What is a prototype? The complete guide · Sketch Blog

At one point or another, almost every product you know was once a prototype. Regardless of your industry, when creating a product from scratch you will reach a point where you need to validate your idea before stakeholders commit major resources to it. And that’s why prototypes are a central part of the product development life cycle.
In the design field, you might be creating prototypes for mobile apps or websites. In this article, we’ll be explaining what exactly a prototype is, why they’re so useful and the different types.
At its simplest level, a prototype is an early model of an object that you build to test a design. Prototypes are drafts of your final version, focusing on functionality and giving your stakeholders a clear picture of your final product.
One important characteristic of a prototype is that you don’t have to create a 1-to-1 model of the final product. Commonly, you only need a specific portion of the final product that you want to test. You don’t even have to create just one prototype for your product — you have a few different options:
Prototype is a broad term. It can mean a model of the entire project, a model focused on functionality rather than design, or a model focused on design and no functionality. But the most common use case is a design with a focus on functionality — which helps you separate them from wireframes and mockups. And with this added focus on functionality, prototypes are the perfect tool to use in testing.
Sketch can help you create interactive prototypes to test out your designs.
As we’ve explained, prototypes are an essential part of the design process, no matter which approach you’re taking. Since prototypes are the best design models to take into testing, let’s look at what they can help with:
Now that we know how useful prototypes are, let’s look at the different kinds of prototypes we can create.
Similar to mockups and wireframes, prototypes can have different fidelities depending on your needs. So let’s go through the differences between low and high-fidelity prototypes and see an example of each.
Low-fidelity prototypes are the go-to option for you when you’re at the very initial stages of a design. They’re usually pencil-and-paper sketches that you use to convey a design as quickly and roughly as possible.
If you’re just getting started with prototyping, sketching out your ideas will keep you organized and on-task.
Depending on your needs you’ll sometimes need to go with a low-fidelity prototype. So let’s look at the pros and cons of using one.
Now that we have some ideas of why you might consider a low-fidelity prototype, let’s take a look at what high-fidelity prototypes bring to the table.
When you think about a prototype for a digital product, a high-fidelity prototype is likely what you’re imagining. They’re closer to the definition of what a prototype is — a test version of the final product. You can create high-fidelity prototypes using digital design tools like Sketch.
High-fidelity prototype are accurate designs and are much closer to the final product.
So let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using a high-fidelity prototype for your designs.
It’s important to note that low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes aren’t mutually exclusive options. Depending on what you need to test, you may need both during the design process. The key thing to remember is that you should constantly test your designs, in any way that works for you. That way, you won’t run into major surprises down the line.
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