The importance of the Prototype

An often misunderstood process prototyping is at time hard to sell to your clients but invaluable to your final deliverable. Some fantastic info here:
http://uxmag.com/articles/how-to-prototype-and-influence-people

For those who do not want to sit through the 30-minutes romp and my rapid prototyping, here are the principals of prototyping that I explain fully in talk:

1. Your first try will be wrong. Budget and design for it.
2. Aim to finish a usable artifact in a day. This helps you focus and scope.
3. You are making a touchable sketch. Do not fill in all the lines.
4. You are iterating your solution as well as your understanding of the problem.
5. Treat your code as throw-away, but be ready to refactor.
6. Borrow liberally
7. Tell a story with your prototype. It isn’t just a set of features.