What is prototyping in design?

A prototype is an early sample, model or release of a product created to test a concept or process. Typically, a prototype is used to evaluate a new design to improve the accuracy of analysts and system users. It is the step between the formalization and the evaluation of an idea. Prototypes are a crucial part of the design process and a practice used in all design disciplines. From architects, engineers, industrial designers and even service designers, they make their prototypes to test their designs before investing in their mass production. The purpose of a prototype is to have a tangible model of the solutions to the problems already defined and discussed by the designers during the concept/idea stage. Instead of going through the entire design cycle based on a supposed solution, prototypes allow designers to validate their concepts by putting an early version of the solution in front of real users and collecting feedback as quickly as possible.