Almost every object we use on a daily basis started its life as a spark of imagination in a designer's mind. Whether they were created to serve a specific or multi-function like much of the tech we use all the time, or they were created to be an object of great beauty, they were most likely prototyped before they went into production.

Prototyping is an essential part of both the design and manufacturing process of products, one that no good designer or creator would want to miss out on. 

Prototyping, at its most basic form, is the creation of a 'dummy' model of a product. Some start out as simple cardboard iterations, while others can include complex working parts such as printed circuit boards to assess how they work. Essentially, prototyping is to allow designers and makers see how their ideas might work in real terms. 

Nevertheless, there are a few good reasons to test out a product design in a prototype phase. From testing and refinement to attracting investment in a product or company to saving money and time down the line, we run through our top three reasons why prototyping is so important.

You can test and refine

Prototyping your tech products can help you to test each working part for functionality and to see if it works as intended. From this testing, you can then refine your design with new, practical information to support your improvements.

This enables you to put the best product out to market and attract a greater cohort of users for your innovation. Testing and refining is therefore, one of the most important reasons to prototype your ideas. 

It attracts investors

Investors will not pump money into your company and product if the idea for it only lives inside your head. A prototype allows you to give your potential investors something visceral to feel and use and understand. 

This not only boosts your chances of raising capital, but it helps you to test your prototypes on a real-life audience too, giving you more data and research to refine your products.

Save time and cost

Developing new products, especially tech products, can be very expensive for companies. Even more so if the finished products don't work properly and need to be recalled. Prototyping irons out any issues with a product before it hits the market.

Therefore, prototyping is important to save your company time, money and embarrassment down the line.