How to build quick prototypes in Bubble

Before opening Bubble, write down the single most important thing your prototype needs to demonstrate. For a marketplace, that might be the listing and purchase flow. For a SaaS tool, it might be the main dashboard view. Limit your prototype to 3-5 screens maximum. Do not build login, settings, profile pages, or edge cases — these can wait. Write your screens on paper: Screen 1 (landing/hero), Screen 2 (core feature), Screen 3 (result/confirmation). This focus prevents scope creep, which is the number one reason prototypes take weeks instead of hours.

Instead of creating multiple pages, build your prototype on a single page using Groups with conditional visibility. Create a custom state on the page called 'current_screen' (type: text, default: 'landing'). Add a Group for each screen (landing, feature, result). Set each Group's visibility condition to: when page's current_screen is 'landing' (or 'feature', etc.). Navigation buttons simply change the custom state value. This approach is much faster than setting up multi-page navigation, URL parameters, and data passing between pages.

For a prototype, skip the database entirely. Use custom states and hardcoded text to simulate dynamic data. For a product listing, create a Repeating Group with a fixed number of cells (e.g., 6) and put static text and images directly in the cells. For a dashboard with metrics, use Text elements with hardcoded numbers like '$12,450' and '147 users'. If you absolutely need a list of items, create a custom state that is a list of texts and populate it manually. This eliminates the time spent designing Data Types, creating sample records, and debugging searches.

Authentication adds significant complexity to a prototype. Instead, skip login entirely and show the app as if the user is already logged in. If your prototype needs to show different views for different user types (e.g., buyer vs seller), add a toggle dropdown at the top of the page with Option Set values for each role. Changing the dropdown switches the visible groups to show the corresponding role's view. This lets stakeholders and testers see all role perspectives without creating accounts.

Make your prototype feel interactive without building full backend logic. For a form submission, show a success message group after the Submit button is clicked (just toggle visibility with a custom state). For a search bar, use conditional visibility to show or hide pre-built result groups based on input content. For a purchase flow, navigate through screens (landing → product → checkout → confirmation) using your custom state. Add small details like hover effects on buttons and transition animations to make the prototype feel polished. Focus on the happy path — do not handle errors, validation, or edge cases.

Click Preview in the Bubble editor to open your prototype in a browser. Copy the preview URL and share it with 5-10 potential users. For structured feedback, embed a Typeform or Google Form link at the end of the prototype flow. Ask specific questions: 'Was the core feature clear?', 'What would you use this for?', 'What is missing?' For stakeholder demos, use the preview URL and walk through the prototype screen by screen. Document the feedback and prioritize which features to build in the real version. If you need a public URL, deploy to the free bubbleapps.io subdomain.