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

[Mitchell Gass]

At 07:05 AM 6/18/2008, Jodi Bollaert wrote:
>Yesterday we spent part of the afternoon in teams, creating paper 
>prototypes...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....

Hi Jodi,

There have been discussions of this topic on the list, and I think 
you'll find the range of opinions in the archives. Todd Warfel in 
particular has made persuasive arguments for the value of paper, and 
I look forward to seeing them elaborated in his forthcoming book on 
prototyping.

For me, the main reason to use paper is to provide a medium that end 
users are comfortable making changes to. Paper prototyping can and 
should be a wonderfully generative activity in which participants and 
designers work together to enhance and improve a design. The 
literature on participatory design talks a lot about "boundary 
objects" that allow different communities of practice to communicate 
and work together, and paper prototypes are excellent examples.

Best,

Mitchell Gass
uLab | PDA: Learning from Users | Designing with Users
Berkeley, CA 94707 USA
+1 510 525-6864 office
+1 415 637-6552 mobile
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http://www.participatorydesign.com/