Prototyping is the development of incomplete representations of a target system for testing purposes and as a way of understanding the difficulties of development and the scale of the problem. Prototyping is an essential element of an iterative design approach, where designs are created, evaluated, and refined until the desired performance or usability is achieved. Prototypes can range from extremely simple sketches, for example, paper prototyping (low-fidelity prototypes) to full systems that contain nearly all the functionality of the final system (high-fidelity prototypes). Three types of prototyping are outlined below:
Paper Prototype
A paper prototype is a paper sketch of a user interface with enough detail to make design decisions and usability evaluations relating to the function and flow of the interface, not the look.
Rapid Prototyping
Rapid prototyping is the process of quickly generating mock-ups of what a system will look like. Rapid prototyping may be done with paper prototyping methods, such as with quick sketches, or with techniques Wizard of Oz prototyping. These prototypes are useful for determining the target of the development project, doing many types of user testing, and spotting unanticipated complexities in the design.
Wizard of Oz Prototype
A Wizard of Oz prototype only works by having someone behind-the-scenes pulling levers and flipping switches. For example, in user testing a user interacts with an interface without knowing that a human is generating the responses, and not a computer. This allows testing of some difficult interface concepts before a system is fully working.
