2. Prototypes
Validate the concept
In concrete terms
Try out ideas
At low risk
Identify issues
Before it’s too late
Sell the vision
To stakeholders and investors
Bring the team together
With a common vision
3. Who am I?
101 Things I (Should Have) Learned
in Interaction Design School
ixd101.com
4. Frank Lloyd Wright
“AN ARCHITECT'S MOST USEFUL
TOOLS ARE AN ERASER AT THE
DRAFTING BOARD, AND A
WRECKING BAR AT THE SITE.”
6. Like buildings, applications break at the joins
It’s the journey between
pages or screens, not the
pages and screens
themselves, that can cause
the most problems for users.
Plus - problems with the
journey are the most
expensive problems to fix.
Design the journey between
states first, before designing
the states.
ixd101.com
7. What we need to do is…
Identify potential problems early
Troubleshoot risky areas in advance
Get everyone headed in the same direction
Understand how new features relate to existing
features
Reassure stakeholders about what they are
getting for their money
Clearly communicate what needs to be built
Clearly communicate what it will be like to use
9. In User Experience,
Prototyping is a way of life
To find the right
user experience, Research
we need to
prototype and test
Evaluate Design
Unlike our
engineering
friends
Build
10. UX prototypes started as static mockups
Static pages
Paper Prototypes
Wireframes
Allowed for
Collaborative
design
Rapid exploration Jensen Harris, Microsoft
Usability testing
11. …then along came Rich Internet Applications
Focus on transitions
Less navigating to
features and content
More summoning
features and content
More design effort
Jensen Harris, Microsoft
and exploration
12. Architectural plans express the function,
but not the experience
Rebeca Cotera
http://rebes.info/resources/dch+composite+1.jpg
Gehry Partners, LLP
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bydesign/galleries/2010/3086582/image3.htm
13. Dynamic UI’s – the Challenge
How to support the conceptual design phase?
– Rapid exploration
– More experiential
• not just optimal arrangement of features and selection of widgets.
How to document the behaviour of rich interactions?
– Easy to document the states
– Harder to document the transitions
– Expanding/Collapsing
– Opening/Closing
– Appearing/Disappearing
– Animating
14. Documenting Transitions - Options
Technique Pros Cons
Annotations No new tools Not expressive enough
Excruciating Textual Detail No new tools Hard work
Hard to understand
Hard to show timing
Storyboards Easy to understand Hard work
Series of single paths
Hard to show timing
Screenflow Diagrams No new tools Hard work
Fragile
Hard to show timing
Animatics Compelling New tools and skills
Easy to understand Series of single paths
Interactive Prototypes Model multiple paths New tools and skills
Easy to understand
Other uses
16. Prototyping Problems – olden days
► Required specific skills
► Too much implementation detail Emotional and financial
► Wasn’t agile enough investment
means
► Everything interpreted through
Hard to iterate
the prototyper’s eyes
► Throw-away
► Some of these problems are resolved today
20. Why Prototype?
Validate the concept
In concrete terms
Try out ideas
At low risk
Identify issues
Before it’s too late
Sell the vision
To stakeholders and investors
Bring the team together
With a common vision
21. Why Prototype?
Validate the concept
In concrete terms
Try out ideas
At low risk
Identify issues
Before it’s too late
Sell the vision
To stakeholders and investors
Bring the team together
With a common vision
22. Validate the Concept
Paper Prototyping
Pros
No technical skill required
Not intimidating
Clearly unfinished
Necessarily high-level
Low investment
Cons
Become unwieldy with lots of
content
Awkward to show subtle
interactions
Not as portable
24. Why Prototype?
Validate the concept
In concrete terms
Try out ideas
At low risk
Identify issues
Before it’s too late
Sell the vision
To stakeholders and investors
Bring the team together
With a common vision
25. Try Out Ideas
Sketches
Explore multiple
options quickly
Don’t obsess about fit
and finish
Low emotional
investment
28. Why Prototype?
Validate the concept
In concrete terms
Try out ideas
At low risk
Identify issues
Before it’s too late
Sell the vision
To stakeholders and investors
Bring the team together
With a common vision
29. Identify issues
Interactive prototypes
Allow us to assess the
flow and feel of the
application, long before
production code
30. Why Prototype?
Validate the concept
In concrete terms
Try out ideas
At low risk
Identify issues
Before it’s too late
Sell the vision
To stakeholders and investors
Bring the team together
With a common vision
35. Why Prototype?
Validate the concept
In concrete terms
Try out ideas
At low risk
Identify issues
Before it’s too late
Sell the vision
To stakeholders and investors
Bring the team together
With a common vision
36. Bring the team together
►Wireframes
– map out the allocation of
content and controls to the
pages/screens…
37. Bring the team together
Wireframes show:
Flow of application
Allocation of content and
functions to pages/screens
Controls and how they work
Labels and titles
Wireframes do not focus on
Actual content
Precise sizes
Visual design
Behaviour and transitions
49. Observer’s guide to prototypes
STATIC INTERACTIVE
LOW
Activity Scenarios
FIDELITY
Sketches Paper prototypes Wizard of Oz
Storyboards
Untreated
Wireframes Clickable wireframes
interactive
Comps
HIGH Treated
Animatics
FIDELITY interactive
50. Prototypes
Validate the concept
In concrete terms
Try out ideas
At low risk
Identify issues
Before it’s too late
Sell the vision
To stakeholders and investors
Bring the team together
With a common vision
51. Design Thinking
Inspiration Ideation Implementation
Research for
Visualisation
inspiration, Build to
to sell, and
not think
control
validation
►Tim Brown, IDEO
52. The only thing more
expensive than
writing software is
writing bad software
Alan Cooper
http://www.uxquotes.com/author/alan-cooper/prototype-before-you-code/
The ones on the right are cheaper and easier to fix
Inspired by a suggestion from Dave Malouf (http://davemalouf.com/).
Exactly applies
XXX pic of a RIA
Like a site map, or a screen flow
Documenting transitions is easier with a traditional web site.There is only one transition, from one full-screen web page to another
In the pastMany tools existAxureiRiseBalsamiqHypercardProduction toolsFlashHybridsCatalyst?Expression BlendCheck list by @tuna
Or, what do I mean by prototyping
To recap
XXX one of my paper prototypes
Also did Formal TestingRecruit people who matched our personsMade sure we recreated the physical setup of a typical sessionSound booths HardwareTypically a developer role-played the recipientInsight: Can’t hear at certain points of the sessionInvaluable to experience that first hand
While we’re talking about really low fidelity prototypes
6minsProject a few years ago… Asked how does the system work… Tech guys said look at data model… BAs said read the phonebook, its already been past the business and signed off! I visited some business users to find out how they thought the system workedDrew some sketches, took them to the BAs and they didn’t recognise themWe had a problem
Earlier communication, before treatment
Different prototypes serve those purposes in different ways at different stages of the project.
Means you have to give up control, and show your work early.
Advantage of SketchFlow
Prototyping works well with agile methodologiesHeavy UX specs are inefficient, always behind the game, unusable and get the team focused on the wrong stuff
One answer to the fence is the wallCo-location - a lot of designers don't like it.Arrogant snobbery?Laziness?A need for a more creative space, man
Prototype to explore, control and sellPrototypes throughout the lifecycle