Dressed to kill
How the wow-factor of your prototype can turn against you
Prototype. Proof of concept. Mock-up. Draft. Dummy. Whatever you call the thing, they are all built for the same reason. They are not presentations, nor works of art. They are tools to learn.
Low fidelity does not equal low quality.
Tempted to skip straight to fine-tuning?
Architects use scale models made out of plywood and foam, and industrial designers craft their ideas out of cardboard and duct tape. UX designers scribble quick mock-ups on paper, and service designers act out customer journeys using crude props. Whatever your design discipline, prototypes are what make abstract concrete. Best prototypes evoke questions, explain ideas with rugged honesty, and aid development towards a more refined outcome.
Modern prototyping tools and design systems have unquestionably improved efficiency and interdisciplinary workflow, and now that designers have all the bells and whistles at their fingertips, making polished, high fidelity prototypes isn’t really a question of time and resources like it used to. Skipping the quick-and-dirty phase altogether has become not only a possibility, but a tempting one.
But while many designers can’t wait to get adjusting milliseconds of transitions, it’s worth reminding that the need for low fidelity prototypes has all but disappeared.
This post is a reminder of why too much detail, too early, is a risky play.
Fidelity fit for purpose
Think of a concept car. The ooh-so-shiny creation you see at the international car fair wasn’t just built there on the spot: it’s the hundredth-something iteration of the concept. It started with research and sketches, car silhouettes made with tape, scale models made of foam, full-scale models made of clay – and, most importantly, numbers and numbers of people testing, evaluating and commenting on the versions before the curtain is finally pulled. A truckload of prototypes was created and discarded to get to that one that is shown to the world.
The team knows that their creation is a tool to create an illusion. They know that the prototype is a decade away from production. But the audience sees a car, and they will judge it as if they were already driving it. And that’s the intention.
In your typical day-to-day digital design project, the purpose of a prototype is rarely to paint a sky-blue vision of the distant future. Think of the stage you are in now with your project, and what would benefit you the most: are you looking for comments to make the concept better, or are you looking to make an impression? The two intentions are wildly different, and those intentions should dictate the level of detail of the prototype.
If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck
Too high fidelity for to the purpose can easily misdirect people’s focus, or even spook them speechless. The steering wheel of your proverbial concept car might be missing, but since everything is polished to perfection, no one questions it, so they’ll just comment on how they don’t like the red stitchwork of the seats. Suddenly the question isn’t “how would I improve this” anymore, but “what I don’t like about this”. Your concept co-creation session has become a design critique about details.
If the prototype appears more finished than it truly is to your audience, it easily makes the impression that things are already way past the point of big changes. Someone could see a fatal mistake but doesn’t dare to burst your bubble because it looks like you’ve worked hard on it. Besides, after having obviously spent much time and effort on this thing already, it would be just plain stupid to trash the idea completely, right? Nobody wants to be that guy.
Either way, the feedback you get isn’t the kind of feedback you were hoping for.
Be cautious of getting people excited
The designer ego loves making the stakeholders gasp in awe. But when it comes to expectation management, your cool prototype can be either your best pal or your worst nightmare. People expect to get what they see, and the more you show, the less wiggle room you have down the road.
When you throw a bunch of stuff at the wall, sometimes the wrong things stick. If the stakeholders fall in love with the prototype – that you created on a whim – it’s no use telling them that it’s “just a rough prototype”. The next thing you know, the prototype is going rounds in the organization and everyone wants it done just like that – and you and your team know that what you’ve just presented is years away from production. If you can’t deliver – well, that makes you the ass for getting everyone’s hopes up for nothing.
Getting high on your own supply
The concept will still have to evolve. There are vital features missing or incomplete. But now that the prototype is out in the wild, it becomes much harder to add to or change the concept. Everything suddenly seems to “break” the design.
The sleek and sexy prototype turns into the very thing holding the concept back. The prototype becomes the product.
The most treacherous pitfall, however, is that the longer you stare at your cool, but inherently flawed creation, the more you fall in love with the idea of a car without a steering wheel. You, the creator of the prototype, are not immune, but, dare I say, perhaps the most gullible to the wow-factor. Instead of listening to critique, you’ll start finding excuses why your concept car doesn’t need a steering wheel, or start creating workarounds that “go around the problem”.
Abracadabra, the flaw is now a must-have feature.
The end result.
In conclusion: go easy on the sprinkles
Now that digital prototyping tools are quicker than ever, it is very tempting to get ahead of the actual concept with the prototype. Tread lightly when making things appear more done than they truly are: too much, too soon can easily misdirect the level of feedback and mask flaws from the audience and yourself, and even alter the course of the project.
Low fidelity does not equal low quality – make sure the level of detail supports the purpose and agenda of the situation you’re in. The sooner you realize that the concept sucks, the shorter the fall, and the quicker you can start working on the alternatives.
When you’ve fixed the key elements of the concept and your goal is to sell your dashing concept it’s time to make it look like it’s already out there, with all the bits and pieces in place.
Get blog updates by adding your email to below. You can also subscribe with RSS.