Nathan Curtis, one of the geniuses at the design firm EightShapes, likes to say “Don’t tell me, Show me.” When talking about a design, Nathan wants to see (and possibly play with) a prototype to better understand what’s being proposed.
Nathan’s not the only one. Prototypes are a fabulous way to explore ideas with a team. They shorten the time between “This is what we’re thinking…” and “Oh, I get it.”
In our work with design teams, we see a lot of teams using prototypes today. We’re also seeing many of those same teams fall into traps that reduce the effectiveness of their prototyping efforts. Here’s five of the most common ones we see.
