Continuous Prototyping

Abstract

Developing for devices like smartphones, tablets or smartwatches is more than just "shipping code". Especially in mobile development there is a strong focus on user interface design and user experience. In order to explore the design space, development teams and designers need early feedback from users testing the designs. Continuous Delivery (CD) is a well-established technique for the delivery of software. In this paper we describe Continuous Prototyping which extends CD to cover the delivery of early artifacts like user interface mockups that usually do not benefit from an automated delivery process. Continuous Prototyping enables stakeholders to receive all artifacts through a unified delivery pipeline in fast cycles, from the first mockup to the finished product. We developed PROTOTYPER as a tool to demonstrate the technical feasibility of Continuous Prototyping. PROTOTYPER allows developers and designers to deliver mockups, mobile applications as will as a mixture of both using the same deployment pipeline. In a experiment with 42 developers we found that applying Continuous Prototyping not only reduces the cycle time for delivering mockups and receiving feedback but also facilitates the frequent delivery of mockups in early project stages.