Typically mid to high fidelity, mockups reflect the design choices for color schemes, layouts, typography, iconography, the visuals of navigation, and the overall atmosphere of the product. A mockup is a static design of a web page or application that features many of its final design elements but is not functional.

 A mockup is not as polished as a live page and typically includes some placeholder data. It's useful to break down each part of that definition.

Advantages of Mockups:-

i) Intuitive to stakeholders:

Thanks to their higher fidelity, mockups require less context than lo-fi documents like wireframes. Stakeholders can more easily see the final product.

ii) Realistic perspective:-

It’s one thing to have all your visual decisions made, but it’s another to see them all working together in a way close to the real thing. Mockups can help reveal problems that aren’t so apparent on paper.

iii) Early revisions:-

It’s easier to make revisions in a mockup than in the later coding stages.

A mockup is a full-size model of a design or device, used for product presentations or other purposes. Depending on your skills and time, you can go through the process of creating your own mockup using dedicated graphics software such as Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.

Need of Mockups:

i) Mockups are realistic:

It is a perfect opportunity for you to see how all your design decisions play together. What if the color scheme does not work with your shapes? Mockup is the way you can have a look at the final product even before the development starts.

ii) Mockups are easily revised: 

It is easier to make changes in mockup tools at the mockup stage rather than later in coding. Your developers will appreciate the fact that they do not have to revise the product design .

iii) Mockups are convincing: 

If you still need to win the trust and affection of your project stakeholders, showing them mockups is what you should do. They are intuitively understandable and closely resemble the final software product.

iv) Increases productivity:

When you have a preset framework to work with, designing becomes easy. With mockups, you get a variety of design elements that you can then apply to your design in order to get the best performance.

v) Saves money:

Why waste resources and money when you have a prototype, like a mockup to build on? Without mockups, developers will have no choice but to experiment on their original designs until they get the actual result they desire, which could result in a wastage of funds and resources.

Purpose:

In design and manufacturing, a mockup is used for promotion, evaluation, and demonstration. If a mockup is used to test the design or functionality of a system, it is called a prototype, which in web and app construction is the end stage of the design process.

Conclusion

Time after time, consultants, engineers, and inspectors see issues of miscommunication, improper specification, and product compatibility. Moreover, we see it far too late in the project. Most of the time, these costly mistakes could have been avoided with a mockup! Many aspects of a project could benefit from a mockup  - masonry, building envelopes, roofing, coatings, and more.