Practical Paper Prototyping
From Open Source Bridge attendee wiki 2009
Paper prototyping is the fastest, cheapest way to test your user interface designs. To prove it, in 45 minutes we’ll walk through several rounds of prototyping and testing a small application.
Speaker: Randall Hansen
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Contents |
Contributed notes
Notes taken by Bram Pitoyo
On Failing
The problem
We fail at the wrong time.
On the process of: Invent → design → build → test → deploy
You can fail at any point during the process:
At the end of deployment Invent → design → build → test → deploy → fail
Or you can fail before invention Fail → invent → design → build → test → deploy
Neither is fruitful.
The best time to fail
Invent → design → fail → build → test → deploy
Failing is unavoidable, so let’s fail at the right time.
Frank Herbert defines “human” as being “like me.”
It’s ridiculously easy to solve the wrong problem. Just pick anything in front of your eye that bugs you, then solve it.
On Paper Prototyping
Why?
Instead of testing the real object, we’re going to test the illusion of the real object, instead. This works because humans are pattern recognition machine.
What is paper prototyping?
“Paper prototyping is a variation of usability testing where representative users perform realistic tasks by interacting with a paper version of the interface that is manipulated by a person ‘playeing computer,’ who doesn’t explain how the interface is intended to work.” —Carol Snyder