Case Studies - Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Define and Refine User Interfaces - page 27

Web Application: Centra Symposium
Contributions by Ronnie Thomson, Drew Wolff
In the summer of 1996, developers at a start-up company called Centra were working on the first
release of their flagship product Symposium, an Internet-based training environment. Symposium is a
Web application that offers a live, "virtual classroom" environment where students with microphone-
equipped PCs can hear and talk to the instructor and other students while viewing class materials on
their computer screens. Distance learning was a new concept at the time, and Centra hoped their
product would appeal to large corporations with geographically dispersed employees, who would use
Symposium from their office or home to receive training without having to travel.
The initial design was ambitious ( Figure 2.3 ). The designers wanted to create a virtual classroom in 3D.
Using avatars, students would navigate various rooms (such as a library or classroom) and talk with the
instructor and each other via an audio channel. The avatars offered the potential for richer
communication through facial expressions and gestures, such as hand-raising to ask a question or
head-scratching to indicate confusion.
Figure 2.3: The initial paper prototypes of Symposium (called Liveware at the time) featured
avatars for the instructor and students. In this example, the instructor is giving a PowerPoint
presentation to the class.
The product team had questions about whether the navigation worked, whether students could access
the online course material, and how well they could participate in the classroom activities. Usability
tests provided answers to these questions, and we also found a couple of surprises:
Rather than enhancing the students' learning experience, the 3D virtual reality interfered with it.
The product had some important social issues: Users wanted to know who could see and hear
them, and they raised concerns about using the interface in a professional work setting.
A Return to Flatland
The paper prototype had stick-figure drawings of the avatars and sketches of the classroom
environment. A total of eight users (two at a time) participated in co-discovery usability tests in which
they were asked to register for and then take an "online" class. Although it lacked a 3D appearance, the
paper prototype sufficed to show us that a 3D environment would interfere with the students' learning
experience.
We discovered all manner of confusion related to the avatar, starting with the fact that some people
had never heard the term before. Questions arose about the appearance of one's avatar, and users