From Ideas to Paper Prototypes: Hands-on Approaches for Early Stage Projects

IxDworks

Valeria Gasik, Darja Tokranova

Quick recap

To find a doctor

“Do” -goal

To avoid a smoke

Too have a laugh

Explore interesting

pictures that elevate one’s

mood.

User task Paper prototype

Research

PersonasScenariosUse CasesRequirements

Design

ConceptRapid prototypesWireframesInteractive demos

Evaluation

TestingTask analysis FeedbackHeuristics

Testingpaperprototypes

Most people are happy to dedicate time to help you out with your project, even if it’s just on paper!

Although it’s just on paper, plan and be prepared!

Usability Wizard

Tasks to test

“Find the nearest shop”

Any type of doable tasks with clear goals but without specific clues of the solution.

“Change your password”“Go to menu and edit

settings of your profile”

“Rearrange search results based on the location”

Open-ended questions

“What do you think you can do with this application?”

1st view

Previous action returns an error

“What do you think went wrong?”

“Do you like it?” A feature

“Er... sure, I like it” “Yeah, I know, it’s awesome.”

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/006/026/futuramafry.jpg

Prepare• Write a simple script for yourself, if you have a

lot of testing to do. Number/name questions and tasks to help documentation.

• Write down tasks on a separate paper so you can show them to your test participants

• Specify, for yourself, end-results for the task. Think about what “task not completed”could stand for.

Few examples...Conducting the test

Roles

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Team of 2 or 3

Silent Wizard of Ozreacts to user’s actions

Observer takes notes

Participant thinks aloud

+ Facilitator instructs the user and helps the “computer”

• Start with an icebreaker – it’s not that serious anyway!

• Ask background questions, such as “Do you travel often?”

• Introduce team and roles

• Tell about the test details, such as“Use your hand as this would be your tablet”

• Ask user to think aloud and not to stress

Start with the task and proceed until completion/problem

• Continue with the rest of the tasks

• Finalize with closing questionsDiscuss ASAP

Watch for

• Are participants doing what was expected?

• Did anything cause frustration or confuse?

• Anything new or surprising?

• Any paths that you haven’t thought of before?

• Was there a clearly preferred solution or path?

• Are some paths unused or “misused”?

Reflection and Design ChangesE.g.

Confusion moments?

Bottlenecks in the process?

What paths were ignored or barely used?

What was clearly missing? etc.

Tip: Update the design before the next test.

Did the assumption worked?Test your paper prototype with 1-2

colleagues from another groups.

Reference

• Cooper, A., Reinmann, R., Cronin, D. (2007). About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design. England: Wiley

• Snyder, Carolin. 2003. “Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces”

• Henry, Shawn Lawton. Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design. www.uiAccess.com/JustAsk/