Why prototyping matters for web agencies
Prototyping is communication — nothing more, nothing less.
When you read posts about prototyping, they’re usually referring to product companies like startups and other tech companies. In this post I’ll highlight another group that would benefit a lot, maybe more than product companies, to prototype more — web agencies.
I’m involved in a web agency called Grebban based in Gothenburg, Sweden that helps our clients with design, code and everything in between. We’re working with companies like Vattenfall, BlueAir, Lundbergs Möbler and Northzone. As a web agency, prototyping matters a lot to our success.
“As a web agency, prototyping matters a lot to our success.”
Prototypes are not wireframes
First of all, lets be clear about the difference between wireframes and prototypes. I use the distinction that wireframes are sketches without interactivity, and prototypes have interactivity. A little bit simplified maybe, but that’s the truth in our case.
Most agencies work with wireframes, we do it a lot. That’s great. But why aren’t more agencies showing these to the customer? From my point of view it’s often because it’s hard for the customer to understand the interaction design of the site without actually being able to click. Plus — horrible thought — they might actually think it’s the real design (yes, it happens more often that you might think). To make this more understandable for a customer, interactivity added to the wireframe can be a great tool. Voilá, it’s a simple prototype.
What kind of prototypes are we talking about?
Prototypes can be really simple. When it comes to web apps or web sites, the first prototype should be the wireframe but with clickable links. In the next phase, showing a few more animations and interaction models. Or a full-fledged design but still no real code. Just clickable links to see the navigation tree.
If it’s a big and important project, maybe a mobile app with a lot of features, it might be a good idea to even do it in code. PSD2HTML + a few hours of coding? For us at Grebban it’s also important to show the case on different devices, since we’re building responsive sites a lot. For that we use a prototyping tool like Weld that showcases this super smooth.
So, why is prototyping important for web agencies?
It’s hard for a customer to give feedback on a static wireframe, or a Photoshop design. The customer can’t see how it’ll work, or how it’ll behave — just how it looks. Which creates a lot of communication loops with strange feedback, many iterations and unnecessary code written.
“Why is prototyping important for web agencies? Because it creates efficiency.”
So the short answer is: because it creates efficiency. In my experience, the faster the customer has seen the interaction flow, design and navigation, the better process it has been. I’ve seen so many projects going back and forth between customer and us, first in design and then in code. Prototyping is communication — nothing more, nothing less. The customer gets more happy and less frustrated. The agency gets efficiency. To the cost of 1–8 hours of prototyping. It’s never been faster to prototype.
So web agencies, start prototyping. It’ll be one of the best deals you’ve ever done.
P.S. And which prototyping tool to use? See this post on that topic!
