Balancing high fidelity prototyping and agile in digital design

Communication and consideration of how designs are shared are critical to an effective design process.

Different design processes are advocated for design teams to collaborate, develop effectively, and transition designs to implementation teams. Communication and consideration of how designs are shared are critical to an effective design process.

The case for high-fidelity prototypes

There are several benefits of using high-fidelity (hi-fi) prototypes. Hi-fi prototypes usually encompass most, if not all, of a solution’s functionality and are interactive. These prototypes effectively communicate a product vision and get buy-in from stakeholders, leadership, and even customers. Meaning? Hi-fi prototypes can be a persuasion tool.

A personal anecdote…I have been shown prototypes at vendor conferences (e.g., Micrisoft Loop at Microsoft Ignite in 2019) and was captivated and excited by the designs shared in presentations despite the lack of the product’s availability. These prototypes served as an effective marketing tool to prepare for future product implementations and enhancements and likely gave the company a good gauge of consumer interest. Additionally, these prototypes can be practical when designing and demonstrating changes to an existing product or testing a design’s aesthetic.

When hi-fidelity is too much

…despite this, I am cautious of using hi-fi prototyping during the early stages of the design process and advocate for low-fidelity or paper prototyping. Testers and stakeholders can over-emphasize design instead of interactions and the flow of the solution. Paper can enforce the need to focus on content and layout instead of visual design.

My team and I conducted task evaluations using a mid-fi prototype during a user-centered design course. In several instances, users asked, “Is this what the final app will look like?” confused by the amount of detail but lack of expected styling. Still, the mid-fi prototype may have distracted users from completing the task due to the visual design. This scenario would have been better suited for a lo-fi or paper prototype.

Marshall McLuhan originated the phrase, “The medium is the message” [2]. This is commonly understood as how information is presented can carry an underlying message. In the case of a hi-fi prototype, it can mean that the solution took time and effort to complete, is close to complete, and has less room for change before implementation, even when this is not the case or the intended message. Whether implied or directly stated, communication is integral to an effective design process across the design testing phases to implementation team handoff.‍

“The medium is the message.” -Marshall McLuhan

Agile design and development

Many organizations have adopted the agile development methodology to create digital products and services. My current team comprises diverse roles, such as UX designers, QA analysts, and front and back-end developers. The team’s diversity can provide different product, user, and technical perspectives, and is essential to a successful interdisciplinary team.

A factor in successfully implementing products is incorporating iterative design into agile team processes to reduce the potential bottleneck caused by overdesigning. In this case, low-fidelity prototypes are a powerful way to quickly develop and test design iterations to be handed off to engineers. User stories, which place the user in problem scenarios to identify design solutions, effectively communicate why design decisions are made while low-fidelity prototypes coupled with a good design system can quickly communicated the intended UX to assess technical feasibility. Low-fidelity prototypes require less effort to develop, are quicker to change, and are more conducive to idea generation through the design process. My perspective comes from less as a designer, but as a manager who sees the benefit of low-fidelity prototyping in helping maintain a manageable workload for designers through inevitable design iterations.

Reference Sources

1. Erickson, T. Notes on Design Practice: Stories and Prototypes as Catalysts for Communication. n.d. (Web)
2. McLuhan, M. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McGraw Hill, New York, USA 1964. (Book)
3. Rettig, M. Prototyping for Tiny Fingers. Practical Programmer Vol. 37, №4 (1994), 21–27. (Journal)
4. Rudd, J., Stern, K., Isensee, S. Low vs. high fidelity prototyping debate. Interactions (1996), 76–85. (Journal)