When you first start designing websites, your work often begins as static mockups, beautiful but lifeless screens. They show how a design looks, but not how it feels.

To truly stand out as a designer, especially in your portfolio, you need to go one step further: turn your static designs into interactive prototypes.

Prototypes help you and your audience experience the flow of a product, test usability and bring your ideas to life before a single line of code is written.

1. What Is a Prototype?

A prototype is an interactive model of your design, a way to simulate how a website or app behaves.
Unlike static screens, prototypes let users click, scroll and navigate through your design as if it were live.

There are two main types:

Low-fidelity prototypes: Simple, clickable wireframes used to test structure and flow early on.

High-fidelity prototypes: Polished, detailed designs that mirror the final product, complete with interactions and transitions.

2. Why Prototyping Matters

Prototyping isn’t just a fancy design step, it’s a vital part of modern UX/UI design.

Here’s why it matters:

Improves communication: Clients and developers understand your vision clearly when they can interact with it.

Validates usability: You can test if your design is intuitive before it’s built.

Saves time and cost: Catching issues early avoids expensive rework later.

Strengthens your portfolio: A live, clickable prototype shows employers you think like a UX designer, not just a visual one.

3. Tools that can bring your Designs to Life

Figma makes it easy to transform your static designs into clickable prototypes

You can:

- Link frames using interactions.

- Add transitions between pages.

- Use overlays for menus, modals, or pop-ups.

- Create smart animations for smoother flow.

Why Figma?

Figma has become the industry standard for UI and UX design, and for good reason. It’s intuitive, collaborative and powerful enough to take a design from a simple wireframe to a fully interactive prototype, all in one place.

What Else...

Design to Prototype

Unlike older tools that require exporting screens into separate prototyping software, Figma lets you design and prototype within the same file.
You can link frames, add interactions and animate transitions directly, no switching between tools.

This keeps your workflow smooth and efficient, especially for quick iterations or design reviews.

Interactive Overlays

Figma’s Smart Animate feature allows you to create fluid transitions between frames, think smooth button hovers, sliding menus or fading modals.

You can control easing, duration and direction, helping your prototypes feel closer to real product behaviour.

Figma lets you create overlays (pop-ups, dropdown menus, modals) that appear over other screens during prototyping.

This feature makes your prototypes feel much closer to live websites or apps, giving stakeholders a clear idea of final interactions.

Easy Sharing

Sharing prototypes in Figma is as simple as sending a link.

Stakeholders can open your interactive design in their browser, comment directly on frames, and even test the prototype on mobile devices.

This eliminates the need for downloads or technical setup — making your designs highly accessible.

So…

For beginners, Figma’s simplicity and collaborative nature make it the perfect introduction to professional prototyping.

You can start with basic link interactions, gradually explore animations and eventually master full design systems, all in one ecosystem.

4. Common Mistakes to Avoid

Even experienced designers slip up when prototyping. Watch out for these:

Too many animations: Movement should enhance usability, not distract.

Broken navigation: Always check that every button leads somewhere.

Ignoring mobile: Test your prototype on different devices and screen sizes.

Forgetting accessibility: Ensure transitions are clear and text is legible during animations.

So...

Adding interactive prototypes to your portfolio is a good way to show creativity and test your skills without real clients, giving you complete freedom to do what you like and show potential clients your capabilities.

Changing your static design to a more alive design which looks like a real live website can really impress potential clients, when looking through your portfolio. Its eye-catching and creates an experience for the user, it shows professionalism and thought within your work.