6 Types And Examples Of Mobile App Prototypes You Can Create

Learn 6 essential mobile app prototype types and examples to create, test, and refine your app idea before development.

6 Types And Examples Of Mobile App Prototypes You Can Create

Every app development project starts with a prototype. Prototyping allows developers to visualize, interact with, and test a version of their app before it is built. This process makes it easier to identify and address usability issues before they become costly problems during and after development. App design agencies use prototypes to get everyone on the same page, from clients to designers to developers. By creating a prototype, app design agencies can ensure that the client and the development team have a shared understanding of the app's functionality. For this reason, prototypes are often called "beta versions" of apps.

What is a Mobile App Prototype?

desktop pc - App Prototype Example

Mobile app prototypes are a key part of the development process. They give a visual and functional representation of the app's idea, design, and basic functionality. Prototypes help you test concepts and assumptions against real user needs. 

This no-code task takes place during the pre-development stage. Unlike minimum viable products, prototypes include only the visual parts of the app without any usable functionality. The visuals are enough to gather early feedback on the app's usability and functionality and set the stage and direction for further development. 

A prototype for an app conveys the look and feel of your app, but it’s usually not working software. Prototypes set the stage for the first functioning version of your app, often referred to as the minimum viable product (MVP).

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Benefits of Building A Mobile App Prototype

woman holding a mobile phone - App Prototype Example

1. Paper Prototyping: Quick Hand-Drawn Mockups

Paper prototyping uses only pen and paper to illustrate your product concept. Furthermore, it is one of the least expensive prototyping methods. Besides, if your users need an incentive, they can have a coffee for free! 

Prototyping by hand allows you to sketch out key elements and shapes of the main screen. A single sheet of paper can represent several different screens. 

Paper Prototyping: Low-Tech Techniques to Visualize and Test Your App or Website Ideas

Visualize as early as possible, outlining your vision for a creative or tech person to take to the next level without distractions from a computer screen. Simulate the actual website or app users see on paper by doing tasks with them. 

For websites, users can use a pen as a mouse, and for mobile apps, they can use their fingers. A button can be tapped to take the user to the next screen.

2. Low-Fidelity Prototyping: Basic Structural Design 

Avoid wasting time by showing only the basic design and interface elements. Unlike high-fidelity prototypes, low-fidelity prototypes consist of fundamental features, interactions, and general user flows. Designers can focus on the app’s core foundation without incorporating all these intricate visuals and details. 

Creating a low-fidelity digital prototype may help you demonstrate the website’s key pages, layouts, and functions. This tool allows your team to decide on a macro design direction quickly. Low-fidelity prototypes can also be used to get early feedback on more general design principles, similar to sketches.

3. Medium-Fidelity Prototyping: A More Detailed Approach

Compared to wireframes, medium-fidelity prototypes provide more specific design details with a more detailed design structure to help designers test their apps and websites. There is usually an outline of what the final product might look like in these static designs. In mock-ups, you often see medium-fidelity prototypes. 

Making a medium-fidelity prototype might be helpful when it is necessary to explain a solution or part of it in greater detail and when some early assumptions have already been tested. With medium-fidelity prototypes, you can refine the execution of solutions while still testing different options and changing directions.

4. High-Fidelity Prototyping: The Almost Final Version 

Prototypes include: 

  • Interactive
  • Digital
  • Coding components

Creating them is more complex and aesthetically pleasing than designing a low-fidelity prototype. A high-fidelity prototype produces more accurate feedback during usability testing because it is more realistic. 

High-Fidelity Prototypes: Bringing Advanced Interactions and Visual Details to Life

As fidelity increases, resources, time, and effort become more crucial. An example might be a website prototype that scrolls, mouse-over micro-interactions, or a mobile prototype that changes color when tapped. Dynamic tabs, accordion menus, and parallax scrolling are other possible interactions.

5. Wireframes: The Blueprint of Your App

Wireframes act as blueprints for digital products. In addition to key pages, page flows, layouts, forms, architectural details, etc., they show the most essential structures of a website or app. Using wireframes, you can avoid focusing on all minor details and only concentrate on macro interface details. 

Programmers and designers can use wireframes to brainstorm the structure of apps they’re working on. This helps you get a more detailed estimate from your development partner. By giving designers a structure to work with but letting them be creative, they will appreciate the opportunity to make it their own.

6. Sketches and Diagrams: Capturing Early Ideas

To better understand their audience, most designers and product teams often spend time doing user and market research before starting to design their projects. When teams begin to analyze use problems, pain points, product needs, and competitors’ solutions. Some great ideas may pop up. When these ideas come up, you can quickly capture them by sketching them out on paper for later reference. 

When doing user and marketing research, remember to capture all ideas when they come and sketch anything that pops out in your mind, like app user flows. At the brainstorming stage, sketching everything directly on paper makes presenting ideas easier, communicating better with others, and getting a more creative design draft. You don’t have to focus on all the interface details at this early prototyping stage.

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6 App Prototyping Tips For a Better Product

mobile app - App Prototype Example

1. User Research is Key

The primary aim of prototyping is to create a design for someone else—the user. To make a successful prototype and app, it is paramount to conduct user research to identify their pain points. Researching your potential customers will help you determine whether your product is needed on the market and will also inform the design and functionality of your product. 

2. Be Detailed

When tested, prototypes should be as accurate as possible. It is better to test your app’s details as early as possible to avoid future problems. Details should be taken into account. 

3. Interactive and Real-Time Content

It is a good idea to add content and interactions to your ideas to visualize them and test them as soon as possible. A higher efficiency level can be gained by evaluating your ideas if you have added more realistic content. You should add as many details as possible to your assumptions to get a complete estimate. 

4. Make Any Necessary Changes

If a prototype reveals a design flaw, you should return to an earlier design or model. Prototype a new version if necessary and make any necessary changes. 

5. Test and Iterate Constantly

Prototypes are only models of the final product, no matter how many details you add. Iterating and updating them is still necessary. Keep doing user research, analyze your audience, and adapt your design based on what they are doing. They might be using your app or website in a way you did not anticipate. 

6. Keep Safety in Mind

A prototype is used to determine whether a design is safe before implementation. Protecting digital works from cybercriminals and hackers is one way to do this. Users must be able to test physical models for functionality and safety. 

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