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Professionalism
The thought of showing an unfinished—or even flawed—design to outsiders makes many people
uncomfortable. I believe that there are some valid reasons for the fears people have, based on cultural
values that many of us hold. It's important to recognize the causes of such feelings so that you can
respond to them appropriately.
The Fear of Negligence
In many cultures, we face pressure for our work to be complete and error-free. As children, we were
taught to cross our T's and dot our I's. In many cases there are legal obligations to complete work,
even for a task as seemingly trivial as shoveling the sidewalk in front of one's house. In a U.S.
Supreme Court decision involving negligence, Justice Benjamin Cardozo wrote, "The hand, once set to
the task, may not be removed with impunity."
On top of what our society already expects, many developers are perfectionists by nature and training,
and their jobs reward this trait. Quality assurance concepts like "six sigma" emphasize that the
tolerance for errors in a professional environment is (or at least, should be) very low.
Addressing Concerns about Professionalism
Given these pressures, it's natural for developers to be concerned that others will perceive their work
as unprofessional if all they see is a sloppy and incomplete paper prototype. There are several tactics
for alleviating these concerns, and all of them support the same strategy: setting expectations
appropriately.
Position paper prototyping to the product team as a technique for gathering answers to their
questions, as opposed to a way to find flaws in their work. (If usability testing is conducted in an
overzealous manner, it can feel like a faultfinding crusade. Paper prototyping and usability
testing should never be used to make someone look bad.) Emphasize that an essential part of
usability testing is to identify what's working well, not just issues that need fixing.
1.
2.
Reassure the development team that it's absolutely appropriate for them to have a number of
unanswered questions about the interface at this stage and that no one is expecting them to
have a completely thought-through design. Trying things that don't work is a necessary part of
innovation—before creating the first successful lightbulb, Thomas Edison claims to have
discovered 10,000 ways to design a lightbulb that
didn't
work.
3.
The team may be understandably concerned about seeming to promise something before
knowing whether it can be delivered. Explain to both the development team and users that
prototyping something does not constitute a commitment to build it—decisions and action plans
come later, after the team has had a chance to digest the findings from the usability tests.
4.
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