimics a few to all elements of the final product like MVP (minimum viable product). In addition, it may be completely different from the final software. It involves the simulation of an interaction required on the software to a complete app. It is pivotal from creating mobile apps to complex business solutions and works as a bridge between the initial product design and the improved final product.

What Are the Different Types of Software Prototyping?

There are four main types of software prototyping, but some more methods are there. However, the below list reveals the most common types of prototyping models in software development.

Throwaway or Rapid Prototyping

As the name (Throwaway) refers, this type of prototype will be discarded and not become part of the final product. It is also known as rapid or close-ended prototyping. In addition, rapid prototyping can be created by the team quickly to showcase to the customer how their requirements will look.

This method helps businesses to gain customer feedback and make changes as per their requirements. It involves creating a working product sample in several parts at the initial stage. In this prototyping, the feedback helps to drive changes to create the prototype again. After building the prototype that meets requirements, the previous model is “Thrown away”.

Evolutionary Prototyping

Evolutionary prototyping is separate from throwaway or rapid prototyping. It is a robust prototype that needs constant refinement. Also, it is a lifecycle model that can be modified as per the feedback of customers or end-users.

This prototyping encourages development teams to save effort and significant time. Mostly, this model starts by prototyping the user interface and then leading to the complete system but begins with the high-risk area.

This method is often used by the design team when they have to work on a new technology project. So, this can be the perfect technology that can be used for complex projects and helps teams to check the features once before applying.

Incremental Prototyping

In the Incremental software prototype, the final software is developed into divisions of the different small prototypes. All the smaller prototypes are built individually and eventually, they can be merged into one product.

This prototyping is used to reduce the efforts of the development team. In addition, this method helps resolve the feedback in a timely manner and minimizes the time associated with developers and users.

Extreme Prototyping

This prototype is called Extreme to take your attention to the second phase of the method where the UI functionality is built.

Extreme prototyping in software development is often used as a development process. It especially involves developing web applications by breaking this process into three stages.

These three different phases are similar to the three separate development levels, each based on the previous one. The first stage is a static model that involves a series of HTML pages.

In the second stage, the created HTML pages are transformed into fully functional pages by utilizing a simulated service layer (it includes communication services, business logic, authentication, and other back-end services). The last stage takes the service layer and implements the services and functionality.

Other Types

There are more types of software prototyping. Here you can learn more about them:

• Paper Prototyping

In the Paper prototyping, design teams create presentations of digital products on paper. It will help the user to understand designs and concepts. This is a cost-saving method designers use to get the user’s reaction early in projects. However, the goal of paper prototyping is not to come up with the final perfect design.

• Wireframe Prototyping

Another type that is one step up from paper sketches is wireframes (low-fidelity design). It is designed by the UI/UX team to outline the software application in 2D. Also, it showcases an initial concept of how the product will look. It is completed by utilizing minimum graphics and styles.

• Clickable Prototyping

Lastly, a Clickable prototype or high fidelity design, is a prototype that users can interact with on gadgets such as mobile or computer. It helps end-users to click buttons and move from one to another screen like real software. But there is no coding happening in this prototype.

Why is Software Prototyping Important? Benefits of Prototyping in Software Development

Software prototyping is an ideal way to validate and test the idea with the users. It allows businesses to examine the progress of an application that is still in the development phase. It enables them to refine the product before building the final product.

From designers to developers, prototyping helps find out the flaws of the projects and come up with new solutions. Apart from these, here’s why software prototyping is crucial for businesses.

Allowing Product Testing by end users

When a business develops software, it must meet the requirements of users. It is essential to cater to the end-users to get the expected results. Businesses can produce a successful product by developing a prototype of the product. After that, they can get feedback from the users to know whether customers are facing challenges.

Businesses can take the prototype test run of the product with the number of end-users to ask for feedback to make improvements.

Increase Product Investment

Prototyping allows businesses to create a working prototype of the product. It helps them to showcase their potential idea with a working module to potential buyers or stakeholders. Ultimately, this can attract more buyers for secure approval. They can raise funding by developing a solution that caters to the market trend.

McKinsey & Company survey highlights that most successful companies foster prototyping to share their ideas with end-users.

Prototyping enables stakeholders to provide support when they are impressed with the potential product. This increases the chances for businesses to get investment without giving their whole efforts and money in creating the final product.

Early Visualization

Prototypes help in describing the product before completing the software development process. It provides a tangible picture so businesses can showcase to their users how the final product will look. This will not only allow users to visualize and understand the final product but also enable businesses to get accurate feedback and make changes.

Cost-effective for business

One of the crucial benefits of prototyping in software development is cost-saving. It can help businesses save considerable money and time. The prototyping stage allows them to receive accurate user feedback to minimize confusion while coding.

Prototyping allows businesses to catch mistakes in the beginning and reduce the need for rework. For example, suppose you or a user need a vital functionality that you missed in development, then all the efforts and money may go in vain. Developing the final product without utilizing prototyping can cost both money and time.

Mitigate Risk Management

The prototype is a robust risk management tool that works as a safety tool. Prototyping in software development allows businesses to identify potential mistakes and problems in the initial stage. It eventually minimizes the risk of major concerns in the later stages of development. By leveraging the capabilities of software prototyping, businesses will be able to prevent costly revisions and mitigate potential threats.

Quickly Prepare-to-Market

Prototyping allows businesses to validate the ideas and functionality initially. It enables developers to streamline the software development process. They can quickly test the functionality of the app before completing the development phase. Ultimately, it reduces the time cycle of software development and allows it to catch up with the market trend timely.

Prototyping allows businesses to deliver a new feature or product faster and gain a competitive edge by capturing market opportunities. Along with this, it allows them to make a difference in customer loyalty than competitors.

Minimize Code Rework

The benefit of prototyping in software development is not forcing code revisions. Creating a prototype as per the user requirements can be helpful and less likely for developers to do code rework. After the final development, the application becomes too complex as it involves a front-end interface and various layers.

When a developer has to refactor code for a feature, they have to rewrite the code for multiple layers and ensure all things work properly. However, this task is much time consuming and businesses can avoid this by leveraging prototyping in software development.

Overall, software prototyping allows businesses to create more compelling, user-centric products while mitigating risks and costs.

Best Practices of Software Prototyping

If you as a forward-thinking business owner want to get the most from prototyping efforts, it is required that you follow the best practices. Here are the most important tips that you can follow:

Understand Product Requirements and Set Objective

Firstly, it is crucial to understand the product requirements and why you are creating the prototype. Defining clear goals and objectives can help you know where you have to focus. With this, you can divide your efforts and make the most results out of the prototyping process.

Choose the Right Type of Software Prototyping

Choosing the right type of prototyping in software development that aligns with your requirements is crucial. However, low-fidelity prototyping like rapid or throw away can be most effective for quick testing. After deciding the best prototype for the final product, businesses can use the other prototyping if required. Eventually, it will help them refine the product more by gaining insights.

Build the Major Functions

One common mistake most people make is developing the complete product. There is no requirement to do so, rather businesses can build the major functions in the prototype. So, it will allow them to iterations and advance. They can prioritize their efforts to create core elements like menus, CTA buttons, etc.

Test Compatibility on Mobile and Desktop

Whether you are developing a prototype for an app or a website, it is crucial to check the compatibility of different devices. It ensures you provide a seamless experience to customers. You should rely on the different customer’s feedback to ensure your app or website prototype is compatible with gadgets such as mobile and desktop.

Get Feedback from the Team and Users

It is crucial to get consistent feedback from the team and target users or a representative of them. Software prototyping allows you to ask for feedback before developing the final product. In addition, this will ensure you the usability issues and scope to improve user experience. Observing user feedback allows you to make more informed design decisions.

Improve the Prototype

Last but not least, another main benefit of prototyping is the ability to improve the prototype. You can work on the feedback and testing results to refine the product. Adopting this can help improve the prototype and use the insights to develop a better final product.

Following these best practices allows you to save time and money, leading to creating the best final product.

Conclusion

Prototyping in software development is a crucial and straightforward process. It is the key that brings both developers and users together. Leveraging its capabilities helps businesses avoid last-minute changes.

At Cyntexa, we understand that the prototype is the master key to help avoid last-minute changes and allow seamless software development. Our approach to software prototyping will not only help reduce development time but also provide you with financial advantages including minimizing re-coding needs.

Whether you are stuck in the initial phase or ready to refine your final product, our digital product engineering services will guide you through every stage.

Don’t wait until the last minute! Contact us today to get a software prototype tailored to your requirements and lead your business to achieve the targeted goals.