Go Lower! Prototype Fidelity Limbo
When we’re UX testing an existing site or service, we love when we get to use “the real deal” — a live site, or a fully functioning test environment helps us get feedback on micro-copy, impressions, interactions, and even visual design (which is a huge part of usability!).
But we don’t just do usability testing — a lot of our clients seek us out to help with concept testing and problem validation (What sorts of issues do people have in this space? Might this type of product be useful to someone?) when they don’t have an exact solution in mind yet, or might want to test out some potential concepts for a solution. We also hold design sprints, where there’s an entire day dedicated to creating a representation of a concept (might be a storyboard, might be a prototype, might be an experience) and testing it with users.
And we find that in those cases, clients tend to get super excited and jump straight to imagining a super high fidelity prototype. “Great! We know people are having trouble getting groceries because of the pandemic. We think they might want a grocery delivery app.” Before you know it, the visual designer is pushing pixels and we’re sent gorgeous, pixel-perfect mobile app screens that walk through the process of ordering groceries. It’s ready for testing!
Well, not so fast. The fidelity of the prototype should match the fidelity of the research question. And when in doubt, play limbo — GO LOWER!
If your research questions are oriented around interaction design and microcopy, showing a live site or high fidelity prototype might be the right thing to do, because that’s where the microcopy can be read in context, and the interactions can be tested out for real. If your research questions are a little more concept-driven, showing high fidelity prototypes will be overkill, and distracting to the user.
You’ll be asking, “Would you use a grocery delivery service?” Meanwhile, you’re not showing the user a concept, you’re showing them a design — so that’s what you’ll get feedback on: “I’m not sure why this button is here. I don’t like this color. What’s with this sidebar?”
Focus the user’s energy on your research questions by showing them just enough, and nothing more.
Going overboard on prototypes can also backfire internally. Team members or higher-level stakeholders might get “attached” to an early stage prototype they see if it looks like a finished product, and start to create expectations around it — just at the moment when you should really be staying flexible and keeping options open for potential pivots.
Even when a team means well or is excited to hop into pixel-pushing, it narrows the creativity funnel too early in the process and we find clients are less happy with the outcomes of early-stage testing with high fidelity prototypes than they are with lower fidelity ones.
When we encounter a visual designer excited to hop into their favorite hi-fi tool, we have a policy of trying to “lower the limbo bar,” as it were, and try to push them into a little bit of a creative backbend. It’s not always comfortable, and sometimes there’s a little bit of deflation (we know! High fidelity prototypes feel clean and fresh!), but it means you stay in the ideation game longer, and the results will be more exciting to the whole team.
If there’s absolutely no expectation on the team about prototype fidelity, we encourage starting at the very bottom with sketches or storyboards using pen and paper!
