The Inevitable, Welcomed Death of the Prototype

Prototyping is an archaic, unnecessary step in the modern app development process. It’s time for founders to finally say goodbye, forever.

The old ways of app development are over. 

New tools and technology have ushered in the democratization of app development, which has changed the way founders transform rough ideas into fully functioning, market-ready applications. 

In this new era of app development, historically fundamental steps in the process are now becoming wholly unnecessary.

Prototyping, for example, has long been one of the most crucial steps founders must take in the early phases of app development. 

But with modern, app development platforms like Xperts, the sluggish act of prototyping is becoming increasingly redundant. 

Smart founders are welcoming this inevitable death of the prototype and embracing a new way of thinking that allows them to build apps more efficiently and economically than ever before. 

That thought process can be summed up in five words:

MVP is the new prototype. 

Prototyping: A Thing of the Past

Since the earliest days of application development, prototyping has been an essential process that builders needed to invest in to bring an idea to life. 

The Interaction Design Foundation describes prototyping as “​​an experimental process where design teams implement ideas into tangible forms from paper to digital. Teams build prototypes of varying degrees of fidelity to capture design concepts and test on users. With prototypes, you can refine and validate your designs so your brand can release the right products.”

The core purpose of and reason for prototyping is to test concepts before launch. By testing and thinking through concepts, you uncover potential problems, risks, and opportunities that could impact user experience. 

Historically, the benefit of prototyping was that if you spent time working through problems early on when ideas are still being formed, you save time and money later on when it’s time to build. 

Tim Brown, CEO & President of IDEO, once said, “by taking the time to prototype our ideas, we avoid costly mistakes such as becoming too complex too early and sticking with a weak idea for too long.”

To go through the process of prototyping involved multiple stakeholders across an organization, all with varying levels of experience and differing opinions about what users want and need. 

Prototypes were sometimes built on paper, then transferred into digital formats. Or they were built entirely in digital platforms from the very beginning using tools like Sketch or Adobe XD. 

A traditional application development process that includes prototyping looks something like this:

This is the workflow development teams have been using for decades to build new applications—one that leverages prototyping as part of the design phase. 

It’s the workflow many organizations are still using today. 

The problem is, it’s no longer the most efficient and cost-effective way to develop applications. 

Why Prototyping is Inefficient and Unnecessary 

Businesses are developing applications differently today than they did in the past. 

The modern way of developing applications doesn’t require prototyping. 

Prototyping has become a redundant, cumbersome step that only slows teams down. 

Why? 

Modern low code, no code, and real code app development platforms like Xperts allow you to bring early ideas to life faster by instantly turning concepts into real, functioning parts of your application with real code you can inspect and adjust. 

These tools are enabling founders and developers to build faster by eliminating the need for the prototyping phase entirely. 

Instead of wasting time planning multiple working sessions with multiple stakeholders across several departments, sketching ideas, digitizing those ideas, and eventually turning designs into working prototypes, developers can now move faster by snapping together pre-built modules and pieces of code that bring their ideas to life and transform them into a working MVP. 

The modern application development process that removes the need for prototyping looks something like this:

It’s a more streamlined and modern approach that allows developers and teams to spend less time and money bringing applications to market. 

Xperts is Helping Founders Build Faster by Collapsing the Product Development Process

At Xperts, we’re helping founders bring apps to market faster and for less money by eliminating archaic, outdated steps in the development process, like prototyping. 

App development has come a long way in terms of efficiency in the past two decades, but not far enough. We’re on a mission to bring more ideas to life by making the process of taking an idea from conception to market-ready even more efficient for builders. 

A typical modern app development process typically requires teams to make it through about 7-8 steps: concept, design, wireframes, frontend, backend, testing, deploy, and maintenance.

We’re building and offering tools that collapse the process even further for developers so that the steps look more like this: concept, specs, build, launch.

When you approach app development in this way, the once essential action of prototyping is no longer needed. 

It’s replaced by a collaborative, streamlined process that allows you to design your app in real time using real code. 

This modern approach is the future of app development. The good news? It’s a process you can start using today.  

Want to learn how? Reach out and tell us what you need to build.