As of 2021, there are 3.48 million apps on Google Play Store, and 2.22 million on Apple App Store are available. That means if you want to develop a mobile app today, you have to compete with millions of apps to make your position in the market, which is not at all easy.
However, if you embed powerful technologies like AR/VR, AI, or blockchain into your app, you can definitely rule the app market. And for this, you have to find potential investors who can help you create a futuristic app.
Since investors receive numerous mobile app development ideas daily; thus, to get noticed in masses, you have to pitch your mobile app’s prototype along with your proposal to investors. This way, you can better show them your vision and thought process behind your idea.
To make a strong pitch to your investors, you need to consult a mobile app prototyping service provider like Arthonsys that can help you present your idea in 3D format. If you have no clue about prototyping mobile app development, this guide will help you understand everything about it. So, let’s get started.
What is Mobile App Prototyping?
A mobile app prototyping is a process that shows how your mobile app will look in real-time. There are numerous layers involved in mobile app prototyping. First, designers create a sketch on the paper highlighting UX/UI elements of the app. Next, the design’s visual interpretation is created to understand how the app will appear in the real environment.
The main objective of prototyping mobile app development is to demonstrate user flow in a visual manner. For example, if you plan to develop a grocery app, the prototype will contain features, interface, navigation, and other elements of your app so you can find errors and shortcomings in your design.
Mobile App Prototyping Benefits
Whether you wish to streamline your design and development teams operations or attract potential investors before building an MVC, mobile app prototyping can help you in many ways, such as:
Make early improvements
Prototyping is a user testing phase that will help you understand how you can improve your app design and layout. It will offer you a deep insight into your app development, design thinking process, and business goals. With prototyping, you can identify errors and make improvements in your app before your development team even starts their work.
Cost-effective mobile app development
If you find errors in the later app development stage, it will waste your team’s time on eliminating the problem. But when you use a mobile app prototyping service, it will help you recognize development problems in the early stage, which will save your company’s resources.
Stakeholders involvement
Prototyping helps you increase stakeholders’ involvement in the mobile app development process. It is not possible for everyone to understand your vision and complicated code syntaxes. But once you create a visual presentation of your app, potential stakeholders can easily understand your idea and even help you make it better.
Users validation
Almost 21% of users abandon mobile apps after one use. If you don’t want users to abandon your app, focus on prototyping mobile app development. This way, you can show your app prototype to your targeted users and get feedback from them to develop a user-friendly app.
Mobile App Prototyping Workflow
Mobile app prototyping is a very systematic process that flows through numerous stages to offer maximum results, such as:
Purpose of the app
Foremost, you have to determine what problem your mobile app will target? For example, if you want to address logistics management problems in your organization, you have to customize the logistics app.
So, you need to first define the purpose of your app; your prototype development team can help you visualize it.
Recognize key functions
Once you know the purpose of your app, you need to create a list of features and functions that you want to emboss into your app. Here you should consult with your mobile app development team to run complete market research. For instance, if you want to develop an app like Instagram, you need the following features in your app:
- Photo capture
- Photo feeds
- Comments + Likes
- Private account and so on.
Start sketching
Based on your functions list, designers will now sketch the app’s user interface for you. This will provide a basic structure to visualize your selected features in the mobile interface as per your chosen OS.
Wireframe your sketches
Next, you need to wireframe your app sketched to better visualize the design and layout. The wireframe is a low-fidelity and simplified structure of your app, including boxes, words, lines, and sometimes descriptions.
Test your wireframe
Finally, you can share a wireframe with the people who have a direct interest in your app, like investors, colleagues, managers, family, or your boss. You can receive instant feedback on your wireframe design that you can use to improve your app’s functionality and interface.
Transfer wireframe into pixel design
Lastly, you need to turn your improved wireframe design into a pixel-perfect design that mobile app developers can refer to complete the development process.
Best Tools to Create Mobile App Prototypes
Usually, professional mobile app prototyping service providers use various tools and designing programs to build an attractive wireframe. However, commonly these prototype tools are popular in the market:
- Balsamiq is a perfect tool to sketch and produce clean wireframes to test your apps.
- Justinmind is a stimulating tool, including easy drag and drop options, gesture controls, and many other sketching features.
- Moqups is a good software for beginners with various pre-built design materials and a simple user interface.
- Proto is a dedicated mobile app prototyping solution with zero coding hassle.
- UXPin helps to create mock-ups and clickable designs that can work online.
Conclusion
Prototyping sounds complicated, right?
It is. It is not easy to sketch, wireframe, and then create a final clickable mobile app prototype. You have to put lots of hours into brainstorming and designing to create a mobile app prototype. And if you are developing a prototype for the first time, it might take you even months to get the job done.
Guest article written by: 
Sagar Chaturvedi is your go-to-tech person who manages your end-to-end eCommerce, complete app and web development with the latest technologies like blockchain, AR, VR, IoT, POS, and so much more. Here if you don’t have that much time, you can simply consult Arthonsys, and we will quickly help you design a mobile app prototype. Our team will help you find your app’s purpose, features, and almost everything to build a great app. Just contact us today!