Prototyping is the future: The decline of the static mockup, the rise of in-browser wireframes

In July, I made the trek to my homeland of Minnesota to attend Twin Cities Drupal Camp, and boy did it feel great to be back with such great people, and above all, such great Drupalistas. I gave a session in the first slot of the camp called “Prototyping is the future: The decline of the static mock up, the rise of in-browser wireframes.” For those of who couldn’t make it, or those of who want a summary posted up, you’re in luck-- that’s just what this blog series is for.

Why you should care about prototyping

The adoption of prototyping doesn’t just affect UI/UX designers. Making in-browser wireframing a part of the project process changes the development process, sales and marketing communication, scope wrangling, the envisionment of graphic design, and, perhaps most importantly, communication with stakeholders and with the internal team. In essence, it impacts every element of a development project. What’s more, it changes all of these things for the better.

For the architects and designers who have little to no experience coding or using the command line, the gains that come with adopting prototyping far outweigh the costs of picking up a small tidbit of coding. All the same, I hope that one day prototyping won't require a knowledge of code to create, and, when that day comes, that there will be little or no barrier to entry in order to create living breathing prototypes.

Why prototyping matters now more than ever

There are several reasons.

1. From a project management perspective, prototyping is a win-win-win on the all important triangle of time, scope and budget. Prototyping saves time, which in turn saves budget, and it better defines scope and features which, coupled with the time saved, allows you to offer your client more features (a.k.a. broader scope) for the same budget. Thus, prototyping shrinks the distance between the vertices of the PM triangle, but the possibility for a highly successful project increases with the adoption of prototyping as a direct result of the shrinkage. Given the increased potential for a highly successful project or end-product via prototyping, waiting to adopt it will be and is detrimental to your success as an organization, and your relationships with your stakeholders.

2. Communication is improved all around. We'll touch on this at length, but in short, better communication should never be postponed, as it will bring everyone on to the same page faster and with less frustration, which means happier people and better products!

3. From a scalability perspective, we now live in a world with thousands of different types of mobile devices, and the number is only growing. There is also a wider variety of users than ever before. The static mockup is no longer sustainable, as the way we use the web is not a one-size fits all anymore-- the desktop computer is becoming an elusive creature. This is the crux of content-first design and post-web digital content strategy. Presentation is becoming the least important aspect of design.

4. Ensure testing happens early and often, as it will be necessary to ensure user satisfaction for the lowest cost and least amount of time spent. You'll see that by taking on prototyping you'll be able to get realistic feedback earlier, and be able to make better decisions earlier in the design process. In addition to this we get production-ready layout definitions that don't need to be re-implemented in code, since they were designed in code in the first place.

In the next post, we'll be analyzing important definitions to better understand where prototyping fits in the design process.

a. A diagram that portrays the shrinking of distance between vertices on the project management triangle. Projects that prototype are likely to have a higher percentage of highly successful projects.