User testing interactive code-based prototypes give teams more relevant feedback, better product outcomes, and the ability to test at scale. In this article, you’ll find out how you can easily create and test these live prototypes yourself—without writing a single line of code!

A prototype is a model of your final product. Prototype testing is when you observe how users interact with that model, and then get their feedback. This way you can make any necessary improvements before developer handoff, and launch a final product that’s already aligned with users’ wants, needs, and expectations.

Low fidelity prototypes are static, non-interactive, and include very basic representations of a design’s structure and functionality.

They’re inexpensive to produce, and changes can be implemented quickly and easily. Their goal is to test early assumptions and help guide the design of the high fidelity prototypes that follow. (A low fidelity prototype example, source:)

The most effective high fidelity prototypes are fully functional, responsive, and include all of the final design assets.

High fidelity prototype testing is the closest you’ll get to testing your final product without actually building it. But some high fidelity prototypes are more effective than others. Prototype testing is most valuable when your prototype looks, feels, and behaves like the real thing which means that live prototypes need to be code-based. Not all high fidelity prototypes are code-based and interactive, but with the right tools you can create live prototypes with automatically generated code. (A high fidelity prototype example, source:)

Here are the essential elements of a code-based prototype—and how to create one in your design tool without writing a single line of code.

Code-based prototypes allow you to integrate powerful user testing tools like Hotjar and Fullstorythat help analyze user behavior and perform user tests at scale.

Hotjar uses code to track user interactions with a product or prototype, and Figma prototypes aren’t natively code-based. With Anima App, however, you can create fully functioning code-based prototypes in Figma, then integrate Hotjar for scaled user testing. The Anima plugin allows you to build high fidelity, interactive prototypes in Figma, Adobe XD, and Sketch.