Week 9- by Tang Yook Meng

WHAT IS A PROTOTYPE

• Paper based outline of a screen/sets of screens
• Electronic ‘picture’
• 3D paper/cardboard mockup
• Stack of hyperlinked screen shots
• Prototype allows stakeholders

To interact with an envisioned product, gain experience in realistic setting and also explore imagined uses. It also aid when discussing ideas with stakeholders, act as communication device among team members, and effective way to test ideas. For example, check a certain design direction is compatible when with the rest of the system development.

1. LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPING

• Is one that does not look very much like the final product.
• Ex: uses materials that are very different from the intended final version such as paper, cardboard rather than electronic screens and metal.
• Important during conceptual design and are never intended to be kept and integrated into the final product. They are for exploration only.

Advantages:

• Lower development cost
• Evaluate multiple design concepts
• Useful communication device
• Address screen layout issues
• Useful for identifying market requirement
• Proof-of-concept

Disadvantages:

• Limited error checking
• Poor detailed specification to code to
• Facilitator-driven
• Limited utility after requirement established
• Limited usefulness for usability tests
• Navigational and flow limitation

2. HIGH- FIDELITY PROTOTYPING

• Uses materials that you would expect to be in the final product and produced a prototype that looks much more like the final thing.
• Ex: prototype of a software system developed in Visual Basic vs paper based mockup.
• It is useful for selling ideas and testing out technical issues.

Advantages:

• Complete functionality
• Fully interactive
• User Driven
• Clearly defines navigational scheme
• Use for exploration and test
• Look and feel of final product
• Serves as a living specification
• Marketing and sales tool

Disadvantages:

• More expensive to develop
• Time-consuming to create
• Inefficient for proof-of-concept designs
• Not effective for requirements gathering

DEVELOPING AN INITIAL CONCEPTUAL MODEL

-INTERFACE METAPHORS-

• Combine familiar knowledge with new knowledge in a way that will help the user understand the system.
• Choosing suitable metaphors and combining new and familiar concepts requires a careful balance between utility and fun and based on a sound understanding of the users and their context.
• 3 step in choosing good interface metaphors:

Understand what the system will do

Understand which bits of the system are likely to cause users problem

Generate metaphors

-INTERFACE TYPES-

• Different interface types prompt and support different perspective on the product under development and suggest different possible behaviors.
• WIMP/GUI interface
• Sharable interface
• Tangible interface
• Advanced graphical interface