When you get an idea for an app, don’t dive into building it: once you get committed to code, you’re really deep into how your app is going to work, and you don’t get much leeway to explore all the alternatives that you could.
Make Prototypes Instead
Why?
test ideas
save time and money (by making sure that when you commit to building something by writing code, designing assets, you’re building the right thing)
get new ideas (making and prototypes to people will bring new insights that will help make your product even better)
Loop process
Make prototypes
Show them to people
Learn from the feedback
Do them over and over until you know you’re really making the right thing.
Examples on how to make prototypes
Developers:
Xcode + Swift
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Designers:
Sketch
Illustrator
Others:
Keynote
or your favorite text processor
How can you make your prototype better
before showing the prototype to people, have some theories about what will work and what won’t, and look for evidence that supports or contradicts those theories
don’t argue, defend, or dismiss the feedback you get
show your prototypes in context, on the device they’re meant for, in a somewhat realistic situation
once you’ve shown our prototypes, take a moment to step back and learn from the feedback that you have gathered
What is working?
What is not working?
Do we refine what we have?
Or do we try something else altogether?
