A visual clue to the function of a user interface object.

An unvalidated requirement.

A group of stakeholders intended to view or interact with a prototype. Audiences fall roughly into two categories: internal and external to the software creation and development team.

An empty Excel worksheet page that has been prepared for prototyping.

Traits that define or characterize a prototype. Until recently, high and low fidelity, in addition to rapid, have been the primary traits of focus. Eight high-level prototyping characteristics are defined in Chapter 3 of Effective Prototyping for Software Makers: Fidelity (high-low per prototype content); Audience: internal/external; stage: early/midterm/late; Speed: rapid/diligent; Longevity: short/medium/long; Expression: conceptual/experiential; Fidelity: low/medium/high; Style: narrative/interactive; and Medium: physical/digital.

A color palette or graphical representation of the way colors are used within a prototype or design.

The elements that make up a prototype, such as blocks of text, branding elements, icons, graphics, interaction controls, and so on.

A set of design rules that inform the design and layout of screens. They do not guarantee a good design but rather provide guidance to achieve best-practice designs.

An application that is used to create HTML-based user interfaces.

Prototyping characteristic: A degree of prototype detail and finish that conceptually represents real system user interface elements—graphics, text content, interactivity, functionality, and performance. Fidelity ranges from very low to very high. Each stage of prototyping contains design elements that can be represented by a mix of fidelities.

Latin text used to mock up the visual layout of editorial content in advance of the actual editorial content.

Prototyping characteristic: The life expectancy of a prototype, characterized as short, medium, or long.

A general term for any prototype.

Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet application that can also be used for prototyping.

Microsoft Office, a word processing application.

A story or sequence of events that describes how a user might interact with a software application or service.

A person who manages the conception, planning, deliverables, and production of a given product within a company.

A model used to represent a software and/or hardware idea for the purpose of exploring design concepts and determining their efficacy. Relative to various design objectives, prototypes can be rendered with varying degrees of completeness.

Anyone who creates prototypes.

Act of planning, conceptualizing, creating, and building prototypes.

A type of prototype conceived and built in a very short time frame.

A comprehensive description of the intended purpose and environment for software under development that fully describes what the software will do and how it will be expected to behave and perform. There are four fundamental requirement types: business/marketing, functional, technical, and usability. [1]

The description of a user activity or task in the form of a narrative presentation.

A site map is a visual or textually organized model of a Website's content that allows users to navigate through the site to find the information they are looking for. [2]

A narrative prototype, usually created in the early stages of the software-making process, to articulate business and marketing requirements in the form of a usage scenario or story.

A prepared set of Excel worksheets that are built from Excel canvas worksheets. Each template worksheet contains different reusable elements or groups of elements for a given prototype design.

Miniature versions of pages, graphics, or pictures used to make it easier to visually scan and recognize them.

A graphical user interface (GUI) element with which a user interacts.

A GUI mockup, usually created in the beginning phases of the design process. It is often a sketch representation of a design concept with moderate to minimal detailing of the GUI elements.

A collection of Excel prototyping worksheets.

A prototyping work area in Excel indicated by a tab.