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What is the Process of Making a Prototype of Your Mobile App

A mobile app prototype is an preliminary visual mock-up that looks like a real app, and that demonstrates an app’s fundamental design...

Written by Niel Patel · 5 min read >
how to prototype mobile app development project
  • Top Benefits to Prototype Your App Idea First
    • Stages before prototyping
    • Prototyping sequence
  • What is Prototyping in Mobile App Development?
  • How App Prototype A Mobile App Can Help Your Business?

Top Benefits to Prototype Your App Idea First

We live in a world where the mobile app development industry is continuously evolving and improving our lives. As there is stiff competition in the market, mobile apps need to be unique to gain the attention of the users. Having a mere app idea is not enough to build a successful app, which is why prototyping is necessary. This not only helps in validating an early concept of the app idea but also offers opportunities to explore new ideas early in the development process. Every Mobile App Development Company is offering an app prototype as a preliminary visualization of a working product. In this post, we will learn about everything you need to know about prototypes and how it will help in validating the app idea for better growth in business.

  • Better definition and understanding of the mobile app concept. A clearer meaning and interpretation of the idea of a mobile app. Prototyping clarifies the initial vision, allowing developers and investors to fully understand the concept of a potential mobile application.
  • Low price. Prototypes are great for experiments and idea verification since they don’t take much time to develop, and the costs are usually low. So, you can try prototyping different functionality, or a different structure and design of the future app, without risking a huge amount of money.
  • Improved user experience. The user experience has been improved. Prototyping helps you to get customer feedback before you start developing, which is a valuable source of information. The resulting mobile application would be more appealing to consumers as a result of rigorous testing and enhancing the product usability, resulting in increased profitability.
  • More potential for drawing investments. Improved collaboration between designers, coders, and testers. Since prototyping entails testing and optimization phases, it aids in staff coordination and communication during subsequent stages of software development. As a consequence of the predicted and organized workflow, implementation is quicker and less expensive.

What is Prototyping in Mobile App Development?

Known as an introductory version of the app concept or idea, the prototype is an early simulation of the final product before investing time & money in actual app development. You can consider it as a mockup without any detailed functionality, which is a collection of UX pieces, animations, & other graphic elements to showcase the app’s purpose. Though many business owners may feel that prototyping is not required, it is one of the best decisions to make before the actual app development process. It helps not just to validate ideas, but also to assess time and calculate the costs needed to build the app.

Prototyping your app idea can be a great advantage to avoid early development problems offering immense help for both developers & investors to get a better app idea before starting the actual app development process. In many cases, a good prototype can help business owners explore various concepts and make an informed decision before choosing the final concept to go with. Prototypes even give time to make any necessary changes to critical design issues before the product reaches the development stage, which would have been very expensive to change later.

How App Prototype A Mobile App Can Help Your Business?

You must have got some idea on app prototype and how it helps in discovering errors in the early stage of the project to save time as well as efforts.

WHAT IS THE PROCESS OF MAKING A PROTOTYPE OF YOUR MOBILE APP?

  • Validate Concept

Your business app idea needs to be tested before you invest your hard-earned money and time in it. That is where prototyping helps in experimenting with ideas and finalizing the one with a higher success rate. Though you can remove, add, or modify any features of your app in a later phase, it is better to start early through a prototype. This will give an idea of whether there is a demand for a certain app on the market.

  • More Engagement with Stakeholder

Another best thing about the prototype is that stakeholders will have a better understanding of app development as a prototype can help in engaging them with a robust demonstration of the app’s purpose & functionality. With the help of an app prototype in the early stage, clients, investors, as well as designers, can brainstorm together to come up with possible improvements.

  • Discover Potential Issues at the Earliest

Identifying bugs and glitches at the early phase is more likely to consume lesser time and effort to fix, which is possible only through an app prototype. If you find these bugs in the later phases of the app development process, it may require complex modifications to the app code and will be more costly and time-taking. With the help of a prototype, one can decide if certain steps can be avoided to save development time, if not important.

  •  Cost-Efficiency

A good prototype can be a great advantage in saving costs during development. It is always better to solve problems at the beginning of the process instead of solving them in the end when the situation worsens. The closer you get to the launch of the app, the more expensive it will be to fix the changes. It is beneficial to go for prototyping research early to ensure that the design is going as planned and every strategic design decisions are made to safeguard the ROI of the project.

  • Helps in Better Design

The app is built solely for the users and what is better than running a prototype through a user test, which helps in validating usability and UX. The main motive of UX design is to provide continual value for retaining users. A prototype can test the product’s potential for app engagement & lifetime value. Additionally, a prototype can be the best thing to demonstrate your app concept and show how your app will add value to the users ‘lives.

How To Prototype A Mobile App And Impression Investors or Client

Step 1: Understand The Problem

Step 2: Identify Key Functionality Requirements

Step 3: Create Sketches Of The Primary Screens

Step 4: Turn Your Sketches Into Wireframes

Step 5: Turn Wireframes Into A Prototype

Step 6: Translate Wireframes Into Final Designs

Step 7: Sharing Your Prototype With Investors

Create Web and Mobile Prototypes in Minutes

Designer, developer, product owner or product visionary? If you want to build a successful product, you need to start by successfully communicating your vision. Make use of a wide range of mobile gestures to design an app prototype that behaves just like the real deal. Rotate, swipe, scroll or pinch your way around the prototype design for a realistic experience.

With an affordable mobile app development company, mobile app development ideas can be a prototype in few days, feedback and collaboration are all built-in. Start with a free account and unlock your creativity.

Top Tools to Prototye Mobile App Development Project

Prototype Development Tools
How to Develop a Prototype for Mobile Application Without Coding?

Mobile app prototype developers are always looking for the right tool that will make their designs worthwhile for the end-user experience. Developing a valuable mobile app requires top-notch skill, creativity, and of right tools to prototype a mobile app idea

The true beauty of app prototyping is that creating an interactive UI model does not require the services of a skilled designer. There is a plethora of desktop software and online resources that enable you to build web and mobile app prototypes. Some are very sophisticated and take some practice to learn, while others are simple and intuitive, with a “drag-and-drop” design method.

Adobe XD, Sketch, InVision, proto.io, Fluid UI, UXPin, Marvel, Keynote, POP (prototyping on paper), Mockplus, and Balsamiq Wireframes are a few examples of common prototyping tools.

1. Sketch

2. BuildFire

3. Adobe Experience Design (XD)

4. Axure RP

5. Marvel

6. Proto.io

7. Origami Studio

8. OmniGraffle

9. Balsamiq

10. JustInMind

Prototypes bring the new concept mobile app development idea. You won’t need to use any of these tools; only the ones you believe your team requires to take the design process to the next stage.

Last but not least, if you’re searching for an all-in-one platform for UX designers that eliminates the coding headaches that come with the development phase, hire any mobile app development company.

Why should you make a rapid prototype for mobile apps?

Prototyping a mobile app is the best method for saving money on app development. By creating a rapid prototype, you get to enjoy the following benefits:

  • Users, friends, co-founders, and even investors will all benefit from hearing about the idea.
  • Prototypes aid in the production of new products (and saving you money). You will make the development team’s life easier by showing them a “ready-to-code” mockup or prototype.
  • The same can be said about the design process. You’ll save time and resources by sharing a “ready-to-design” wireframe or mockup with the designer instead of making them build it from scratch.
  • Rapid prototypes aid in the validation of business concepts by allowing for early consumer input. It’s enough to offer users a ready-to-use UI, and you’ll get a lot of useful information.

Closing Statement

Hopefully, you must have figured out the importance of an app prototype in developing a great app. Make sure that you go for app prototyping before you start the actual development process as it is the most cost-effective way to validate your app idea. Apart from that, it helps in coming up with new app ideas and areas for improvement with better involvement of client & stakeholder, which ensures that the whole team is on the same page during the entire project lifecycle. If you are looking for a reliable app development company that can give you an app prototype, mobile app, or PWA App Development, get in touch with the experts today.

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