Prototyping 101
A practical guide to choosing the right prototype fidelity for your objectives and creating artifacts that enable faster learning and better decision-making
Video: Prototyping 101
Featuring: Kev Wong, VP, Product and Content Design at Webflow
01Overview
Prototypes serve as invaluable tools throughout the feature development process, enabling quicker and more informed decision-making. Understanding the impact of the fidelity on your objectives and target audience is essential. This guide outlines best practices to help you plan your next design project and choose the right artifact at the right time.
02What Is a Prototype
A prototype is a quick, simplified version of a product or idea. It helps us test how something works or feels before building the real thing.
Prototyping helps us:
- Visualize and validate ideas early
- Identify friction, dependencies, and misalignment before build
- Enable faster, more confident decisions
- Reduce waste and refine direction collaboratively
- Build shared understanding across cross-functional partners
03Why Prototyping Matters
At its core, prototyping is about bringing ideas to life quickly.
It allows us to explore, test, and communicate how something works or feels before we commit to building it.
Prototypes:
- Turn "what if" into "let's do this or that."
- Serve as communication accelerators across PM, Engineering, Marketing, and Design.
- Surface edge cases and dependencies early.
- Help us find misalignment fast so we can align sooner.
- Enable faster, more confident decisions as a team.
04Tools That Expand What's Possible
Designers now have access to a broader and more powerful toolkit, including Cursor, Figma Make, and emerging options like Claude Code.
These tools help us:
- Simulate advanced behaviors and logic without engineering support
- Explore conditional logic, branching states, and real-time responses directly
- Prototype complex user flows and interactions that once required code
This shift raises our ceiling as designers and enables us to think more holistically about systems, logic, and interaction design.
Video: Building a Collaborative Builder Culture - Part 2
05Common Traps to Avoid
As we use AI-assisted and high-fidelity prototyping tools, a few pitfalls are worth watching for:
Over-Investing in Fidelity
Prototypes can look so real that we start treating them like production builds.
→ Remember: they are learning tools, not deliverables.
Time Overload
High-fidelity prototypes can take longer than expected. Avoid unsustainable effort such as late nights or weekends.
→ They should reduce debate time, not create burnout.
Expectation Creep
When prototypes feel real, expectations across teams can increase.
→ Not everything needs to be polished. Sometimes a simple flow is the right answer.
Trying to Do Too Much
Avoid building one large prototype to answer every question.
→ Split work by question, for example, one prototype for layout, another for logic or branching, and another for states or animation.
06Choosing the Right Fidelity
Think of fidelity as a dial you adjust based on what you need to learn and who your audience is. Start simple and increase fidelity only when needed.
| Phase | Fidelity | Audience | Purpose | Approach |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery & Exploration | Low to Medium | XFN feature teams | Surface ideas, identify conflicts, and create shared understanding | A few screens or flows with a Loom voiceover showing key paths |
| Design | Medium to High | XFN teams | Maintain momentum, get specific feedback, show daily progress | Interactive flows updated frequently with Loom recordings to express unbuilt ideas or to call for specific feedback or points of concern |
| Build | High | XFN teams, stakeholders, and leadership | Support user testing, finalize details, and align with engineering | Fully interactive prototypes showing realistic behavior |
Prototype to learn, not to impress.
Use high-fidelity prototypes to validate interoperability and Spring design patterns before committing engineering time.
07How to Review Prototypes Effectively
When reviewing a prototype, match your feedback to the fidelity level.
| Prototype Type | Focus Feedback On | Avoid Focusing On |
|---|---|---|
| Low Fidelity | Structure, clarity, intent | Color, polish |
| Medium Fidelity | Flow, logic, interaction rhythm | Pixel perfection |
| High Fidelity | Realism, behavior, detail accuracy | Personal preference or style |
Before giving feedback, ask:
- "What project phase are they in right now?"
- "What question is this prototype trying to answer?"
- "Which type of feedback is most useful now vs later?"
Frame your feedback around learning, not judgment.
Anchor discussions on outcomes: Does this serve our customers and help us achieve company goals?
08Encouraging a Builder Mindset
Prototyping is a core part of how we learn, align, and collaborate.
The rougher the prototype, the closer we are to real insight.
We celebrate:
- Curiosity: trying new tools and approaches
- Iteration: making progress visible early
- Collaboration: sharing work-in-progress to build alignment
Making something rough is better than perfecting the conversation about it.