process
Interactive prototype
A mockup made clickable to simulate real flows – no real code or data underneath, just enough behaviour to test with.
The top of the fidelity ladder before real engineering: screens wired together so a person can attempt an actual task. The conversation it exists for: “does this work, moment to moment, in someone’s hands?”
A prototype that gets approved and goes straight to development without being tested on anyone has skipped its own reason for existing – at that point it was an expensive mockup.