A key principle for all protoyping in product design is to be rough, rapid and right.
Rough means not to build anymore than is necessary for the current purpose.
Rapid means moving fast and being prepared to throw the prototype away quickly, once it has achieved its purpose.
Right means ensuring that the rough prototype rapidly built is capable of addressing the unknowns and answering the critical question.
Some purposes of prototyping
- Seeing how much can be fitted onto a screen and still be comfortably legible.
- Exploring whether users interpret the various interactive elements appropriately.
- Demonstrate that a flow (through the application) works and makes sense.
- Providing colleagues with an understanding of what ‘Done’ might look and feel like.
- Investigating whether users can navigate through the flow and complete their tasks.
- Enabling customers to see what new features might really mean in their day-to-day usage.
Whichever of these (or numerous other)purposes fits your reasons for building a prototype, this should guide you in terms of what rough, rapid and right might mean for you and this should lead you to see what tool is most appropriate.