By Artem Korsakov ·
A prototype lets you see a future service in action. But an attractive screen does not yet prove that the scenario works. It is worth checking the entire journey: from the first action to a clear result and the next steps.
Start with a specific task. For example: a customer chooses a service, finds an available time and receives a booking confirmation. For a customer account the task may sound different: find your order, understand its status and download a document. A formulation like this sets the boundaries of the check.
Go through the scenario without hints. Is it clear where to tap first? Is it visible what will happen after tapping? Can a person go back and correct their choice? Note the moments where you have to guess. If the interface is only clear after the author explains it, it needs more work.
Check situations outside the ideal path. There are no free slots, a search returns no results, a required field is skipped, the connection drops. The user should understand what happened and what they can do next. Separately, check whether entered data is lost when an error occurs.
Do not confuse a demonstration with a finished integration. A prototype can show a booking or an assistant’s reply using demo data. For a working product you need to define separately the data source, access rights, error handling and responsibility for keeping information up to date.
Show the scenario to people familiar with your task. Ask them to complete an action and describe where questions came up. Do not explain the interface while they go through it. A few observations like this help reveal problems the team has stopped noticing, although they do not replace full audience research.
Finish the check with a short list of decisions: what goes into the first version, what is left for the next stage and which questions are still open. For each main function, record the expected result. For example: after a successful booking, the customer sees the date, time, service and a way to contact the company. These criteria will be useful both to the developer and to whoever accepts the work.