prototypinglisted

# Prototyping ## Coverage Prototyping covers the practice of constructing artifacts whose primary purpose is to **answer a question** the team has written down. The fidelity ladder runs from **paper sketches** (fastest, cheapest, best for early flow and concept testing) through **wireframes**, **clickable prototypes** (Figma, Framer, similar), **wizard-of-oz** prototypes (a human secretly performs the function the system will eventually automate — Kelley 1984), **role-play / bodystorming** (the team physically acts out a service interaction), **service prototypes** (props and staged environments for service-design questions), and up to **code spikes** (throwaway working code that answers a feasibility question). The central skill is **fidelity matching**: choosing the lowest fidelity that can credibly answer the learning question. Paper prototypes can answer "is this flow understandable?" but not "is the typography readable?"; a clickable prototype can answer "do users find the primary action?" but not "does this feel fast under load?"; only a code spike can answer "will this API rate-limit us at scale?". Building higher fidelity than the question requires wastes time and prematurely anchors stakeholders on visual decisions. A complementary skill is **the learning goal contract**: every prototype begins with one or two written questions it is built to answer, and a definition of what evidence would count as an answer in either direction. Without this, prototypes drift into