Prototypically Speaking – The Software and Requirements Prototyping Blog

People really aren’t that great at visualising written descriptions.

If I try to describe my home to you in words, after a while you’d have your own ‘internal’ image of my home. However, it would be almost certainly very flawed, as no matter how much detail I provide to you, it will miss something and you’ll have to join the dots, so to speak.

If I show you a picture, or perhaps a scale model, however, you’ll end up with a very good and accurate impression of my home in a fraction of the time that it would take by words alone.

So, bearing this in mind, why is it that many companies still don’t try to leverage the power of models in their design process? Prototypes of systems are relatively quick to create and modify, do not require enormous investments in time, technology or manpower, and deliver enormous benefits to the creation of workable, effective systems.

If you are looking to create an interactive system of any size, a prototype will help everyone involved visualise the end product and your project is far more likely to succeed. Try it. Or engage a specialist.