Scroll to navigateState of Prototyping
World-class design solutions require honing, refining and testing in order to reach their full potential. From apps to automobiles, prototyping is an increasingly fundamental part of the process for in-house teams and agencies alike.
The 2020 State of Prototyping industry report is a first-of-its-kind global survey that explores the rapid rise in both the popularity and accessibility of prototyping.
by Design Week in partnership with Framer.
The first global report commissioned on prototyping explores the rapid rise in both the popularity and accessibility of prototyping.
- 345 senior design professionals
- 11 VPs and design leaders
- 16 industries
From a surge in online retail to the burgeoning range of video communication tools, the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically accelerated the global shift towards digital.
Our survey and interviews reveal that there is a growing need for robust digital products that cater to consumers’ fast-changing requirements, and digital transformation must be at the heart of any forward-thinking organization’s strategy.
John Maeda
Chief Experience Officer at Publicis Sapient
Helen Fuchs
Design Director at ustwo
Noel Lyons
Chief Design Officer at Barclays
Luke Woods
VP, Head of Design at Instagram
Margaret Cyphers
Design Director at Google
Laurel Tripp
Vice President User Experience at Salesforce
Jenny Cha
Senior Designer at Duolingo
Jerome Zhong
Senior Designer at Duolingo
John Pruitt
Director of Design and UX at Dell
Klaus Bischoff
Head of Design at Volkswagen Group
The rise of prototyping
Consumer expectations are high, but speed is critical too. Effective prototyping improves both the quality of the outcome and the efficiency of the process, so that market-leading ideas can be developed, refined and approved more quickly – and at lower risk.
In this report, senior leaders share how prototyping is effecting change both in obvious areas, such as a risk-reducing tactic, but also in more surprising areas, proving to be a barometer of early stage success and a powerful presentation tool for encouraging buy-in from stakeholders.
99%
agree that prototyping is more important than ever
70%
increased their commitment to it within the past two years
87%
say that prototyping has become easier in the past two years
We prototype everything.
“Ten years ago, there was a bit of showing and a lot of telling. Now we can show everything, and hardly have to tell at all.”
This includes feeding in real user data—something Instagram strives to do wherever possible.
“Products that people expect today, you couldn’t really create without a prototype,” he adds. “There are a lot of micro decisions that you’d gloss over with static design mock-ups.”
Putting theory into practice
Prototypes can pave the way for innovation, particularly in fields where developing concepts before field-testing them could be prohibitively risky and expensive. For instance, a quarter of respondents identify emerging technologies such as AR and VR as a key focus for prototyping, while 21% create prototypes for Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
“It’s important to our DNA to get tangible,” confirms Helen Fuchs, design director at Ustwo. “You must test if your hypothesis is resonating. Getting tangible quickly is a great shortcut.”Read the ustwo case study
But by far the most widespread use of prototyping is for designing websites and apps. Intuitive, on-brand digital experiences are key differentiators in a crowded market, and they are often one of the most public-facing parts of any digital transformation strategy. 85% of respondents use prototypes in their web design process, and 68% for app design.
Based on multiple choice selection by respondents.
Empowering non-coding designers
As non-coding designers take more ownership of the prototyping process, reducing the need to tie-up developer resource at an earlier stage, tools are becoming more intuitive and accessible to cater to that need.
The continued innovations in prototyping software are streamlining the process, bringing that resource commitment down across the board. And the risk of not prototyping is high.
“Designers work in isolation, ticking the requirements from a PM and providing a specced document. No collaboration; no exploration of ideas; no curiosity or unpacking of requirements to understand them better; no critiques from other designers.” —Laurel Tripp, VP User Experience, Salesforce
Prototypes can instill confidence in both clients and makers that this could be the right thing.
“[And] you need confidence to bring something to the planet that no one has used before," concludes Maeda.
“[And] you need confidence to bring something to the planet that no one has used before," concludes Maeda.
But Maeda is quick to add that it can be situational: “Creating a prototype just to show at one meeting could be a lot of work. But if you can expose that prototype to 100 users and acquire real data, it gets interesting.”
More persuasive than PowerPoint
Prototypes can give projects a huge boost in the Boardroom: few things can capture the imagination of a senior stakeholder like a fully immersive, high-fidelity working model. In fact, 50% of respondents believe the primary benefit of prototyping is to encourage buy-in by communicating ideas more effectively.
Handing over a mobile device with a prototype inspires in a way a 200-slide deck can’t. From a design critique to a review with the C-Suite, the closer to reality a prototype is, the better the reception.
A risk-reducing, cost-saving tool
Full-stack development gets expensive quickly, and prototypes have a key role to play in enabling designers to explore and test ideas before developers get involved. A working prototype can keep focus on the bigger picture during a multi-stage design process, avoid veering off track and wasting time and resource.
Read the Barclays Bank case studyWe don’t want to set developers working on something experimental. At Barclays, we do our experiments, learning and exploration with prototyping.
54%
Allows users to provide valuable feedback within the proper context
44%
Brings the user interface design to life
34%
Illustrates functionality to developers in ways screen specifications can’t
22%
Reduces the need to write spec to explain designs, saving time
14%
Enables effective incorporation of user data during testing
13%
Reduces the cost of making mistakes
Prototypes are critical as we can test without full engineering or actual launchable code.Prototypes are critical as we can test without full engineering or actual launchable code. It enables us to get quicker feedback, at less cost.
Higher fidelity is better at this stage, continues Cyphers. “[With prototypes], we’re not asking people to make such a leap of faith to imagine themselves using it,” she says.
Bring the most ambitious ideas to life
The best digital experiences feel intuitive. That can’t be described effectively using words alone: it must be experienced.
Once you make it real, you have to make it really real or people get distracted.
According to Tripp, Salesforce has a large analytics component within its software – here, live insights have much more relevance and impact at the testing stage than dummy text.
The same is true at Volkswagen Group, where Head of Design Klaus Zyciora says prototypes were integral during the multi-stage design process of the VW Touchscreen Display.
Read the Volkswagen case study99%
say that the ability to bring a user interface to life during the design process is a core technical benefit of prototyping
Prototypes make development run more smoothly
54% of respondents say the ability to reduce confusion between design and development is a primary selling point for a prototyping tool. And when it comes to choosing a prototyping tool, over a fifth particularly value its ability to take such constraints into consideration. “With a rich prototype, the designer has to make all kinds of subtle decisions,” explains Instagram’s Luke Woods. “Our engineers love it, because it gives them exactly what they need to create.
Which key attributes do you look for when considering prototyping tools?
Based on multiple choice selection by respondents.
Ready for more?
Transform your business and download the full 30-page State of Prototyping report now.
Get business-critical insights:
- Understand why your team isn’t prototyping enough
- Identify when prototyping is most effective
- Get insights from leaders at Google, VW, Salesforce and more.
