Prototypes are for learning. Wireframes are for teaching

As a service designer, you spend half your working life engaged with people who have deep technical knowledge – developers, UX designers, solutions architects and so on – and the other half with people who know little or nothing about what it takes to design, build and maintain a successful digital service.

A printout of a prototype screen attached to a glass wall. It is covered in sticky notes recording how users have interacted with it
Get feedback early and often

So it’s probably not surprising that language from one of those domains leaches into the other. Which is fine, but not without its issues.

One area where it does cause problems is the difference between a prototype and a wireframe. So this post is an attempt to clear that up.

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