Introduction - Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Define and Refine User Interfaces - page 2

Chapter 1: Introduction
Paper prototyping is a widely used method for designing, testing, and refining user interfaces. In the
early 1990s it was a fringe technique, used by a few pockets of usability pioneers but unknown to the
vast majority of product development teams (and often considered pretty darn weird by the rest). But by
the mid-1990s, paper prototyping was catching on. People at well-known companies (IBM, Digital,
Honeywell, and Microsoft, just to name a few) experimented with the technique, found it useful, and
started using it as an integral part of their product development process. As of 2002 paper prototyping
is not considered nearly so weird, and the technique is mainstream practice at many companies, both
large and small. There are, however, still many people who've only heard enough about paper
prototyping to be intrigued—this topic is for you.
For much of its history, paper prototyping has been a tool clenched firmly in the hand of the academic
researcher or usability specialist. Like any useful tool, though, its greatest potential can be realized by
placing it in the hands of nonspecialists along with instructions for its proper use. I believe that anyone
who is involved in the design, implementation, or support of user interfaces can benefit from paper
prototyping because it fosters development of products that are more useful, intuitive, efficient, and
pleasing. Although you can't learn everything about a topic from one topic, this one gives you enough
knowledge about paper prototyping to start using it.
What Is Paper Prototyping Anyway?
In its broadest sense, paper prototyping can be considered a method of brainstorming, designing,
creating, testing, and communicating user interfaces. This topic emphasizes the creating and testing
aspects of paper prototyping, although I touch on the others as well. The technique is platform
independent and can be used for Web sites, Web applications, software, handheld devices, and even
hardware—anything that has a human-computer interface is a potential candidate for paper prototyping.
I'm not aware of any official definition of paper prototyping, and I've heard people use the term in
reference to several different methods. Here's the definition of paper prototyping I use in this topic:
Paper prototyping is a variation of usability testing where representative users perform realistic
tasks by interacting with a paper version of the interface that is manipulated by a person "playing
computer," who doesn't explain how the interface is intended to work.
Here's how it works: You meet with other members of your product team to choose the type of user
who represents the most important audience for the interface. You determine some typical tasks that
you expect this user to do. Next, you make screen shots and/or hand-sketched versions of all the
windows, menus, dialog boxes, pages, data, pop-up messages, and so on that are needed to perform
those tasks. It is not necessary to have a working version of the interface. If you can sketch it on a
whiteboard, you can make a paper prototype of it. Figure 1.1 shows an example of a hand-drawn paper
prototype screen.