We always talk about prototyping a website or a mobile application. Have you ever heard of prototyping IoT and embedded products? You should know that it is much more complex to program for slower devices!
MicroEJ would like to share with you 3 key lessons why prototyping is a game changer and a ”must-have” in the world of smart product development. Prototyping is ideal to bring an idea into the real world. Key benefits include:
1) Reduce development time
Did you know over 20 years ago working on tech projects from conception to market took more than 2 years? Companies often started with a period of initial discussions about concept and technology integration (around 6 month) before creating the initial prototype. Next, they work on the right design (9 months) and finally the marketing and channel staff prepare the launching of the product (9 – 12 months). Today, companies who want to launch IoT or embedded projects cannot have cycles that take this long because they will sacrifice a real hit to their market position. The ability to prototype Internet of Things projects is faster with using instant PC simulation that permits the engagement of key stakeholders into a more collaborative and iterative work. MicroEJ has this capability to speed your time to market with quickly validate specifications, thanks to the rapid prototyping of our simulator. The possibility to make marketing and R&D working together and at the same time is now a reality. Moreover, that allows faster revenue from sales. For example with Bong smartwatch, the product development time was divided in half . It takes a total of 4 months from specifications to production giving a significant time to market advantage to the smartwatch company.
2) Save money and reduce project risk
A recent Cisco survey, revealed that “60% of IoT projects come to a standstill during the Proof of Concept stage and only 26 percent of companies have had an IoT initiative that they considered a complete success”. With prototyping, you can lower this risk of failure and investment and therefore save time and money. Everyone involved in the project can quickly and easily visualize, test, proof and make crucial decisions before turning it into a big, costly and lengthy project. If you do so, you can quickly obtain user feedback before the launch of the connected device and optimize the project if needed: change the design, estimate another deadline, change the steps of the project… By building a prototype, you can swiftly exclude the ideas and concepts that wouldn’t have been strategic and instead, work to focus on the ones that make and save money. MicroEJ allows all of this with MICROEJ Studio.
3) Obtain the appealing and intuitive GUI you want
The success of apps or websites depends mainly on the quality of the design In order to receive valuable feedback for the creation of your smart device, you’ll need to prototype your design to be close to the final look. Then, you will be able to test your idea. It’s important to test the viability of the vision with users, developers, stakeholders, and other designers because you can spot problems and fix them while the design is still in progress, which is easier and less costly than correcting finalized codes. MICROEJ Simulator, with its complete set of tools, is convenient for prototyping a nice GUI for your smart things and gives the possibility to build a collaborative product with multi-person effort.
The usefulness of prototyping doesn’t become obvious until you’ve actually done it.
Hope that these 3 reasons have convinced you that prototyping allows you to approach a project logically and that it is an important step when launching smart or connected devices.
