Enlightening Prototyping Exercises Sure To Make You a Better Designer

Once you get introduced to the fascinating world of UX design, it’s truly something that you just can’t seem to get enough of. Indeed, it is definitely a fascinating skill, but if you are just starting out, the one dominant question you will have is this: how can I be a better UX designer? One way to do this is by practicing some rapid prototyping software exercises. Consider some of the following examples:

You should have an understanding of rapid prototyping in the first place.

The first step is to simply have a basic understanding of rapid prototyping and how it works. This process is NOT just wire framing, but also a part of your design elements where you get an idea what the problem is and what your users’ needs might be. Thinking about just how to arrive at the end goal is a crucial part of this step. Iterations and feedback sessions will also comprise this step. Of course, the benefits of rapid prototyping are that it can help add to your experience and improve your networking, help you test some of your design utilities, and help improve your thinking skills as well. With that in mind, here are at least three prototyping exercises that will improve your skills!

The 8-6-4-2 Prototyping Method

When starting out with this prototyping method, your main purpose will be to simply start sketching for a set period of time with a short break in between. First, you will want to sketch for 8 minutes with a 2-minute feedback break; 6 minutes with two minutes for feedback; 4 minutes with that break for feedback, and so on. The best characteristic about this approach is that it will make you aware of potential pitfalls that you hadn’t even thought about, or the “unknown unknowns” as Donald Rumsfeld would say.

Generally, what you should do with this idea would be to simply just pick two or three different words from various lists and make a design out of that. This idea is great for coming up with UX design ideas right on the spot!

The #DailyUI Challenge (With a Twist)

When it comes to the DailyUI Challenge, we’ve all received that congratulatory e-mail on the 100th day. However, many of us have quickly probably realized that when we got there, “there was no there, there”, so to speak. However, one twist you can put on your UX designs to make you more motivated would be to sketch first, and then make some complete HiFi designs, and then post the final product online. Of course, you could just possibly do a Skype appointment with a friend to do this project as well!

Solving a Problem That You Have Encountered

You should keep a journal and note some of the real-life problems that you have encountered that you think that you could have some solutions for. You should only devote one or two hours per day to this project, but if you solve some of the main user issues and complete HiFi designs you will absolutely have some real-world experience.

If you continually practice these rapid prototyping exercises this will help you to validate your ideas and you will be a better UX designer for it.