We used to test Buttons. Now we test Chaos.

NNG’s new research says AI prototyping finally lets you test complex flows — not just pretty screens. Here’s how.

For 10 years, we prototyped the happy path.

Login → Success. Add to cart → Success. Form filled → Success.

Then users hit real life — slow internet, wrong OTP, duplicate address, UPI failing at 11 PM — and everything broke.

NNG’s new article this week says: AI prototyping finally lets you test the messy, complex interactions EARLIER — before engineering builds them.

Not just screens. Interactions.

What Changed?

Old prototyping (Figma clickable): You could only test if user finds the button.

New AI prototyping (Figma Make, Lovable, Claude Artifacts, Uizard): You can build a working checkout in 20 mins — with real validation, real error states, real API delays — and test it with 5 users tomorrow.

Example: Swiggy Address Flow

Old way: Prototype shows “Add new address” → form → saved. Looks perfect.

AI Prototype way: You tell AI: “Build a prototype where user adds address, but OTP fails once, address already exists, GPS is off.”

You test with 5 users. 3 get stuck on “Address already exists” error because your message says “Error 409”. You fix it to “This address is already saved as ‘Home’ — use that?”

You just saved 2 weeks of dev + a 1-star review.

How to Do It This Week

1. Pick ONE complex interaction: Not homepage. Pick where users actually rage-quit — payment, KYC, return, invite.
2. Prompt AI, not Figma: “Build a functional prototype of a payment flow that simulates UPI delay of 8 seconds, shows ‘Payment processing’ then fails once.”
3. Test with 5 users early: NNG says 5 users find 85% of problems. Do it on Monday, not after sprint.

Complex interactions are where trust is won or lost. A pretty button never broke trust. A payment that hangs at 11:59 PM does.

A bit about me

Hi, I’m Vijay Ram — a product thinker from Mumbai who simplifies complex UX research (NNG, Baymard, Smashing, Google Material) into simple stories for product teams.

Your action today

Pick your app’s most hated flow. Don’t polish it. Prompt AI to make it fail realistically. Test with 1 user. What did you learn?

Inspired by: Nielsen Norman Group — AI Prototyping in Real Design Contexts — https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ai-prototyping/

We used to test Buttons. Now we test Chaos. was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.