Sept 24 - Rapid Prototyping

Question 1

How long did it take to prototype Google Glass?

Answer 1

1 day

Question 2

What are the 5 stages of design?

Answer 2

Empathise
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test

Question 3

What’s the purpose of prototypes?

Answer 3

They slow us down to speed us up. By taking the time to prototype our ideas, we avoid costly mistakes such as becoming too complex too early and sticking with a weak idea for too long.

Question 4

What’s the Pros of low-fidelity prototyping?

Answer 4

Quick and inexpensive.
Possible to make instant changes and test new iterations.
Disposable/throw-away.
Enables the designer to gain an overall view of the product using minimal time and effort, as opposed to focusing on the finer details over the course of slow, incremental changes.
Available to all; regardless of ability and experience, we are able to produce rudimentary versions of products in order to test users or canvas the opinions of stakeholders.
Encourages and fosters design thinking.

Question 5

What are the Cons of Low-Fidelity Prototyping?

Answer 5

An inherent lack of realism. Due to the basic and sometimes sketchy nature of low-fi prototypes, the applicability of results generated by tests involving simple early versions of a product may lack validity.

Depending on your product, the production of low-fi prototypes may not be appropriate for your intended users. For instance, if you are developing a product bound by a number of contextual constraints and/or dispositional constraints (i.e. physical characteristics of your user base, such as users with disabilities) then basic versions that do not reflect the nature, appearance or feel of the finished product may be of scant use; revealing very little of the eventual user experience.

Such prototypes often remove control from the user, as they generally have to interact in basic ways or simply inform an evaluator, demonstrate or write a blow-by-blow account of how they would use the finished product.

Question 6

What are the pros of High-fidelity Prototyping?

Answer 6

Engaging: the stakeholders can instantly see their vision realised and will be able to judge how well it meets their expectations, wants and needs.
User testing involving high-fi prototypes will allow the evaluators to gather information with a high level of validity and applicability. The closer the prototype is to the finished product, the more confidence the design team will have in how people will respond to, interact with and perceive the design.

Question 7

What are the cons of High-Fidelity prototyping?

Answer 7

They generally take much longer to produce than low-fi prototypes.
When testing prototypes, test users are more inclined to focus and comment on superficial characteristics, as opposed to the content (Rogers, Preece, and Sharp, 2011).
After devoting hours and hours of time producing an accurate model of how a product will appear and behave, designers are often loathed to make changes.
Software prototypes may give test users a false impression of how good the finished article may be.
Making changes to prototypes can take a long time, thus delaying the entire project in the process. However, low-fi prototypes can usually be changed within hours, if not minutes, for example when sketching or paper prototyping methods are utilised.

Question 8

What are the 4 guidelines of prototyping?

Answer 8

Just start building
Don’t spend too much time
Remember what you’re testing for
Build with the user in mind

Question 9

Is it important that the paper prototype is clean, colored, imaged and consistently sized?

Answer 9

No

Question 10

What is paper prototyping good for?

Answer 10

Concepts and terminology
Navigation/Workflow
Content
Page Layout
Functionality

Question 11

What is paper prototyping not good for?

Answer 11

Technical feasibility
Download time or other response time
Scrolling
Colors and fonts

Question 12

What are 4 key benefits or paper-prototyping to designers?

Answer 12

Test your design with users before you code
Make fast changes
Find out what marketing really wants (Budlight Problem)
Eliminate technology variables from the usability testing equation

Question 13

What are 3 common concerns of paper prototyping to designers?

Answer 13

Validity ("does it find real problems?")
Professionalism ("What will others think of it ... and us"?)
Development resources ("Do we really have time to do this?")

Question 14

Why not just use html for prototyping instead of paper?

Answer 14

1. Zero Coding Effort
2. Avoid Nit-picky feedback
3. Encourage Creativity

Question 15

Why should you use cheap materials to prototype?

Answer 15

Because it allows you to prototype fast and cheaply, and quickly discard bad designs.

Question 16

When prototyping, is it better to aim for quantity or quality?

Answer 16

Quantity.

Question 17

What’s parallel prototyping?

Answer 17

Prototyping a bunch of completely different designs rather than improving an initial design idea.

Question 18

Why is parallel prototyping favorable?

Answer 18

Because it allows comparison between cases, and allow more wisdom to be extracted from the prototypes.