The Politics of Paper Prototyping - Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Define and Refine User Interfaces - page 234

4. Set users' expectations that the design is still on the drawing board and that the final version

may be considerably different than what they see. When participants arrive for a usability test, I
explain that we know the design has some rough edges (sometimes literally!) but that we want
to get their feedback before we've the invested the effort required to build it.

5. Last but not least, make sure the development team knows how the users will be briefed. I might

tell the team, "The users will be told that the design isn't done, so they aren't expecting it to be
perfect. If we find a spot where you haven't finished thinking things through, I won't let them beat
you up for it. We'll just note it and move on." Remind them to resist the temptation to apologize
because the unfinished nature of the design is actually a benefit and users will perceive it as
such.

This may sound like a lot of bother, but it's not something you have to keep doing—once people have
experienced paper prototyping for themselves, concerns about its professionalism should diminish.

Note I'm not claiming that paper prototyping is appropriate in all professional contexts. Although
there are many times when you can wear jeans, sometimes you need to don your best suit. If
you're going before the board of directors to give them a progress report, I think there's some
sort of unwritten law that you have to show them a PowerPoint presentation. (Although if you
recall the story from Chapter 3 about Jack Zaientz and the government review committee,
maybe you'll have the courage to show a few prototype screens on an overhead projector.)
Likewise, if you're trying to sell something (either literally or in the sense of persuading
someone), you'll want it to look slick. But for most people involved in product development,
these situations are less common than the ones in which we want to collaborate with our
customers and peers. For those cases, paper prototyping is sufficiently professional.