Do the hard work to make prototyping simpler

I recently built a prototype ready to test for a usability lab. The prototype works but some of the code I wrote is a complete mess.

I ended up hard coding separate pieces of information in one function, including a link. On one page of the prototype I wanted the link to appear as just text without looking like a hyperlink. But the way I had coded the prototype meant I couldn't easily change how the link to appeared on different pages.

You could say “it’s just a prototype” so it doesn’t matter. A prototype doesn’t need production level code. This is true, but I’ll learn more by taking the time to refactor my prototype.

Refactoring my prototype will help me to understand where I could save time by getting something to work in a smarter way. And understand where I could be writing code that’s much more flexible.

In the long run this will help me to build more efficient prototypes. I'll spend less time creating a realistic prototype for testing with users. And spend more time trying to solve the bigger problems.

Andrew Duckworth, a Senior Designer in my team, built a function that will show the user either the current date or the previous date. Or we can enter a number in the code, for example 30, to show a date that's 30 days in the past.

This function means we're able to future proof our prototypes instead of having to remember to change the dates that we show to users in our prototypes.

Taking the time to think about how you could write more efficient code will save you time.

Do the hard work to make prototyping simpler.