©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. Today Tuesday Running A Paper Prototyping Session CS 321 Human-Computer Interaction Q & A for midterm exam Design Elements Reading: AB Ch.s 8, 9, & 19

©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. Reminder: What to do for Milestone 1 Taped interviews: All tapes must be labeled and in the Used Tape Drawer Hand-in your Field Notes for each interview. Please be sure to staple each set. Have the following work models in the HCI Lab with your team’s names labeled on the outside of the roll: Work models for each interview: individual flow and sequence models Consolidated models: flow, sequence, & artifact Affinity Diagram Note: for some immediate feedback bring consolidated models to class

©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. Prototyping Medium Low Fidelity Prototypes A.K.A. Lo-fi, Paper Prototyping Examples  Paper  Post-it’s  Tape  Glue Play Computer

©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. Running a Paper Prototype Session Roles Facilitator Human-Computer Observer/note taker (video tape) Prepare Test Scenarios Cover the functionality of the system you are testing Practice The human-computer should practice the responses so that the transition of the screens are smooth. Set-up Camera

©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. During the Session Introduction Give a general idea of what the user is going to do DO NOT give an overall guide to the application It is important to instruct the user to “Think out loud”  You may need to gently remind them of this during the session Start with an easy task or two to put the user at ease If the user sees something unexpected then ask what they did expect  Try making an on-the-fly design change

©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. If they ask for help Do not give it to them. The idea is to see if the program design makes sense to them. Let them make mistakes. This gives your design team places to consider changes. If they get completely lost then help them get back on track. Follow-up on problems and design ideas Ask about recommendations During the Session

©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. General Group Process Tips First, schedule the tests This is not for Validation: The main purpose is not that the users gets every task done ‘correctly’. It is for Exploration: Main purpose is to discover how to improve the design During the test introduction Speak the Attitude that users can do nothing right or wrong – just be themselves During the test Act with the Attitude that users can do nothing right or wrong – just be themselves

©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. General Group Process Tips Don’t Burst the ‘Bubble’ The prototype is obviously a simulation But users take it as seriously as you do Getting their input OK, but avoid too much of a ‘conversation’  It’s NOT a conversation  Facilitator must graciously move things along  Users can speak more freely after all scenarios

©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. After the Session Hold a design team post mortem meeting Discuss the areas that the user seemed to have problems with or made suggestion about Consider design alternatives Iterative Refinement Make design changes or changes to the scenarios before next session

©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. After the Session - Tips Don’t start off with discussing design changes First, quickly and objectively gather observations Review what happened in chronological order Identify larger design issues Prioritize issues During design changes discussion Don’t spend too much time debating  Use the Rathole role  Sometime its ok to flip a coin

©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. After the Session – More Tips Changes on the first few tests Error on side of making broad changes More to be gained from exploring early on  You can go back to other designs Changes on later tests Error on side of smaller scope changes A lot of ‘low-hanging’ fruit is often better at this stage than chasing huge problems you can’t practically do much about OK to drop scenarios if you are no longer surprised by feedback. OK to add scenarios, explore smaller scope functionality

©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. Human Computer Tips Get Your Act Together! The whole show depends on you. Prepare, organize yourself, and practice. But don’t worry too much! It’s a ‘rough’, informal exercise. You’ll learn as you go Time perception The time you spend working the screen while people waiting seems longer to you than to others But…. they are waiting. Don’t take too long.

©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. Human Computer Tips, Part Two Focus exclusively on your computer role Forget about observing. Forget about writing notes. Stay busy  ‘Processing’  Preparing, anticipating  Focusing on the user’s eye and hands. Don’t respond until user actually does something  Wait for the ‘mouse click’  No ‘voice recognition’

©2001 Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville All rights reserved. Human Computer Tips, Part Three Get organized ahead of time Practice to recognize how you will efficiently grab the pieces you need. Tip: Organize more by ‘event’ rather than by type of component  For example, put Summary Screen pieces in one folder  Don’t put all checkboxes for all screens together –Instead put them in the folder for a screen or event  Caveat: You’ll know what makes you more comfortable with practice. Have lots of stuff at hand  Tape blank post-it strips  Have blank sheets available the size of a dialog boxes  Have post-its available for impromptu messages Keep very brief ‘cheat’ sheet of reminders on hand  For before session  For during session