Paper Prototype

A Paper Prototype is a low-fidelity, physical representation of a product or interface made from paper or other materials. It consists of hand-drawn screens, buttons, and other elements to visualize layout and interactions. Paper prototypes are used for early-stage ideation, user testing, and validating concepts without investing in high-cost development or software tools.

Paper prototypes are the fastest possible feedback loop — you can test 5 different navigation structures with real users in a morning before anyone opens Figma. The roughness is a feature: when users see clearly hand-drawn interfaces, they give more honest feedback because they don't want to 'hurt your feelings' about something that looks finished. For early-stage product decisions, 2 hours of paper prototype testing is worth more than 2 weeks of high-fidelity design work.

IDEO and Google Ventures both include paper prototyping as a standard step in their design sprint process — not because they lack design tools, but because the speed and flexibility of physical prototypes enables rapid iteration that digital tools slow down.