Planning a Usability Study with a Paper Prototype - Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Define and Refine User Interfaces - page 76

Chapter 5: Planning a Usability Study with a Paper
Prototype
Highlights
So you've decided to give paper prototyping a try. How do you go about doing it? This chapter outlines
the people, activities, and time you'll need. Some companies do their first paper prototype usability
study by hiring a consultant to come in and lead all the activities. This chapter and the others in this
section cover much of what I do as a usability consultant—theoretically, it should put me out of
business!
I'm not being facetious. I believe that the best way to make interfaces more user-friendly is to
close the feedback loop between product teams and users by teaching people how use paper
prototypes to communicate, ask questions, and find answers. Once everyone knows how to do
this, I'll find some other way to earn a living!
If you're not a usability specialist, you may be doing some of these things for the first time. If you
already have a process for conducting usability studies, this chapter will help you identify the activities
that are different from what you typically do. (On the surface, the only thing that's different about using
a paper prototype for usability testing is that you have to create the paper prototype. But there may be
some other differences from your typical process, such as leaving time for changes between tests and
less need for formal reporting.)
The process described in this chapter has worked well for me on dozens of projects, but it certainly isn't
the only way to do things. There are other topics that go into detail about the activities involved in
usability testing; the topic by Dumas and Redish (1999) is a good one to start with, and you'll find others
in the References section.