Prototypes

All of you might know the cult story of first iPod prototype and how it was discarded by Steve Jobs. For those of you who don’t – When Jobs was presented the very first completed prototype of Apple iPod, he promptly rejected it after criticizing its weight and size issues. When engineers tried to explain how impossible it was to make it any smaller, Jobs took the iPod and dropped it in the aquarium. After it touched the bottom, air bubbles started rising. Here is when he snapped his ever-famous remark; “see those air bubbles, this means there’s space there. Make it smaller”. Period.

And, that’s how the world was able to witness the ultra-thin, incredibly portable music player that was one-of-its-kind, which was a result of experimenting with prototypes.

Building prototypes are highly crucial, no matter what. They allow you to merge your current resources and capabilities, while still providing a room for further exploration. They translate your ideas from the roads of vagueness and obscurity to vividness and totality. Whether it is a scribbling notes for a speech, a beta version of your software, or the Lorem Ipsum of a webpage – incorporating some form of prototyping will only help in adding more efficacy to your workflow.

Here are the top 7 reasons I believe constructing prototypes are integral to any project.

1. Failing when it doesn’t cost you – The inception of anything is a rough work and the best thing about prototyping is, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Building prototypes is cheap, fast, and easy. So, even if you have conceptualized something that turns out to be terrible when put into action, you have nothing to lose. Companies try many concepts and only a few make the final cut.
2. Solving conflicts from the beginning – When a team of professionals is involved, creation of conflicts is inevitable. Every other person in the team might have their own strong opinion about a given feature and how it is supposed to work. Since you have a prototype, you have enough time to compare and implement everyone’s strategy and finally settle with the one that proves more effective than the rest.
3. No misinterpretations. Better feedback – Prototypes are created in the simplest and easiest formats that enables people to quickly and conveniently get the idea it represents. It becomes easy for anyone to interpret what you are trying to convey, which in turn help bringing in more precise feedback.
4. Gives an advanced foresight – Prototypes give you a sneak peak of what the future holds. The flexibility of altering every component of the prototype helps you in achieving a better understanding of the value of the product and enhances its capabilities further.
5. Challenge the threshold every time you want – The need to amend and refine various elements of a prototype is nothing but challenging the threshold of the product. If you fail, you will start thinking about finding some other way; if you succeed, you can increase the benchmark once again.
6. Can be used as a marketing tool – Having a one-off model for your business idea gives your investors as well as potential buyers a satisfactory reason that they can trust on you.
7. Acts as a visual guide to the finished product – A better prototype acts as a visual guide to how the finished product would be. With a prototype, you have a more streamlined process and you know what the next step is going to be in order to proceed further.

Building a prototype can be the most pivotal point of your project. With the right team of professionals and creative ideas, you will be amazed at how prototypes can shape a better future for you. The benefits of having a prototype are invaluable. You have all the options in front of you and sky is the limit.