subject: Why Prototype Your Website [print this page] When buying a new hardware for your computer, most people always suggest giving that hardware a stress test. Store owners will not tell you this but giving your new hardware stress tests can alert you early on if your hardware has an internal defect; thus, can save you from pouring out money to something that is good for the trash bin.
The importance of stress testing your hardware is almost similar to why you should prototype websites, especially when constructing a website with complicated functionalities such as a social networking site. Although keeping a picture in your head is a good habit, websites that involve multi-level users are almost impossible to design when not drawn or prototyped first.
Having a prototype done first is just like having your mother taste your soup before serving it to the rest of the table. When your soup involves a list of ingredients you have not used before, you cant just trust yourself in appraising if the soup is good or not, or even edible. Prototyping a website can directly mean trial and error. Test a design, if it works, develop it, if it does not, revise it. Test the revision, and so on.
Web prototyping is a luxury that anyone can choose to have. It is your prevention-better-than-cure measure. Creating a brochure type website could be developed without prototyping but the logic of developing a complicated, multi-level networking site would give you a headache, if that kind of clutter would fit in your head. To prototype your website is to organize your ideas.
A web site prototype would give you, and the rest of your website construction crew, an accurate map of where you are in and how much of the goal your team has been accomplishing. In shorter terms, a prototype develops a smoother coordination between you, your designers, your hosts, and the rest of your staff.
Most importantly, web site prototyping gives you a big picture of the kinds of problem that you must anticipate. Prototyping involves having your design tested by users before it is actually developed. Your prototype lets your users experience flaws, inconsistencies, or even bugs that you must do something about before actually launching the website. A prototype is more of an advantage than just a tiresome requirement.
