Imagine, if animation film-makers at Pixar would just send you screenshots of different moments in the movie instead of the movie itself and said ”You can imagine the rest”. Would you still be interested in watching it?
As designers, we love creating new ideas and bringing them to life. However, in order to make your vision a reality while working with a team we have to communicate effectively, not only to explain our ideas but also to get alignment with all the stakeholders. It is hard to convince all the team members at the same time. It will be extremely rare, when you get them on-board your idea after your first presentation itself. Sometimes, your team members won’t be able to understand your design and conveying a great story about your design is solely your responsibility as a designer. If you can’t present your designs effectively, nobody can. Thus, we need to convey the whole story of our designs to create the desired impact and outcome.
Prototyping your designs is one such under-rated skill that if done right can ease your journey in convincing others and getting them onboard to build what you created. I will specifically talk about UI designs since I have been working as a UX Designer in the industry for the past 5 years and have pursued design academically before that. In today’s time, designers use tools like Figma, Sketch, etc. and these tools are powerful enough to prototype your UI design ideas. However, the reasons given here are true for all types of prototypes you want to create.
What is prototyping?
A prototype is a first version of an idea that you wanted to turn into reality. It is not the best or the final version, but it does the job of conveying how a design will behave in different situations. It conveys the story and the vision.
How does design prototyping help us?
Identify gaps in your design: For a designer, it is easy to visualise how his designs work. We create separate screens for each moment of the interaction with the user-interface and imagine how they would work. However, it might not be the case every time. We might miss finer details of the interactions that create confusion in the interactions, which we thought would work seamlessly. Prototyping our designs will empower us by confirming if the interactions work as desired.
No narration needed while presenting: After you’ve created the most amazing design in the world, it is important for you to present it to your stakeholders. Remember to create a prototype before you present to any stakeholder. A prototype will communicate for itself, while unstitched design screens will need your narration while you present them.
Effective Storytelling: A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a thousand pictures. Our stakeholders are often non-designers. They understand and enjoy stories. Hence, if you want to get your story across to them, the effectiveness of the story matters a lot. And when it comes to presenting your designs effectively, you need to show it as seamlessly as you can for maximum impact. This is where prototyping helps you create that seamless story.
Reduce work for the viewer: Nobody likes gaps in a story, let alone your stakeholders. You can’t say “Imagine there is a filter icon and when I click it a dialog box opens up”. Every stakeholder will imagine differently, because they have experienced Design very differently in their lives. Your job is to help them see what you’ve imagined, not ask them to imagine and expect them to get what’s inside your mind.
Helps build conviction: A prototype helps a designer and the team members build conviction in the design. It helps conversations move forward efficiently without getting distracted by the interaction level questions. Presenting unstitched designs might not build conviction since they always seem like work in-progress.
Conclusion
I understand, it is not possible to create prototypes all the time for anyone you present to. It is tiring to stitch those screens again and again. So instead, if you’re having a brainstorming sessions with a fellow designer, you need not create a prototype. Just walk them through the design screens and they’ll understand, most of the time. However, when it comes to showcasing your designs to the leadership team or someone who is not a designer, it is advised to create a prototype to communicate your design story.
You need to identify the audience and the goal of a presentation before you decide the best way to convey the story of your designs. Preferably, if you’re going into a presentation, the goal for which is to get approval, create alignment or build conviction, you should create a prototype.
But is creating a prototype so easy? What are the types of prototypes available? This will be a topic for the next article. Till then, keep designing, keep learning.
Imagine, if animation film-makers at Pixar would just send you screenshots of different moments in the movie instead of the movie itself and said ”You can imagine the rest”. Would you still be interested in watching it?
As designers, we love creating new ideas and bringing them to life. However, in order to make your vision a reality while working with a team we have to communicate effectively, not only to explain our ideas but also to get alignment with all the stakeholders. It is hard to convince all the team members at the same time. It will be extremely rare, when you get them on-board your idea after your first presentation itself. Sometimes, your team members won’t be able to understand your design and conveying a great story about your design is solely your responsibility as a designer. If you can’t present your designs effectively, nobody can. Thus, we need to convey the whole story of our designs to create the desired impact and outcome.
Prototyping your designs is one such under-rated skill that if done right can ease your journey in convincing others and getting them onboard to build what you created. I will specifically talk about UI designs since I have been working as a UX Designer in the industry for the past 5 years and have pursued design academically before that. In today’s time, designers use tools like Figma, Sketch, etc. and these tools are powerful enough to prototype your UI design ideas. However, the reasons given here are true for all types of prototypes you want to create.
What is prototyping?
A prototype is a first version of an idea that you wanted to turn into reality. It is not the best or the final version, but it does the job of conveying how a design will behave in different situations. It conveys the story and the vision.
How does design prototyping help us?
Identify gaps in your design: For a designer, it is easy to visualise how his designs work. We create separate screens for each moment of the interaction with the user-interface and imagine how they would work. However, it might not be the case every time. We might miss finer details of the interactions that create confusion in the interactions, which we thought would work seamlessly. Prototyping our designs will empower us by confirming if the interactions work as desired.
No narration needed while presenting: After you’ve created the most amazing design in the world, it is important for you to present it to your stakeholders. Remember to create a prototype before you present to any stakeholder. A prototype will communicate for itself, while unstitched design screens will need your narration while you present them.
Effective Storytelling: A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a thousand pictures. Our stakeholders are often non-designers. They understand and enjoy stories. Hence, if you want to get your story across to them, the effectiveness of the story matters a lot. And when it comes to presenting your designs effectively, you need to show it as seamlessly as you can for maximum impact. This is where prototyping helps you create that seamless story.
Reduce work for the viewer: Nobody likes gaps in a story, let alone your stakeholders. You can’t say “Imagine there is a filter icon and when I click it a dialog box opens up”. Every stakeholder will imagine differently, because they have experienced Design very differently in their lives. Your job is to help them see what you’ve imagined, not ask them to imagine and expect them to get what’s inside your mind.
Helps build conviction: A prototype helps a designer and the team members build conviction in the design. It helps conversations move forward efficiently without getting distracted by the interaction level questions. Presenting unstitched designs might not build conviction since they always seem like work in-progress.
Conclusion
I understand, it is not possible to create prototypes all the time for anyone you present to. It is tiring to stitch those screens again and again. So instead, if you’re having a brainstorming sessions with a fellow designer, you need not create a prototype. Just walk them through the design screens and they’ll understand, most of the time. However, when it comes to showcasing your designs to the leadership team or someone who is not a designer, it is advised to create a prototype to communicate your design story.
You need to identify the audience and the goal of a presentation before you decide the best way to convey the story of your designs. Preferably, if you’re going into a presentation, the goal for which is to get approval, create alignment or build conviction, you should create a prototype.
But is creating a prototype so easy? What are the types of prototypes available? This will be a topic for the next article. Till then, keep designing, keep learning.
Imagine, if animation film-makers at Pixar would just send you screenshots of different moments in the movie instead of the movie itself and said ”You can imagine the rest”. Would you still be interested in watching it?
As designers, we love creating new ideas and bringing them to life. However, in order to make your vision a reality while working with a team we have to communicate effectively, not only to explain our ideas but also to get alignment with all the stakeholders. It is hard to convince all the team members at the same time. It will be extremely rare, when you get them on-board your idea after your first presentation itself. Sometimes, your team members won’t be able to understand your design and conveying a great story about your design is solely your responsibility as a designer. If you can’t present your designs effectively, nobody can. Thus, we need to convey the whole story of our designs to create the desired impact and outcome.
Prototyping your designs is one such under-rated skill that if done right can ease your journey in convincing others and getting them onboard to build what you created. I will specifically talk about UI designs since I have been working as a UX Designer in the industry for the past 5 years and have pursued design academically before that. In today’s time, designers use tools like Figma, Sketch, etc. and these tools are powerful enough to prototype your UI design ideas. However, the reasons given here are true for all types of prototypes you want to create.
What is prototyping?
A prototype is a first version of an idea that you wanted to turn into reality. It is not the best or the final version, but it does the job of conveying how a design will behave in different situations. It conveys the story and the vision.
How does design prototyping help us?
Identify gaps in your design: For a designer, it is easy to visualise how his designs work. We create separate screens for each moment of the interaction with the user-interface and imagine how they would work. However, it might not be the case every time. We might miss finer details of the interactions that create confusion in the interactions, which we thought would work seamlessly. Prototyping our designs will empower us by confirming if the interactions work as desired.
No narration needed while presenting: After you’ve created the most amazing design in the world, it is important for you to present it to your stakeholders. Remember to create a prototype before you present to any stakeholder. A prototype will communicate for itself, while unstitched design screens will need your narration while you present them.
Effective Storytelling: A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a thousand pictures. Our stakeholders are often non-designers. They understand and enjoy stories. Hence, if you want to get your story across to them, the effectiveness of the story matters a lot. And when it comes to presenting your designs effectively, you need to show it as seamlessly as you can for maximum impact. This is where prototyping helps you create that seamless story.
Reduce work for the viewer: Nobody likes gaps in a story, let alone your stakeholders. You can’t say “Imagine there is a filter icon and when I click it a dialog box opens up”. Every stakeholder will imagine differently, because they have experienced Design very differently in their lives. Your job is to help them see what you’ve imagined, not ask them to imagine and expect them to get what’s inside your mind.
Helps build conviction: A prototype helps a designer and the team members build conviction in the design. It helps conversations move forward efficiently without getting distracted by the interaction level questions. Presenting unstitched designs might not build conviction since they always seem like work in-progress.
Conclusion
I understand, it is not possible to create prototypes all the time for anyone you present to. It is tiring to stitch those screens again and again. So instead, if you’re having a brainstorming sessions with a fellow designer, you need not create a prototype. Just walk them through the design screens and they’ll understand, most of the time. However, when it comes to showcasing your designs to the leadership team or someone who is not a designer, it is advised to create a prototype to communicate your design story.
You need to identify the audience and the goal of a presentation before you decide the best way to convey the story of your designs. Preferably, if you’re going into a presentation, the goal for which is to get approval, create alignment or build conviction, you should create a prototype.
But is creating a prototype so easy? What are the types of prototypes available? This will be a topic for the next article. Till then, keep designing, keep learning.
