Mid-Fidelity Prototype

A prototype is a draft version of a product that allows you to explore your ideas and show the intention behind a feature or the overall design concept to users before investing time and money into development. A mid-fidelity prototype allows click-through of a few primary pieces of content and actions of a app/site. They are mid-fidelity because they lack complete visual fidelity, focus only on the happy path, and leverage placeholder copy.

When to Use

1. To evaluate divergent concepts in user research to determine direction based on user’s performance, feedback, and other learnings.
2. To best demonstrate a new interaction model that can be understood and delivered by the product team.

Steps

1. Collect and review previously created concepts, often wireframes are already created when using this method.
2. Use all the existing design assets to build your prototypes screens.
3. Create an interactive experience by using a prototyping design tool. Its important to make the prototype feel like a true representation of a product to best collect true human performance data but not to get carried away with the details.

References

1. https://methods.18f.govhttps://methods.18f.gov/make/prototyping//
2. https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/prototyping.html
3. http://practicaluxmethods.com/product/rapid-prototyping/
4. https://www.circulardesignguide.com/post/rapid-prototyping

Templates (if applicable)

Created by: Joe Steinkamp | Last updated by: Joe Steinkamp