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Mastering User Interface Prototyping: Fidelity and Techniques

Learn how prototyping in engineering design benefits feedback, experimentation, and adaptation, focusing on user interface requirements with varying fidelity levels and techniques like paper and computer prototyping.

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Mastering User Interface Prototyping: Fidelity and Techniques

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Presentation Transcript

  1. prototyping

  2. Prototyping • Prototyping is common in almost every field of engineering design • It is simply express how similar it is to the finished interface • In prototyping one has to plan to throw away

  3. Why prototype? • Get feedback earlier, cheaper • Experiment with alternatives • Easier to change to throw away

  4. Prototyping the User-Interface • Identifying user interface requirements • Almost impossible to specify in advance • Supported by good software tools • Graphical editors, construction kits • User Interface Management Systems (UIMS) • Wireframes • “Prototyping does NOT mean ‘build in haste’”

  5. Prototyping the user interface

  6. Prototype Fidelity • An essential property of a prototyping technique is its fidelity • It refers to the level of detail • Low fidelity • Omits details • High fidelity • More like finished product

  7. Fidelity is multidimensional

  8. Prototype Fidelity • Horizontal • In breadth implementation (covers most features with limited depth information) • Low-fidelity in horizontal might be missing many features • Ex: A word processor prototype might omit printing and spell-checking

  9. Prototype Fidelity • Vertical • In depth implementation (how deeply each feature is actually implemented) • Low-fidelity in vertical may mean limited choices • Ex: you can’t print on double-sided • Canned responses (Always prints the same text, not WYSIWYG)

  10. More dimensions of fidelity • Look: appearance, graphic design • Sketchy, hand-drawn • Feel: input method • Pointing & writing feels very different from mouse & keyboard

  11. Paper prototyping • Paper prototypes are an excellent choice for early design iterations. • Interaction is natural • Pointing with a finger = mouse click • Writing = typing • A person simulates the computer’s operation • Putting down and picking up pieces • Writing responses on the screen

  12. Why paper prototyping? • Faster to build • Sketching is faster than programming • Easier to change • No code investment– everything will be thrown away (except the design) • Focuses attention on big picture • Designer doesn’t waste time on details • Customer makes more creative suggestions • Non-programmers can help • Only kindergarten skills are required

  13. Example paper prototype

  14. Example paper prototype

  15. Example story board

  16. Example story board

  17. What you can learn from PP-type • Conceptual model • Do users understand it? • Functionality • Does it do what’s needed? Missing features? • Navigation & task flow • Can users find their way around? • Are information preconditions met? • Terminology • Do users understand labels? • Screen contents • What needs to go on the screen?

  18. What you can’t learn from PP-type • Look: color, font, whitespace, etc • Feel: Fitts’s Law issues • Response time

  19. Computer prototype • Interactive software simulation • High-fidelity in look & feel • Low-fidelity in depth • Paper prototype had a human simulating the backend; computer prototype doesn’t

  20. What you can learn from computer prototypes • Everything you learn from a paper prototype, plus: • Screen layout • Is it clear, overwhelming, distracting, complicated? • Colors, fonts, icons, other elements • Well-chosen? • Interactive feedback • Do users notice & respond to status bar messages, cursor changes, other feedback • Fitts’s Law issues • Controls are big enough? Too close together? Scrolling list is too long?

  21. Computer prototyping techniques • Storyboard • Sequence of painted screenshots connected by hyperlinks (“hotspots”) • Form builder • Real windows assembled from a palette of widgets (buttons, text fields, labels, etc.) • Wizard of Oz • Computer frontend, human backend • the user interacts with a computer, but there’s a human behind the scenes figuring out how the user interface should respond.

  22. Pros & Cons of Storyboarding • Pros • You can draw anything • Cons • No text entry • Widgets aren’t active • “Hunt for the hotspot”

  23. Example form builder

  24. Example form builder

  25. Pros & Cons of Form Builders • Pros • Actual controls, not just pictures of them • Cons • Limits thinking to standard widgets • Useless for rich graphical interfaces

  26. Wizard of Oz Prototype • Software simulation with a human in the loop to help • “Wizard of Oz” = “man behind the curtain” • Wizard is usually but not always hidden • Often used to simulate future technology • Speech recognition • Learning • Issues • Two UIs to worry about: user’s and wizard’s • Wizard has to be mechanical

  27. “Wizard of Oz” prototyping • User thinks having interacting with a computer, but a developer is responding to output rather than the system. • Usually done early in design to understand users’ expectations (requirements)

  28. Example of Wizard of Oz

  29. Granularity in prototyping

  30. Comparison of Techniques

  31. Summary • Prototype fidelity • horizontal, vertical, look, feel • Kinds of prototypes • Paper • Computer: storyboard, forms, Wizard of Oz • Don’t get attached to a prototype • Because it may need to be thrown away

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