UX/UI Design: Foundations to Practice · Wireframing and Prototyping
Prototyping Interactions, Not Just Screens
A prototype's real value comes from letting a person actually interact with a proposed design before it is built, revealing problems a static screen, however carefully designed, simply cannot expose.
A static mockup, however carefully designed, shows only what a single moment of an interface looks like, but it cannot reveal how a transition between two states actually feels, whether a specific interaction takes an uncomfortably long number of steps to complete, or whether a person actually understands what will happen before they take a specific action, all of which genuinely require an interactive prototype to actually test rather than a series of disconnected static images.
- A static mockup cannot reveal how a transition feels or whether an interaction takes an uncomfortable number of steps, which genuinely requires an interactive prototype to test.
- Not every interaction needs a fully polished prototype; a simple clickable prototype often suffices for flow testing, while subtle interaction details need higher fidelity.
- Testing a prototype with a specific realistic task, without guided narration, reveals whether a user would actually discover the intended path on their own.
- A prototype still cannot test sustained real-world use, real data at scale, or real system integration, so a successful prototype test isn't complete proof a design will work once shipped.