Jon Samsel

To show proof of concept, many writer/designers painstakingly produce working prototypes or demos of their ideas. Sometimes this is done to secure financing. Other times it’s to demonstrate a concept. Demos or prototypes can also help you land a new job.

Whether a published blog or a fully-functional interactive game, a demo or prototype can serve as an ideal calling card to exhibit the quality of your work. And in business, companies tend to want to work with writers and designers who understand their industry and needs. Demos can sort out the wanna-be’s from the true contenders.

What is a prototype?

A prototype is an application made up of several key elements loosely thrown together to demonstrate a basic sense of what the project is and how it works. A prototype can be as simple as a sketch-up of several screen shots, sample music, and some narration. Or a prototype can be deeply interactive, including elaborate graphic designs, maps, and concepts ‘borrowed’ from other projects for illustrative purposes.

What is a demo?

A working demo looks and feels much like the final product. A website demo might include a home page, several interior screens, active hypertext links, interactive tools, along with several design variations to consider. A game demo might include an interface that illustrates the basic navigation, interactive methodology, game play, music score, sound effects, sample puzzles and other obstacles.

Beside the obvious benefits (landing a job), prototypes and demos can also serve a myriad of functions:

• Road test new ideas before your final product is put together
• A crash course in production (nothing like building something on your own to really learn)
• Marketing deliverable (use a sample game to serve as link bait on your website, or as CD leave behind on your next job interview)
• Shareware (as in game demos, you introduce a few levels of functionality in the hopes that some players will ‘try before they buy’ and purchase an upgrade to your full application)
• Key ingredient in your new business plan (to demonstrate proof of concept)

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 6:16 am and is filed under Creativity, Design, E-Business, Management, Websites, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.