How to Prototype a Mobile App?

Prototyping a mobile app is an essential aspect of an app development process, just like the coding practices and testing exercises. Sometimes, the prototypes stand as a fine line between the success and the failure of an app. Every mobile app developer should learn how to prototype an app before reaping the fruits of labour.

How to Prototype a Mobile App? Before going into detail about how to prototype an app, let’s first go through what a mobile app prototype is?

The prototype is a blueprint or first version of a mobile app, which helps mobile app developers to view and test the product's functions. It is also made available to selected users and clients for their valuable feedback, so the areas of improvement can be found.

It helps in exploring new ideas and designing methods. Additionally, prototypes help developers to expand the scope of involving clients and stakeholders in the development process.

Below are some effortless steps to successfully prototyping a mobile application. Let's begin.

1. Define Your App

Before you reach the prototype stage of an app, take a moment and write the goals of your app. Define it, ask yourself the aim of the app. What problems can it solve?

It will help you understand the app, who the end-users will be, why would they download it and what are they going to do with it? These questions are very important to consider because 77% of the users don’t use an app after 3 days of installation. You wouldn’t want your app to be useless, or do you?

For example, if your app aims to help people buy garments online, it would be a business to customer (B2C) app.

At the initial stage, you have to define a unique selling point (USP). USP in the above example is that your app eliminates the need for customers to visit a garment shop or store, as your app assist them to buy them online at the comfort of their home, couch or sofa. No matter what your USP is, define it well and make sure that it is unique.

2. Research if Your Idea is Practical

When the idea of app strikes you, it might look a real money maker to you. You might have shared the idea with your close friends or family, and even they too might have liked it. But a mobile app is more than that.

You need to research the mobile market and find if the idea behind your app is practical or not. Research is a key factor here that every mobile app development company should consider in the phase when the prototype is being built. It will help you find what the audience expects, what are their needs, what problems do they face and more. Taking answers to these questions as inferences and guidelines, you can avoid development and design mistakes.

You can also create a survey of all the questions you have in mind related to your mobile app idea. Surveys can provide you with quantitative as well as qualitative information, helping you make better decisions.

3. Identify Key Functions of Your App

When you have defined the app and done the research, just make a roadmap of the app and the functionalities it will have. It is easy and interesting to make a list of several features your app should have.

Whether you are an android app development company or an iOS app development company, you need to list the functions and then prioritize them. You don’t have to add all the features and functions initially. This can be done later when your mobile app gets some spotlight. To start, focus on the most essential ones.

4. Create Rough Sketches of Main Screens

After figuring out the priority features to be added to the app, the next step is to think of user experience. To begin with, start creating a few rough sketches of the main screens that will show up on your app.

To make things easier, divide the main screen functionalities into profiles, matches, and dashboard. Don’t make it complex, just draw the rough sketches, which can be improved in the next stage.

5. Create Wireframes From Rough Sketches

If you have sketched the main screens of your app, turn your focus to wireframing. A wireframe is actually the skeleton of your app that will include no design elements but some bare boxes, lines and words. You can also call it the basic outline of your app.

The wireframing of an app will help you analyze if you are heading in the right direction. You can also share the wireframes with some of your friends who know a little about app development, to get feedback on it.

6. Test the Prototype

When you are done with wireframing, it is time to bring the mobile app prototype to testing. This is a crucial part of the app development process which provides insights and opportunities to learn and improve the app.

A good and common method to test a mobile app is to set up a usability test. The usability test helps you determine the usability of the app, like how will users perform tasks, how will they interact with the features, and how will they understand words and descriptions?

It is normal to miss things and to find the bumps in the app. That is why the usability tests are very useful. All the insights help you to learn, optimize and make the prototype ready for the final, critical stages.

7. Wireframes to Pixel Perfect Designs

Finally, you can now turn the wireframes into pixel perfect designs. In case you don’t possess designing skills, you can find a designer from a good mobile app development company in India or abroad. You can also talk to some freelancers who are good at designing.

Discuss your ideas with the designers, make them understand what exactly you want so that you get what's expected. A lot of designers use Sketch, while others use Illustrator for app designing. Update the prototype with final designs and make it feel lively.