What Should You Prototype?
Regardless of whether you create paper or digital prototypes, you will need to know what to prototype. By this time, you may realize that you should be prototyping the same set of transactions that we suggested you flow and wireframe. Prototype tasks that are:
You may NOT need to prototype your login or signup flow, your ‘Profile’ screens, and perhaps not even your search results screen – although if it returns multi-line or wordy results you probably should prototype it.
You certainly WILL want to prototype something where people swipe, flick, or use other gestures. Those that rely on an animation. You’ll want to prototype your shopping funnel to see that people fully understand how to the buy something. Also, any transaction that uses bulky information, that filters items, moves items around or requires people to match, evaluate, or compare two different types of things. You’ll also want to prototype multi-step transactions, or ‘wizards,’ such as a signup, delivery and checkout process that spans several screens.
Effective Prototyping Tips:
Read this short Forbes article on prototyping best practices