Signs it is time to revisit prototyping

There is no clever trick in this one, just a handful of decisions worth making deliberately. A few signals that prototyping is due some attention.

Design decisions are the ones clients feel most confident arguing about, which makes it worth separating taste from evidence early. If it only works because one person remembers to do something, it does not work yet.

The signals

• Nobody can say when it was last reviewed
• The answer depends on who you ask
• A clickable prototype surfaces confusion no static mockup will
• Prototypes are for learning, not for reuse as production code

How to approach it

Test with five people and you will find most of the problems. Small and consistent beats large and occasional here. If it only works because one person remembers to do something, it does not work yet.

The short version

Consistency is the quiet half of design work: it rarely gets complimented, and its absence is noticed immediately. Three things worth confirming about prototyping before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Prototypes are for learning, not for reuse as production code — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.