Bubble.io App Development: Rapid Prototyping vs. MVPs
Cutting months off your development time with Bubble.io
Have you ever watched the HGTV show Fixer Upper?
It’s one of those shows where home buyers are taken around to different properties that need a ton of renovation. The buyers have a set budget, and the hosts tell them exactly how far their money will go in “fixing up” each house.
Other than the fact that watching the entire process play out is wildly addictive, the actual renovation steps are also pretty cool.
After the home buyer chooses a house, the hosts use a software program to create a 3D mockup of what the home will look like after renovation. Depending on what the buyer likes and doesn’t like, the mockup might go through several iterations, and once everyone’s happy, it’s off to work. Months later, the renovations finish up, and the new family can finally move in.
After watching the show (probably one too many times), I can’t help but think about how taxing and stressful that process must be — not knowing what kind of obstacles might pop up along the way, or how much extra money you’ll have to pour into the project, or even when it’ll actually be finished.
What’s interesting is, the traditional process of building an app is incredibly similar.
You start with an idea, a budget, and a timeline. Then you start designing a prototype or wireframe. You build out multiple pages, and depending on the tool you’re using, maybe even some functionalities.
Once the prototype is complete, you take it to your team for feedback, and then you iterate. After going through the process several times you might find people within your target market to give you unbiased feedback, as well.
Then you iterate again, again, and probably, again.
At some point, the prototype might also be taken to investors, where they’ll likely drill you on how the development side of the project will fall into place.
After months of creating and tweaking your prototype, you might finally be able to send it off to your team of developers. And then, you wait. (Well, you hopefully don’t just wait, but you do a lot of waiting.)
The development process will likely:
- Extend your original time frame
- Increase your budget
- Pull unforeseen issues out of the woodwork
It can sometimes take years for a prototype to be fully developed.
And when that happens, what’s the chance your target market’s even still interested? What’s the chance a competitor has already beat you to it? (A little, and a lot, respectively.)
Rapid Prototyping
Rapid prototyping, in a nutshell, is a development process of bringing an idea to fruition quickly and efficiently. It involves creating the most basic version of your product (typically just a design, like Fixer Upper’s 3D mockup of their home renovations), testing and gathering feedback immediately, and iterating quickly. Once that’s done, you do it again, and again — until you have a product version that’s ready for development.
In many situations, it’s a great way to develop an app because if your idea turns out to be a dud (hey, it happens), not much harm is done if you’ve only worked up some designs.
(Because on the other hand, if you were to design or develop a product without taking the time to prototype, test, and iterate, you might release it a year or more down the road having no idea what the response will be. In that case, there’s a lot to lose. Developing an app can cost upwards of $200k. And developing an app without prototyping, testing, and iterating can cost a lot more…(cringe))
Yes, there are other ways to develop, but as the world continues to grow and change quicker and quicker by the day, you have to keep up. You simply don’t have time to sit on an idea until it’s ready anymore. You need to get it out there.
Rapid Prototype vs. MVP
You might be wondering if we’re just talking about MVPs here (minimum viable products).
To be clear, we’re not. There’s a difference.
Prototyping typically involves creating a design, and while it does typically include UX and UI, the actual functionalities aren’t put into place yet. Alternatively, with MVPs, a basic, functioning product is created and sent to market as quickly as possible.
The cool thing is, if you’ve chosen to build your app on Bubble.io, you don’t necessarily have to choose one over the other. Or, if you do, it’s incredibly simple to move from prototype to MVP. The process can literally be cut down by 50%, 70%, or more — in both time and money.
Rapid Prototyping with Bubble
Most startups, small business owners, or entrepreneurs start their prototyping process with tools like InVision, which are admittedly pretty amazing. These tools essentially allow you to create the entire front end of an app, from the overall design down to tiny conditional details.
When people turn to these tools for prototyping, they spend X amount of time creating their design, and then go through the process we talked about above — testing, gathering feedback, iterating, etc — and then end with the prototype being shipped off to developers.
What’s unique about Bubble is that it can function incredibly similarly to those same prototyping or wireframing tools.
It’s simple to create a static page on Bubble. All you have to do is click a few buttons and drag your mouse across the screen.
What’s even more unique is what happens afterward. Instead of shipping your designs off to a development team, all you have to do is connect the dots within Bubble.io.
There’s no need to spend 6+ months (that’s very conservative, by the way) waiting around on developers. You just take your designs and build out the functionalities within the same platform.
What does this mean for your app’s development?
You can easily speed your process up by months compared to taking the traditional route. Plus, if you’re not keen on creating a prototype first, you don’t have to. You can simply skip straight to building an MVP, which is one of the most beneficial routes you can take.
How To Use Your Bubble MVP or Prototype
What are your goals with your app?
Do you want to push it straight to testers?
Are you planning to present it to potential investors or partners?
With a Bubble app, you can choose to do either, almost immediately. Countless Bubblers are creating fully functioning apps within days. Depending on your own plans, you can gather feedback or bring partners on board much easier than by going the traditional route.
Plus, if you’re a non-technical person, presenting an already functioning app to garner support is a lot easier than presenting a design and then promising to find a way to develop it (which often involves co-founders, agencies, and more).
Put simply, use your Bubble.io app as a starting block. But instead of launching yourself into a marathon, set off straight into the final sprint.