{"id":616,"date":"2026-04-22T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.goodlayers.com\/infinite\/homepages\/main5\/2026\/04\/22\/prototype-in-week-two\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T09:00:00","slug":"prototype-in-week-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dgbds.uk\/?p=616","title":{"rendered":"Prototype in week two"},"content":{"rendered":"

( 01  Journal )<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Prototype in week two<\/h1><\/div>

Product<\/p><\/div><\/div>

22 Apr 2026<\/p><\/div><\/div>

7 min read<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"Portrait<\/div><\/div>

Mira Okafor
Design Lead, Product<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Interface<\/div><\/div>

Pl. 01<\/span>  Week-two prototype on the device it ships to<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The earliest useful thing is usually ugly. We get it in front of real users before the design has an opinion, and this is what that costs.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Week two is early enough that nobody is attached to anything. That is the whole argument. By week six a prototype is a position, and testing it becomes a defence rather than a question.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

What we build in week two is deliberately unfinished — grey boxes, real words, one path through.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Real words, fake everything else<\/h3><\/div>

The one thing we never fake is the copy. Placeholder text hides the hardest problems in a product: the label that is four words too long, the error message nobody can act on, the empty state that assumes the user already understands the model.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Everything else can be crude. What the week-two build has to do is narrow:<\/p><\/div><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>

One complete path, start to finish, with no dead ends<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>

Real language, including the parts legal will object to<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>

Runs on the device it will actually be used on<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>

Throwable — no code anyone will argue to keep<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The last one matters most. A prototype that becomes the foundation stops being a question and starts being a commitment.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>

If it is too nice to throw away, it was made too late.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Product team note<\/p><\/div><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>

Who we put it in front of<\/h3><\/div>

Five people, none of them from the client’s product team. On a logistics tool last year that meant two dispatchers, a driver, a depot supervisor and a temp who had been in the job for nine days. The temp found the most, which is usually how it goes.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

We do not run these as formal usability sessions. There is no script beyond a task and a request to think out loud, and we do not correct anyone. The first session generally ends early because the thing breaks, and that is a result rather than a wasted afternoon.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

On that project week two told us the entire mental model was wrong — dispatchers thought in vehicles, the prototype thought in orders. Discovering that in week two cost four days. In week ten it would have cost the release.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

\"Inside<\/div><\/div>

Pl. 02<\/span>  Week-two build, first session<\/p><\/div><\/div>

What it does to the schedule<\/h3><\/div>

It looks like a delay and behaves like the opposite. The design phase gets shorter every time, because the arguments that usually happen in review have already been settled by watching someone fail at a task.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

The visible cost is that the client sees something crude in the second week of an expensive engagement. We now warn them in the proposal and show a photograph of a previous week-two build, which does more than any explanation.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

What we would do differently<\/h3><\/div>

Include the client in the sessions from the first one, not the second. A team that watches a user struggle needs no persuading later, and a team that reads it in a summary always does.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>

Filed under Product · 22 Apr 2026<\/p><\/div><\/div>

All writing<\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div>

Let's make
something<\/p><\/div><\/div>

last\u200b<\/em>ing<\/p><\/div><\/div>

<\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The earliest useful thing is usually ugly. Getting it in front of real users before the design has an opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-product"],"yoast_head":"\nPrototype in week two - DGBDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dgbds.uk\/?p=616\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prototype in week two - DGBDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The earliest useful thing is usually ugly. 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