Saturday, 17 December 2011

Week 9 Design and Prototyping

Hi.  :)
This week lecture Ms. Mastura talked about Prototype. Prototype is :
1. Paper- based outline of a screen / sets of screens
2. Electronic 'picture'
3. 3 dimensional paper / cardboard mockup
4. Stack of hyperlinked screen shots

Or,
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from. (wikipedia)

- allow stakeholders to :
> interact with an envisioned product
> gain experience in realistic setting
> explore imagined uses

Stakeholder may refer to:
  • Stakeholder (corporate), a person, group, organization, or system who affects or can be affected by an organization's actions
  • Stakeholder (law), a third party who temporarily holds money or property while its owner is still being determined    
( source from wikipedia)

The Prototype 
> aid when discussing ideas with stakeholders
> communication device among team members
> effective way to test out the idea

 There is 2 type of prototype. Low-fidelity prototype and High- fidelity prototype.

Low-fidelity prototype 
- doesnt look like final product
- materials uses is different from the final product eg. cardboard, paper etc
- more simple, cheaper and faster to be produced.
- use for exploration only

Consists of : 
a. Storyboard 
 - contains a series of sketches to show how the user might progress through a task using the product under development
- eg. screens of a GUI-based software, scene sketches showing how a user can perform a task using an interactive device


b. Sketching 
 - a series of drawing with
- relies on sketching but normally people find it difficult to engage in this activity


c. Prototyping with index cards 
 - use index cards (about 3 x 5 inches )
- each card represents one screen or one element of a task
- In user evaluation, the user can step through the cards, pretending to perform the task while interacting with the cards.

d. Wizard of Oz
- uses a software-based prototype - user sits at a computer screen and interacts with the software as though interacting the product
- in fact, the computer is connected to another machine where a human operator sits and stimulates the software's response to meet the user. 

High-Fiedelity Prototyping

- Uses materials that is expected to be in the final product and the prototype looks much more like the final thing.
- eg. prototype that developed using dreamweaver.
- cons- :
> need longer time to build
> reviewers and testers tend to comment on superficial aspects rather than content
> developers are reluctant to change something they have crafted for hours
> a software prototype can set expectations to high
> just one bug in a high-fidelity prototype can bring the testing to halt.

- useful for selling ideas and for testing out technical issues

Compromises in Prototyping 
- By their very nature, prototypes involve compromises: the intention is to produce something quickly to test an aspect of the product
- Thus, the prototype must be designed and built with the key issues in mind
- Two common compromises
> Horizontal prototyping
> Vertical prototyping

Conceptual design : moving from requirements to first design
- concern on transforming needs and requirements into conceptual model
- concept model ( an outline of what people can do with a product and what concepts are needed)
- key guiding principles :
> open mind but don forget the users and their context
> discuss ideas with other stakeholders
> use low-fidelity prototyping to get instant feedback
> iterate

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

- 3 steps in choosing a good interface metaphors
> understand what the system will do
> understand which bits of the system are likely to cause users problems
> generate metaphors

Interaction types 
- 4 types :
instructing, conversing, manipulating, exploring

Interface types 
- WIMP/GUI interface
- sharable interface
-tangible interface
- advanced graphical interface


Thank you.

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