Prototyping is a schematic layout of a page or pages of a site

As the old Latin proverb says, victory loves preparation. It can be said equally about planning and prototyping. What is that? What are the features? This and not only will be a conversation within the article.

What is called prototyping

This term is understood as a quick "rough" version of the implementation of the basic functionality, so that you can analyze the operation of the system as a whole. It can be inefficient, contain errors or not work completely - it all depends on the purposes of prototyping. This approach allows you to better see how the system is arranged. Prototyping is used in instrumentation and engineering, programming and a number of other technical fields. After this process, often review the architecture of the system, the implementation of functions, various developments and, if there are no complaints, test the final product.

Features of prototyping

It is not necessary that a sample be made using the same technologies as the system being developed. Typically, prototypes are applications to a technical task. Now go to the sites. Let's draw an analogy with the problem of the algebra textbook. A site is one number. The Terms of Reference serve as a condition, and the prototype is a draft decision of the task. Usually it is an outline in which there are no beautiful pictures. The layout is created before the design and software implementation. By the time this process can take from several tens of minutes to hours - it all depends on the complexity, detail, terms of reference and personal skills of a person. Under prototyping can understand the creation of layouts for both individual pages and for the entire resource. They greatly save money and time. Prototypes can be created for presentation to the client, A / B testing and corrections.

Terms of Reference + prototyping site =?

Such samples are part of the TOR. They allow you to set clear boundaries for development and help to eliminate misunderstandings between the customer and the performer. The text describes the technique, logic, structure and features of site administration, and thanks to the prototype, it's all visualized and there is a concept of what and how it will look like. After all, how the project itself must be executed, everyone represents and interprets from his point of view. If you do not want to do all the work yourself, you can go to a special prototyping center. And there all will make experts. Well, if the customer (from the position of the freelancer) himself before the technical assignment turned to the center of prototyping. In this way you can get a clear TK. From this point of view, prototyping is a qualitative stage of project implementation.

We make a qualitative prototype

To do this, you should carefully analyze the terms of reference. This can often be seen in school textbooks: the task does not contain a sane (for you) condition, but it must be solved. Therefore, you should always aim at obtaining a carefully designed technical assignment. As practice shows, for a full and multifunctional site it takes at least 50 A4 pages. Technical specifications for a couple of hundred - this is not even the limit in this area, but the usual norm. It is necessary that it has every aspect and nuance prescribed - this is the prototype of the site you need.

Work on bugs

If there were omissions in the prototype, they often go into design, layout of the site and its software part. This entails a large number of problems. The cost of their correction grows in arithmetic progression at each stage (and sometimes, as in geometric progression ). Therefore, even when it seems that the site prototype is ready, it is necessary to check it again to make sure there are no errors. Now let's look at the process of creating it.

Paper layout

First, draw a prototype on paper. You can create even a view from the browser (also drawn) on it. First, draw the basic elements. What you need to depict is different from the purpose of the site. So, in online stores make the menu of goods and the search string static. Then create in turn all the pages and express the functionality that will be on them. Arrange all the elements of the site's interface in their places. Prototyping is a process that will allow creating a more perfect product, in which different interpretations of a technical nature will be eliminated, and a result corresponding to the technical task will be obtained. Every mistake that will be made is expensive in the literal sense of the word. Therefore, the prototyping of the site must be carried out with all responsibility.

Prototyping process

So, we begin. To create a prototype, you need to do four steps:

1. Define the initial requirements, which it must correspond.
2. We are developing the first version of the prototype, which contains only the user interface of the system.
3. Send the prototype to the customer / end user so that they can study it. Important at this stage is to set up feedback about making the necessary changes, as well as additions.
4. The prototype is processed on the basis of received suggestions and / or comments.

You can use special environments. So, affordable is 3D prototyping, which will allow you to better view everything from different sides.

Prototyping of software products and computer systems

Since we are considering creating a site layout, you need to know how to do it. To create a prototype, high-level programming languages of abstraction are used. In our case, this is PHP, JavaScript, ActionScript and many others. Special tools can also be used. When a prototype is approved, a documented and more accurate code is created in the final implementation. At the same time, the amount of effort that is spent on debugging and testing the site is increasing to make sure that it fully performs its functionality. At the stage of prototyping, the most significant architectural errors are identified, changes are made to the interface of the system modules, and redistribute their responsibilities.

What are the qualities of an effective prototype

There are quite a few points of support, but within the framework of the article the following are proposed:

1. The creation of a prototype should not be time-consuming.
2. Effective layout is one-time. It is necessary only to convey the idea of the project to the person concerned. After it was adopted, it becomes unnecessary and, accordingly, can be discarded.
3. In an effective prototype, attention must be focused on the parts that are of greatest interest. This includes the most complex from the point of view of implementation and the most important functional components.
4. Attention should be paid to the elements of interactions that can potentially be useful in conveying the idea of the project to the end user.

Conclusion

If you plan to work in the field of site development, then prototyping is a valuable tool to save your nerves, time and money. Therefore, it is not superfluous to master all the nuances of creating layouts of sites in a short time. After all, prototyping technology allows you to save a lot of time in the final stages of creating a website.