Prototyping as an ideation tool

Ideas can be abstract, concrete or visual and are generated and expressed in various mediums using a range of ideation tools. So, for example, concrete ideas can take many forms but what they have in common is that they are all tangible forms of ideas. Such a tangible form is the prototype, which can be anything, from a roughh sketch to a simple version of a final product, say, a mock-up. Prototyping, then, is a way of ideating, or about bringing conceptual ideas to life and exploring their real-world impact so that the designer(s) involved can make appropriate refinements or possible changes in direction. In other words, protyping helps turning abstract ideas into concrete ones.