Rapid prototyping means quickly producing and evaluating working models (prototypes) of a software system before starting actual development. The rapid prototyping process consists of quick rounds of the following three steps:
The above steps are repeated until an acceptable solution is found.
When developing a desktop or web-based application, user interface (UI) prototypes can do a great job of testing if the proposed solution actually meets the requirements of the end users. A UI prototype clearly illustrates the functionality and usability to expect from an application and thus provokes feedback and discussion. In the prototyping phase, changes are easy and fast; later on they will be painful and costly. “Fail often, fail fast” is the mantra here.
A great tool for quickly creating and refining UI prototypes is PowerMockup. PowerMockup is not a programming utility; it’s more like a drawing program that lets the user sketch the screens of an application in the form of wireframes. It provides numerous UI stencils for buttons, headers, tables, and so on that make it a breeze to prototype and validate different design ideas.