[Sigia-l] Thoughts on Paper Prototyping at NNG Usability Week

[Jodi Bollaert]

Greetings Siggies,

I'm in San Francisco this week (woo hoo!) for Nielsen
Norman Group's Usability Week.  Yesterday we spent
part of the afternoon in teams, creating paper
prototypes with paper no less, markers, sticky notes,
scissors, etc.  When we finished, we tested the
designs with others.  One person played the
facilitator, instructing the user about the test;
another was the computer, changing pages/stickies as
the user interacted with the paper; and another person
took notes.  While this experience was entertaining,
and I enjoyed the team-based element, it also seemed
rather low-tech given the tools we have available
today.  It could have just been my teammates and I
that felt this way though.  I was wondering if any of
you IAs out there are actually doing paper prototypes
in a similar fashion.  If yes, it would be great to
hear about your experiences, and any tips/tricks you
might have to make this a valuable activity.  If some
of you also feel like this is too low-tech, it would
be interesting to hear that, too, and what methods you
are using instead.  The bulk of my experience has been
creating paper prototypes in Visio, and on occasion,
I've made them interactive.  (Where I work, however,
we usually test clickable comps.)  I have considered
exploring the creation of site maps and interactive
prototypes myself (skipping the paper part) using
Dreamweaver, but haven't done so yet.  I imagine this
might not be so easy to review with others...?? 
Thoughts?

(Please excuse the CHI cross-post.)

Thanks!
Jodi


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jodi bollaert, woman-in-charge
blue sun works, inc.

web site: http://www.bluesunworks.com 
blog: http://easyadvocate.blogspot.com