Prototyping

A prototype is a clone or simulation of a final product that is used for feedback and testing [38]. Prototyping might be a sort of getting a pad of paper and start to sketch the design of our interface and talk through somebody. It might be making something out of blue foam or out of cardboard. It might be creating something on a device. There isn't the final system, but make two versions of it. It will help people understand.

Make some sort of prototype, give it to real users, who are likely to be using it. Evaluate that prototype. Find out what's wrong. Redesign it. Fix the bugs, fix the problems. Make different prototypes perhaps make a better prototype. A higher Fidelity Prototype that closes to the real thing. Test it again, evaluate it with people round and round. Eventually, decide it is good enough. Good enough probably doesn't mean perfect because that we are not going to get things perfect ever but good enough.

Prototypes can be a low fidelity or High Fidelity or anything in between. Low-fidelity are very basic and do not offer quite much in functionality or how a user can interact with them.

High Fidelity means that they are a lot more detailed and they focus a lot more on the interactions and the minutiae of the product and giving users and the people testing them for much more involved experience [39].

Low Fidelity prototypes are used mostly to give users a very top-down perspective of a product [39]. Showing us how we might move through the product, quickly and succinctly.

It mostly focuses on the journey and different other things like that rather than getting much detailed on the several stages of the journey. High Fidelity prototype is a lot more detailed. It would focus more on the different interactions of the prototype. It might involve things like conditional logic. We might be able to interact with it in a way, where if we input something into the prototype we will get a different result. For example, if we are filling in a form and we enter something on the page. We would be taken to in the Proto-type might be different from if we'd put something else into form.

Figure 6. Example of paper prototype⁷

3.4.1 Scenarios

The scenario is essentially a story that describes a particular way in which a user might interact with our product or service to complete a particular goal or task. The user in the story is often linked to a Persona. The story describes their motivations for their needs and their reasons for wanting to complete a particular task or goal [40]. User scenarios can almost be used a bit like a template, in terms of checking that what we are creating,

7 https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2d/d3/df/2dd3dfce34885ad29c88f3d6da0d525a.jpg

in terms of information architecture, in terms of functionality, in terms of content is helping your user complete the tasks and their goals and meet their objectives rather than hin-dering.

3.4.2 Storyboards

One of the easiest mistakes to make in interface design is to focus on the user interface.

Before we focus on the task that the interface is going to support. If we get one thing out of storyboarding, the piece to understand is that storyboarding is all about tasks. [40]

Just a few panels of storyboards are nice. We can convey what the user interface will help a person to accomplish? A good storyboard always has an actual person in there, who's using the interface [40]. In the storyboards, the communication flows much like a comic strip. It is showing what is happening at key points in time.

One of the main concern people have about storyboards is that they can't draw. But storyboarding is about communicating ideas, it is not about beautiful drawing.

It helps to communicate ideas via drawing. If we think positive, sometimes bad drawing is an asset. Because then instead of drawing we will focus on the content.

3.4.3 Usability testing

Usability testing is the process of assessing a product as its being used by real people.

By product we mean, any website, app, system, or platform. Then a person would use to perform certain tasks. Usability testing is when we put these products into the hands of actual users, to see if they can easily find their way around, complete the tasks they need to get done. And generally understand, how a product would be useful to them.

Usability testing can be done at any stage of the product development process with sketches and prototypes, alpha and beta versions, and even live or legacy websites. [41]

How does it work?

The usability testing approach usually depends on, what the product is that is being tested? What stage of development that the product is in? And what we hope to learn from the testing? Generally, first, we assess the product and determine what parts to test? Next, we develop a test plan which includes who we will test and what they will do?

Finally, we conduct the tests to analyse the results, and make recommendations.

When should we use it? The simple answer to this is any time. Since usability testing is helpful at any stage of the process. When to do it can be determined by what answers we are looking for. Employ usability testing when we want to check that we are headed

in the right direction. Identify which layouts work better? Know where your users would go define stuff? Learn how to deal with a design problem and validate if users can use our product [41]. Usability testing can offer the most valuable insights because they in-volve real users doing real things in the real world.