You already know that fast human insight is key to building a great customer experience. Whether you&#;re creating a website, mobile app, landing page, or other product, testing can happen at any stage of the design cycle. Despite this, many companies still begin the process of gathering customer insight much later than they should. No matter what you&#;re creating, prototype testing can&#;and should&#;happen early and often in your development cycle.
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When it comes to prototyping you can test anything. Have an idea on a cocktail napkin? Test it. Not sure about product-market fit? Try it out on your target audience first. If ever there should be a cardinal rule to creating great experiences, it would be to test first, design and build after (then test again).
If you think it sounds odd to test something before it&#;s fully baked, you&#;re not alone. Many companies wait until their offering is fully developed before they test it, and suffer the consequences of rework, or worse, building something their customers don&#;t want.
Prototype testing enables you to assure that your design is going in the right direction and that you address any essential features or flaws before you write even one line of code. Redesigning a prototype is a lot easier&#;and less expensive&#;than reworking a finished product. You&#;ll save your budget and your sanity by testing right from the start.
No matter what stage you&#;re in, there are ways to create a prototype you can test. You can start with just a sketch on a post-it, or use one of the many prototyping tools available to bring your idea to life. Once you have your prototype ready, make sure you&#;re asking yourself these questions as you begin&#;and continue to&#;test.
What is a prototype?
The best way to think about prototypes is that they&#;re a representation of a finished product. Prototypes are a way for designers and developers to test the flow, interaction, content, and general feasibility and usability of a product before building and designing a fully-functioning product.
Or, for a more formal definition, here&#;s the Nielsen Norman Group&#;s perspective,
A user interface prototype is a hypothesis&#;a candidate design solution that you consider for a specific design problem. The most straightforward way to test this hypothesis is to watch users work with it.
What a prototype isn&#;t
Despite how much functionality or design a prototype may have, it&#;s not meant to be the final product. Some features won&#;t work, and the design and copy likely won&#;t be finalized. Prototypes are not intended to be pixel-perfect.
User testing questions for prototyping
Concept validation
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At this stage, you might have just an idea or the proverbial sketch on a cocktail napkin. When you&#;re in the very early days of your idea&#;s life, it&#;s totally OK to map out the idea with &#;low-tech&#; tools, like pen and paper. Not having a fancy interface doesn&#;t mean you can&#;t ask detailed questions, however. Here&#;s what you need to know during the early stages as you validate your concept:
- What problem does your idea solve?
- How are users solving this problem currently?
- Can your target market think of another product that does something similar?
- How have previous solutions failed?
- Do users understand what this product or service does?
- How do users feel about the product or service?
- Who is your competition?
- What is the app/site for and what can users do there?
- Does your target market have a need for this product?
- What devices do users imagine themselves using when they interact with this product?
- What scenarios can they picture themselves using it in?
If you need more inspiration to get started, check out our concept validation template below. Try our concept validation template
Wireframes and lo-fi prototypes
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When you&#;re ready to move beyond the cocktail napkin, it&#;s time to start wireframing&#;this is when your ideas start taking their first steps. While these are not interactive or functional, they still illustrate the intention and flow, which is an essential process in the design phase.
Be sure you&#;re asking these questions to keep your project moving in the right direction:
- Before users even look at the wireframe or prototype, what would they expect to be able to do with it?
- How would they expect it to look?
- Once you show them the prototype, do users understand what it does?
- How does it measure up to their expectations?
- What features are missing?
- Does anything seem out of place or unnecessary?
- How do users feel when using the prototype?
- If users had a magic wand, what would they change about the product?
- How likely or unlikely would they be to use this product once it&#;s finished?
If you need more inspiration to get started, check out our prototype evaluation template below.
Try our prototype evaluation template
Hi-fi prototypes
&#;Once you&#;ve worked through the kinks with the concept and design and iterated until you&#;re close, the hi-fi prototype is born. This will be a semi-functional facsimile of the intended result. It should be interactive and do pretty much everything it&#;s supposed to; it just won&#;t have the shiny new-product feel to it.
Focus on these questions to make sure you&#;re addressing any lingering concept, flow, or basic usability issues:
- Does the prototype do what it&#;s supposed to?
- Do users think the product&#;s design matches its purpose?
- What&#;s the first thing users would want to do on this product? Can they do that?
- When they explore the product, do they become confused at any point?
- Does anything distract them or get in their way?
- Are there any features they completely ignore?
- Does the information architecture and navigation make sense? (Can users find what they&#;re looking for?)
- Does your target market feel like this product was designed for them?
- What, if anything, would make your users want to use this product frequently?
- How likely or unlikely would they be to recommend the finished product to a friend?
- How would they describe this product using their own words?
At this point, your cocktail napkin has grown up into a respectable, functional member of the community. While your testing days aren&#;t over, you&#;ve taken the important first steps that will save you time, money, and sanity by evaluating your idea from the start.
If you need help getting started testing hi-fi prototypes, check out our prototype evaluation template.
A note on user testing prototypes
User testing a prototype is a bit different than testing a finished product. Make sure you inform test participants before the test&#;or even better, in the screening process&#;that they&#;ll be testing a prototype that&#;s not fully functional.
It&#;s also a good idea to run moderated tests if you can. While you can conduct unmoderated tests with prototypes, chances are your participants will have questions, and some tasks will require more explanation and guidance, so having a moderator present will help you get the best feedback.
Additionally, remember that testing shouldn&#;t stop once your product ships. Your test plan should not only confirm that your insights from prototyping worked out the way you expected, but also watch for additional opportunities to optimize and improve the user experience that you couldn&#;t test during prototyping.
The costs of production are a reality for any business engaged in manufacturing or the production of products or parts. The automotive industry is no exception, and new approaches in prototyping are revolutionizing the auto industry, enabling new products and concepts to come to market faster and cheaper than ever before.
For those that are interested in cutting costs, as well as those that may not have the large budgets and resources of more substantial companies, automotive prototyping solutions can represent the only viable way to create parts or to iterate design changes and other needs. While prototyping in the past may have been limited to certain types of production, today's rapid prototyping materials are much more robust and able to withstand higher pressures and temperatures, helping to raise their usefulness in the real world.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website Rapid Prototyping In Automotive Industry.
That's good news because many manufacturers are dialing down their production levels these days. And the improvements in automotive prototyping solutions means that the service of prototyping is more robust than in years past. That can mean easy creation of viable prototypes with production level quality, all at a cost that's significantly less than what would be needed in a full production run.
Why Automotive Prototyping Is Important
As one of the largest global industries, there are lots of competing actors and considerations in the automotive world. From governmental regulations to the auto makers themselves, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of contractors and aftermarket companies that serve varying needs in the auto industry, there's a lot at play.
Consumers also have more choice than ever, and their fickle desires can cause wild swings in the market regardless of a manufacturer's intentions or plans. And one of the best ways to stay ahead of the market is to engage in rapid automotive prototyping solutions and services. That will enable you to put forth your best designs and products, all while reducing costs and the lead time you need to get that next great product to market.
Aside from reaching the market quickly and efficiently, automotive prototyping also allows manufacturers to test out designs and new parts without the high cost of a production run, which is vastly important for an industry that values safety and efficiency above all else. With prototyping, only the best designs and parts will ever see the light of day, and that's better for manufacturers and consumers.
How To Choose a Prototyping Partner
But before you can line up those prototypes and make your way towards that full production run, you'll need to choose the right automotive prototyping partner. Here are some of the things that you'll want to keep in mind during your selection process.
First and foremost, your prototyping partner will need to be capable and have all the technologies in place to enable a quick turnaround and reasonable costs during the prototyping process. Sometimes it can help to review case studies or talk to existing or previous clients to see how the project went and how costs were cut and timelines were condensed with the introduction of rapid prototyping. After all, if your desired partner hasn't done this before or doesn't have the required technologies and tools in place to ensure a seamless process, you'll pay for it either in raw costs or a disruption to your overall timeline.
Next up has to do with verifying their production speed and deliverables. Automotive prototyping solutions are only really viable if they significantly cut your production timeline and costs, but keep in mind that prototyping is also about economically trying things that may not work so that you can learn more about your product and the market for it. Ideally, you'll need a prototyping partner that can produce high quality parts and prototypes in a short time frame -- anything short of that could end up costing you more than you bargained for.
If you have a certain timeline or a deliverable that must be in hand by a certain date, let your prototyping partner know in advance. If they balk or aren't sure if they'll be able to meet the timeline, get a second opinion. If others say the same thing, then you may have to readjust your expectations or reevaluate the types of prototyping companies that you're looking for. That said, those with the most resources and the highest capabilities should be able to safely condense that timeline without disrupting other parts of the process.
Another important consideration is the level of customer service or support that you need. If you're okay sending that prototyping project into a black hole, you may not care, but most manufacturers want to be involved on a daily basis, particularly as it gets closer to the deadline. The right automotive prototyping partner will work closely with you on the solutions and services that they're providing, keeping you abreast of any changes or challenges that may develop, all the while working hard to meet your financial and time constraints.
For the best long-term relationships, you may even want to consider a trip in person to your top pick. Sure, it'll cost a bit of money and time, but it'll be worth it in the long run because you'll be able to evaluate your prototyping partner in their element. Not only can they give you an up-front look at their processes and technologies, but the face-time is also vital towards keeping that valuable relationship going weeks, months and years down the line.
The Value of Automotive Prototyping Solutions
While you may make the lion's share of your revenue from product runs and parts that are out there in the real world, prototyping is more than just a way to test those designs and concepts. The right prototyping partner can help you ideate and get those designs to market faster and with greater efficiency than you ever could on your own, and that means saving time and money on your prototyping needs.
A high-quality prototype is essential for creating the best products, and a partner that helps you create the right prototype at the right time can help you meet deadlines and get more out of your R&D efforts than haphazardly going from concept and design to full production run. An oversight or error here could prove overwhelmingly costly and may even jeopardize your business itself, and all it takes is one call to kick things off and protect your business.
If you're looking for a competent automotive prototyping partner, you don't have to look any further than the engineering and prototyping experts at RCO Engineering. With the know-how and ability to help you streamline your processes and help create prototypes that can get you to market faster, we're here to help.
For more information, please visit Rapid Prototyping In Aerospace Industry.