Developing Prototypes

While similar to wireframing, the prototype portion of an architectural process is
applying the “how to the “what of a wireframe. In the wireframe process, your
goal is to find the somewhat intangible place between concept and fruition—the
piece that fits between the actual structure and the visual representation.
A prototype, unlike the wireframe, seeks to define aspects of the site such as its visual
appearance. Prototypes are flat, noninteractive graphical mockups of a pages
layout.
Prototyping is important because of the following:
Prototypes can be shared with the full team and the client for input and
modification prior to production.
Prototyping allows you to see the visual counterparts of the structural
relationships youve created.
A prototype can prepare your site for early usability testing (see
Chapter 4, “Making Sites Usable and Persuasive).
Most experienced designers understand that in order to make prototyping costeffective,
not all pages of a site are prototyped. If I were prototyping the Meyer
Shoes site, I would prototype the following documents only:
Home page
Top-tier page
Product page

This way, changes can be implemented promptly prior to actually producing all
pages of the site. The only exception to this streamlined approach would be if the
actual top-tier pages were significantly different than each other in some way.