Utilizing prototypes this way, is a missed shot. A missed shot to create an outcome that solves a real problem for customers. An outcome that is worthwhile. Prototypes are a great tool to discover what people need, what they dream of, what their goals are, and what frustrates them — to name a few things. It is a tool to define, test and learn from opportunities and ideas, and eventually get to the right solution. So, if prototypes are particularly valuable when the solution isn’t set in stone yet, then why do many design teams only start prototyping once they already decided on the solution?

以这种方式使用原型是一个失败的尝试。 错失良机，无法为客户解决实际问题。 值得的结果。 原型是发现人们的需求，梦想，目标是什么以及使他们沮丧的好工具-仅举几例。 它是一种定义，测试并从机遇和思想中学习并最终找到正确解决方案的工具。 因此，如果在解决方案还没有定型的情况下原型特别有价值，那么为什么许多设计团队在决定解决方案后才开始进行原型设计？

原型超出您的想象 (A prototype is more than you think)

When talking about prototypes, the industry mostly refers to a representation of a final product or feature that a team is working on. This definition is limited. A prototype is much more. A prototype is anything tangible that enables you to get feedback on an aspect of the solution that you are working on. It is a tool that helps you learn. Which means is doesn’t have to be a smooth clickable demo in Invision. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t even have to be a representation of the final product. It might as well be a storyboard, video or even a competitor’s website.

在谈论原型时，行业主要是指团队正在研究的最终产品或功能的表示。 此定义是有限的。 原型远远不止这些。 原型是任何有形的东西 ，使您能够获得有关正在解决的解决方案方面的反馈。 它是可以帮助您学习的工具。 这意味着在Invision中不必是一个可平滑单击的演示。 事实上，它甚至不必代表最终产品。 它也可能是故事板，视频，甚至是竞争对手的网站。

原型制作使设计过程更轻松，产品更好 (Prototyping makes the design process easier and products better)

If you only start prototyping after you set the solution in stone, you miss a hell of a lot opportunities to discover the value of different ideas early on. You miss the chance to have customers inspire you. Prototyping earlier could have prevented you from investing time and money in that one feature that didn’t catch on after is was already built… Let’s make the value of prototyping more concrete:

如果您在确定解决方案后才开始制作原型，那么您会错失很多机会，尽早发现不同创意的价值。 您会错过让客户激励您的机会。 较早的原型制作可能会阻止您浪费时间和金钱，因为已经建立了一个不流行的功能……让我们更加详细地说明原型制作的价值：

• Prototyping avoids misunderstandingImagine: you’re working on a new concept with your team. You’ve had countless meetings on the strategy. Endless discussions about key features, interactions, and essential flows. After hours you leave the stuffy meeting room believing that everybody’s on the same page. A few weeks later, the opposite turns out to be true — chances are you can relate to this scenario. People’s associations are influenced by their own context and previous experience. In other words: talking without making things concrete, always leads to different interpretations of the same concept. Making a visual representations (a prototype) of what you talk about right away, tackles this issue. It doesn’t have to be pretty. It is about having a shared truth. Leaving the room with an abstract but tangible backbone of the discussion, ensures everyone moves in the same direction.

  原型设计避免了误解想象一下：您正在与团队一起研究一个新概念。 您参加过无数次有关该战略的会议。 关于关键功能，交互作用和基本流程的无休止的讨论。 下班后，您离开闷热的会议室，相信每个人都在同一页面上。 几周后，事实恰恰相反—您可能会遇到这种情况。 人民协会受其自身背景和以前经验的影响。 换句话说：不把事情具体化而说话，总是会导致对同一概念的不同解释。 立即用视觉表示(原型)解决您的问题。 不一定要漂亮。 这是关于拥有共同的真理。 离开会议室时，要有一个抽象但切实的讨论主干，以确保每个人都朝着同一方向前进。

• Prototyping helps to make decisionsWordy conversations and discussions often lead to procrastination of decisions. It is easy to flip this: enter a meeting with the goal to make something concrete. This helps keep the meeting focussed and effective. Making decisions fast, prevents designers from finding themselves staring at an empty artboard due to insecurity and lack of direction. Leaving too many options open for too long, means time gets lost. And that’s a waste. Especially when you realize that you can only find the right solution by experimenting. So you better start somewhere. Today. Make decisions, make things tangible and discover whether or not it was the right call.

  原型设计有助于做出决策冗长的对话和讨论通常会拖延决策的制定。 翻转这一点很容易：进入会议，以制定具体目标为目标。 这有助于保持会议的重点和有效性。 快速做出决策，可防止设计师由于不安全和缺乏方向而发现自己盯着空的画板。 太多的选项打开太长时间意味着浪费时间。 那是浪费。 尤其是当您意识到只能通过实验找到正确的解决方案时。 所以你最好从某个地方开始。 今天。 做出决定，使事情切实可行，并发现是否合适。

• Prototyping creates a culture of curiosityA prototype allows you to perform short experiments and learn about business context, your customers, and the feasibility of ideas early on. By using prototypes in an early stage, you change the team’s mindset. The stubborn focus on the final product shifts towards a focus on learning, validating assumptions and discovering the real problem that customers experience.

  原型创建了一种好奇心文化。原型使您可以进行简短的实验，并尽早了解业务背景，客户和想法的可行性。 通过在早期使用原型，您可以改变团队的思维方式。 对最终产品的固执关注逐渐转向对学习，验证假设并发现客户遇到的实际问题的关注。

• Prototypes help you get better insightsPrototypes are a handy tool for all sorts of research. Designing prototypes for concept- or usability tests is an obvious choice. But they add a lot of value to more explorative forms of research as well. For instance, you could perfectly enrich in-depth interviews or focus groups by working with products of competitors, have participants prioritize a collection of features, or have them react to sketches of concepts. This allows you to learn about the relation between solutions and needs of your target audience in an early stage.

  原型可帮助您获得更好的见解原型是进行各种研究的便捷工具。 为概念或可用性测试设计原型是显而易见的选择。 但是它们也为更具探索性的研究形式增加了很多价值。 例如，您可以与竞争对手的产品一起工作，让参与者优先考虑一系列功能，或者让他们对概念草图做出React，从而完全丰富深度访谈或焦点小组。 这使您可以及早了解目标客户的解决方案与需求之间的关系。

原型有许多不同的形状和大小 (Prototypes come in many different shapes and sizes)

There are levels to prototyping. Plenty of levels. So once you have decided to prototype more often, a new challenge will surface: creating the right kind of prototype at the right time. This starts with a clear goal and a specified target audience. From there, you decide on the form and the amount of detail you want to give the prototype.

有一些原型制作层次。 很多级别。 因此，一旦您决定更频繁地进行原型设计，就会出现一个新的挑战：在正确的时间创建正确的原型。 首先要有明确的目标和指定的目标受众。 在这里，您可以决定要提供原型的形式和详细程度。

• Set an objectiveIn broad lines, a prototype is a tool to learn about the needs and desires of your target audience (desirability), convince stakeholders of the economical value (viability), or to make an estimation of the technical possibilities (feasibility). Three different goals with each their own set of requirements for your prototype.

  设定目标概括而言，原型是一种工具，用于了解目标受众的需求和期望(可取性)，说服利益相关者经济价值(可行性)或估算技术可能性(可行性)。 三个不同的目标，每个目标都有自己的原型要求。

• Define your audienceThe user of the prototype is not always the end-user of the product. Depending on the objectives, the users could also be business stakeholders or technical agents. This influences your prototype heavily. Different target groups come with different requirements. To give you an example: the end-user would probably not be able to imagine your concept and give feedback based on a flow chart, while your technical stakeholder is perfectly able to. In turn, technical stakeholders can’t really estimate which database connections are needed based on a slick promo video. And that promo video? That might be very valuable to get input from your end-users.

  定义您的听众原型的用户并不总是产品的最终用户。 根据目标，用户也可以是业务涉众或技术代理。 这会严重影响您的原型。 不同的目标群体有不同的要求。 举一个例子：最终用户可能无法想象您的概念并无法根据流程图给出反馈，而您的技术利益相关者则完全可以。 反过来，技术利益相关者无法根据精美的促销视频真正估算出需要哪些数据库连接。 那宣传视频？ 这对于从最终用户那里获得输入可能非常有价值。

• Minimal effort, maximum resultWith the objective and target group defined, you are ready to decide on what to make and, more importantly, what not to make. Now it is up to you to create a prototype that answers to your goals, and at the same time, costs you the least effort to make. Is it really needed to design the entire feature, or would a landing page suffice? Is it necessary to design every page pixel perfect or are the three most important pages enough? A prototype has to offer you a platform to get the right insights. Nothings less, but especially: nothing more.

  最小的努力，最大的结果定义了目标和目标组之后，您就可以决定要做什么，更重要的是，不要做什么。 现在，您可以创建一个可以满足您目标的原型，同时花费最少的精力。 设计整个功能真的需要吗，还是登录页面就足够了？ 是否有必要设计每个页面像素的完美像素还是三个最重要的页面足够？ 原型必须为您提供一个平台，以获取正确的见解。 没什么，但尤其是：仅此而已。

• Don’t blindly go with your favourite design toolLet go of your favourite software. Start off with a marker and a piece of paper and decide — based on your plan — which software is most suitable. Don’t use complex design tools when simple tool like Keynote offer enough functionality. This way you prevent yourself from the temptation to work on unnecessary details for the simple reason that your tool offers you the possibility. It also works the other way around: by picking your tools carefully, you prevent yourself from being limited by your own skills and software.

  不要盲目使用您喜欢的设计工具放开您喜欢的软件。 首先用记号笔和一张纸开始，然后根据您的计划确定最合适的软件。 当像Keynote这样的简单工具提供足够的功能时，请不要使用复杂的设计工具。 这样，您就可以避免由于自己的工具为您提供了可能的原因而诱惑自己去处理不必要的细节。 它也可以以其他方式起作用：通过仔细选择工具，可以防止自己因自己的技能和软件而受到限制。

• Dare to let go of your own product and assetsThe best prototype is not always the prototype that perfectly reflects the status and possibilities of your final product. Especially when you design new features, a new concept or a visual redesign, you save a lot of time by not integrating it directly into the real product (with high fidelity assets). Prove the value first. Your prototype can be one screen you designed yourself combined with interactions of competitor’s websites. Not working towards your final product directly comes with a huge advantage: it makes it easier to let go of your darlings when moving in the wrong direction.

  敢于放弃自己的产品和资产最好的原型并不总是能完美反映最终产品的状态和可能性的原型。 尤其是在设计新功能，新概念或视觉重新设计时， 无需将其直接集成到具有高保真度的真实产品中，从而节省了大量时间。 首先证明价值。 您的原型可以是您自己设计的一个屏幕，可以与竞争对手的网站进行交互。 不直接为最终产品工作会带来巨大的优势：当朝错误的方向移动时，放宽亲爱的对象变得更容易。

完美的陷阱 (The pitfall of perfection)

You set your goals, you know to whom you want to show the prototype, and you decided on the shape and size. The finish line is in sight and to only thing you have to do is speed up. However, on your way to finish line there is one last pitfall: the pitfall of perfection. We’re designers ourselves, so we know how tempting it is to make a slick visual design. But keep in mind: by spicing up your design with details that aren’t essential for the learning experience, you can actually thwart your own goals. Let us give you two examples:

您设定目标，知道要向谁展示原型，然后决定形状和大小。 终点线就在眼前，您唯一要做的就是加快速度。 但是，在完成终点的过程中，最后一个陷阱是：完美的陷阱。 我们自己是设计师，所以我们知道制作光滑的视觉设计是多么诱人。 但请记住：通过为学习体验提供非必需的细节来丰富您的设计，您实际上可以挫败自己的目标。 让我们举两个例子：

• If you want to learn about flow and functionality, it’s unwise to create a pixel perfect visual design. For the simple reason that a smooth visual design triggers reaction on details and distracts from the bigger picture.如果您想了解流程和功能，那么创建像素完美的视觉设计是不明智的。 出于简单的原因，平滑的视觉设计会触发对细节的React并分散大图的注意力。
• Conveying a new visual style by bringing it to life in a detailed web page, leads to discussion on functionality. It won’t be about look and feel anymore, but rather about content and features.通过在详细的网页中实现新的视觉风格来传达新的视觉风格，从而引发了对功能的讨论。 它不再与外观有关，而与内容和功能有关。

Perfection is time-consuming and, in many cases, it keeps you from getting the insights you need to move forward and make the right decisions. Our advice? Spend your valuable time on doing another research iteration, instead of creating a perfect picture. Understanding the world of your customers and stakeholders thoroughly allows you to build great solutions that make a difference, not just pretty pictures.

完善是一项耗时的工作，在很多情况下，它使您无法获得前进和做出正确决策所需的见解。 我们的建议？ 将宝贵的时间花在进行另一次研究迭代上，而不是创建完美的图片。 透彻了解客户和利益相关者的世界，可以使您构建出色的解决方案，而不仅仅是改变图片。

Feel free to reach out if you want to share your ideas or need a little help to get the best out of your prototypes. Do you want to read on? Go and check out more articles right here.

随意 伸手 ，如果你想分享你的想法或需要一点帮助，让您的原型的最好的了。 你想继续读吗？ 去 这里 查看更多文章 。