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Prototyping: Lesson 1

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Prototyping: Lesson 1

The third step of the design cycle is presented. Once the best design is chosen how to we iteratively design models of the system to quickly allow user to interact and provide feedback.

The focus of this course is to introduce the learner to User Experience (UX) Design User Experience design is design that is user centered. The goal is to design artifacts that allow the users to meet their needs in the most effective efficient and satisfying manner. The course introduces the novice to a cycle of discovery and evaluation and a set of techniques that meet the user's needs. This course is geared toward the novice. It is for learners that have heard about "user experience" or "user interface" design but don't really know much about these disciplines. The course mantra is that “Design is a systematic and data driven process.” Design is systematic because it is based on a set of techniques and also on a cycle of discovery. In this course the learner is introduced to the four step user interface design cycle. Along the way learners are exposed to a set of techniques to gather information about a) what the user needs b)how to design and model interfaces based on these and then how to evaluate the design to ascertain that the user's goals are met. These techniques are tools that are used in a standardized manner and give us the data we use in our design. This means that anyone (regardless of their current training) that is willing to learn these techniques and follow the proposed cycle can be a UX designer!

Skills You'll Learn

Usability, User Experience (UX), User Experience Design (UXD), User Interface

Taught By

Dr. Rosa I. Arriaga
Senior Research Scientist

Transcript

[MUSIC]

Welcome to Introduction to User Experience Design.

Today we will discuss the third step in the user interface design cycle,

prototyping.

As we've discussed throughout the course, the core concept that

drives user experience design is that users use interfaces to accomplish a task.

The premise is that the best interface can only be designed

if we understand the user and the task they want to accomplish.

In the previous module we defined our problem space and

were able to develop some alternative designs that will

improve the task completion process leading to an improved user experience.

In this module, Prototyping,

we will consider how to make sure that our designs actually meet the user's needs.

The goal of the novel design we create is to do a better job

of meeting the needs of the user than the existing design.

Here I want to underscore that the goal of design is not novelty for its own sake.

It's novelty in the service of improving the user experience.

A prototype can be defined as an early model of a novel design.

We can classify prototyping in two ways.

Low fidelity prototypes bare little similarity to the final design in either

form or function,

while high fidelity prototypes are very similar to the final design.

In this lesson we will discuss and

practice some low fidelity prototyping techniques.

Prototyping literally sits literally and

figuratively between design and evaluation.

We prototype t o evaluate aspects of our new design and

to check if the design is meeting the desired outcomes.

Prototyping is important for a variety of reasons.

First they allow us to manage precious resources such as time and money.

This is because they are just models of our designs so they don't require for

us to engage other highly trained professionals,

such as software engineers or graphic designers.

Second, because we can build these models quickly, it allows us to iterate on

the design and move closer to our desired goal of meeting the user's needs.

We can build horizontal prototypes that allow us to model the breadth of

the design feature we plan to incorporate but include little functionality.

Or, we can choose vertical prototypes

where we will model a few features in depth.

The question of whether to engage in horizontal or

vertical prototyping depends on the goal of the exercise.

In the previous lesson, we discussed designing a system that

will allow students to organize study sessions for their college courses.

Now imagine that we have identified the following five features.

A horizontal prototype would require that we include all of them

in existing interface, so

a user could get a sense of how the five different features would be integrated.

On the other hand,

we could decide that two of these features are really the most important.

And that we want to fully model the various screens that would be required for

the user to complete the task for these two tasks.

This would require vertical prototyping.

We always want to start with low fidelity prototypes first.

This is the case even if resources are not a problem.

We do this because it is quick and easy.

And it's a way to verify our design objectives.

We do this for ourselves because putting our thoughts on paper may lead us to

quite literally see things in a different light.

Once we have gone through a couple of iterations, we can then share these low

fidelity prototypes with colleagues and get their feedback.

We can even engage stakeholders in the process.

However, I want to remind you that user feedback is a very valuable resource,

and we want to be judicious in how often we reach out to get their help.

With low fidelity prototyping we're not going for perfection.

We are looking for sequential iterations to check some aspects of our design.

This is why paper prototyping is a great way to start.

It only requires a paper and a pencil.

Here are three techniques we will discuss in turn.

These include sketching, storyboarding, and card-based prototypes.

Sketching is a freehand depiction of images related to our design.

The main point here is that this does not require being an artist or

even having any talent that requires drawing skills.

It is merely an exercise to get you to conceptualize an idea.

You can easily represent people with stick figures and devices with squares.

The goal is to become facile with putting your ideas on paper.

Okay, I want you to draw a sketch

that depicts why a study organizer is a good idea.

I'll show you mine in a second.

All right, so here is mine.

As I said drawing ability is not a requirement.

So I've drawn three students that are really upset

because there's an upcoming math quiz.

To indicate upcoming, you see that I drew a little calendar.

And I underlined that it was May 4th and

that the math quiz was coming up on May 10th.

Again, all I used was stick figures and

a little square to represent a calendar, nothing fancy.

But here, I've tried to incorporate this idea

that these students really need a way to get together.

Studyboards are a common way to provide a narrative in a static fashion.

Think about your favorite newspaper comic strip,

in four to eight sequences you get an entire storyline.

The technique of storyboarding does the same for designers.

It allows us to put our design in context.

It provides an opportunity to consider

how the user would engage our new design with a given scenario.

We learned about scenarios in an earlier lesson.

Once again, we're going for practical iterations.

It is fine to have simple stick figures and interacting in the scenes.

I want you now to draw a two to five sequence storyboard

of a successful scenario with the study organizer.

I'll tell you about mine in a second.

All right, so here's my storyboard.

Once again, drawing skills are not a must for this exercise.

In my storyboard I wanted to show that using my app would lead to meeting up with

others that want to study and ultimately for a better grade for

these students that used my so-called study-up app.

In the first storyboard, you see that people are so

worried that they have an upcoming math quiz.

I simply put hair on one, a cap on another, and

a third character with a bow tie.

Then in the second storyboard they find the study app, right, and

they say, great, because I can limit this to three people to study with.

In the third strip I was able to get these three students to study.

You show that they got an A.

And then in the final one, I have the solitary student that didn't study

with a group of students, and that ended up with a C.

All right, whereas a studyboard was getting at a narrative,

card-based prototyping will allow us to look

at the sequences of interactions we might have with the actual interface.

You can take a set of three by five index cards and have each represent a sequence

of a screen that the user would encounter as she tries to accomplish a task.

You can even take a standard sheet of paper and

cut it into six cards and do the same thing.

Construct a card-based prototype of five interactions with your study organizer.

In a second, I'll show you mine.

Here's mine.

I came up with a new name for my app, Study-Buddy.

I tried to incorporate the five features that were mentioned earlier.

As you can see, the first card is just registration.

In the second card I show that I get to verify the student's identity.

In the third card, you can see that the student can actually register for

multiple classes that they want to study for,

even enter their preferred study location in the fourth one.

And then in the fifth one, they can even enter what time they prefer to study.

This concludes our lesson on low fidelity prototyping.

In our next lesson, we will discuss high fidelity prototyping techniques,

as well as other techniques that sit in between high and low fidelity.

Thanks for your time, see you soon.

[SOUND]

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