Fidelity can vary in the areas (“X”) of:
- Visual design
- Content
- Interactivity
The fidelity of the prototype refers to the level of details and functionality built into a prototype. In this sense, a high-fidelity (sometimes referred as high-fi or hi-fi) prototype is a computer-based interactive representation of the product in its closest resemblance to the final design in terms of details and functionality. The “high” in high-fidelity refers to the level of comprehensiveness that allows you to examine usability questions in detail and make conclusions about the user behaviour.
The hi-fi prototypes cover not only the user interface (UI) of the product in terms of visuals and aesthetics, but also the user experience (UX) aspects in terms of interactions, user flow and behaviour.
The availability of interactive prototypes can improve the collaboration with developers as they will have a clearer idea on how the application should behave
Advantages :
- Meaningful feedback during usability testing. High-fidelity prototypes often look like real products to users. This means that during usability testing sessions, test participants will be more likely to behave naturally — as if they were interacting with the real product.
- Testability of specific UI elements or interactions. With hi-fi interactivity, it’s possible to test graphical elements like affordance or specific interactions, such as animated transitions and microinteractions.
- Easy buy-in from clients and stakeholders. This type of prototype is also good for demonstrations to stakeholders. It gives clients and potential investors a clear idea of how a product is supposed to work. An excellent high-fidelity prototype gets people excited about your design in ways a lo-fi, bare-bones prototype can’t.
Read more about our UI/UX related to this here : rules of thumb, design consistency, CTA, focal point and seamless.
