Effective prototyping

10/25/2011

EFFECTIVE PROTOTYPING Who is this guy?
A developer’s guide to better
 Principal of UX Design Edge, a UX design training and
design through prototyping consulting company targeted at non-designers
 Was a senior program manager at Microsoft for 10 years
 Was on the Windows 7 and Windows Vista teams for 5 years,
Everett McKay responsible for managing, writing, and driving the Windows
User Experience Interaction Guidelines
UX Design Edge  A Windows and Mac UI programmer before Microsoft
 Wrote two books
uxdesignedge.com  Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows (Microsoft
Press)
 Debugging Windows Programs (Addison Wesley)
 Writing another interaction design book now
Copyright 2011 UX Design Edge. All rights reserved.

Warm-up discussion

Copyright 2011 UX Design Edge. All rights reserved. Copyright 2011 UX Design Edge. All rights reserved.

Let’s talk about prototyping Some observations
 What is a prototype?  Everyone has a good understanding of prototyping
 Why do we prototype? basics
 Must we prototype?  Effective prototyping requires crucial knowledge and
 What are the different kinds of prototypes? practices that aren’t obvious
 What is the difference between a good prototype  My top goal for you today is to understand how to
and a poor one? make your prototyping efforts as effective as you can
 What makes a good prototyping tool?
 Do you often prototype now?

Copyright 2011 UX Design Edge. All rights
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10/25/2011

How important is prototyping? Today’s agenda
 Not in top 10, but easily in top 15  Prototyping basics
 Top of the list for design techniques, which if done  Effective prototyping
incorrectly, could be catastrophic  Prototyping tools
 The KnowledgeSet story  Examples
 Founded by Gary Kildall  Everett’s rules for effective prototyping
 A prototype made the company
 Wrap up
 …and later destroyed it!
 Any idea why?


Prototyping basics
Let’s review the fundamentals


What is a software prototype? Goals of prototyping
 A software prototype is an interface mockup that  To communicate and visualize design ideas
demonstrates how a program or feature is going to  To evaluate, compare, get feedback, and improve
look and behave design ideas
 To user test specific designs
 …and to achieve the above goals more efficiently than
with production code

 And no, we don’t have to prototype

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Prototypes vs. sketches vs. mockups Basic design process steps
 Sketches: rough ideas, for ideation/brainstorming,  Plan
 Determine target users, their tasks and goals
concepts matter but everything else doesn’t  Determine problems to solve
 Set themes, priorities, resources (budgets, schedules)
 Prototypes: for task flow and interaction design,
 Design
pixels don’t matter  Generate ideas, filter
 Mockups: visual design, pixels do matter
 Propose alternative designs
 Make choices
 Code: software engineering matters, investment  Refine
results in commitment  Evaluate
 Iterate until done
Is this really a prototype or a sketch? A fine line…  Communicate results (throughout)

Levels of prototyping Wireframes vs. pixels
 Low fidelity: Rough sketch or wireframe, no attempt to  A wireframe is a prototype represented by rough controls,
look real rectangles, lines, text, and simple glyphs
 Paper, Balsamiq, Axure, Mockingbird, iPlotz, Mockflow,  Lines vs. pixels
Word  Rough vs. precise layout and sizes
 Medium fidelity: Attempt to look real, but obviously not  Details like colors, backgrounds, fonts, graphics, and icons are
 PowerPoint, Visio, Axure, OmniGraffle, SketchFlow often omitted
 High fidelity: Looks real program, may be dynamic or  Wireframes are the most common form of low-fidelity
have limited functionality prototyping
 Real code, Html/Css, SketchFlow, Photoshop, Illustrator,  Quick and easy to do
Fireworks  Clear that visual design details aren’t up for discussion
 But do you really need the wires?

Timing is everything
Time required to create each mockup:
 Mid fidelity (Balsamiq, 24 minutes)

 Wireframe (Balsamiq, 20 minutes)

 Wireless (Word, 12 minutes)

 Pen on paper (Bic pen, 4 minutes)

As fast as Balsamiq is, Word took half the time


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Is saving 15 minutes really a big deal? What’s up with Lorem Ipsum?
 Yes!  Lorem Ipsum is standard placeholder text of the
 It’s not 1 x 15 minutes, it’s n x 15 minutes where n is printing and typesetting industry
 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet...
potentially a big number
 Often used in prototypes
 Given a fixed amount of time, 3x faster means 3x more
 OK to use for placeholder document content
design ideas or iterations
 Not OK to use for UI text and labels
 Generic text (“Option 1”) isn’t any better
 Interaction design requires real UI text
 Only visual design can use fake UI text

Effective prototyping
The difference between success and that other
outcome


Rule 1: Have clear goals Things to prototype
 Effective prototypes have clear goals  Product concepts
 Is your goal:
 To communicate design ideas?
 Home pages, landing pages
 To improve design ideas, get feedback?  Task flows
 To test design ideas?
 Page layouts
 Can those goals be achieved efficiently without a
prototype?  Complex or unusual interactions
 Poor goals  Design alternatives
 Always prototyping regardless of need
 Perfection
 Completeness


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Some recent LinkedIn discussions Things to not prototype
 Q: Should the floppy disk icon for "Save" command be  Design principles
changed to something more modern?  Guidelines, conventions
A: Just do a usability test (and note that doing a  Minor details
usability test implies some sort of prototype)
 Q: Which should be used: login, log in, logon, log on,
logout, log out, logoff, log off Your limited time is better spent elsewhere
A: Just do a usability test (again, implies a prototype)
 Discussion: What do you think? Do you agree?


Rule 2: Determine communication Rule 3: Choose the right level
 Prototyping goals boil down to communicating the  Communicating design ideas is the ultimate goal
right design info to the right people  Not all communication goals need fidelity
 When planning your prototype, be explicit about this  In fact, most don’t!
 Determine
 What specific design ideas do you need to
communicate?
 Whom do you need to communicate them to?
 How can you best communicate to them?


Lower is better The Windows Vista story
 Use the lowest fidelity prototyping that does the job  The Windows Vista design team used Photoshop-
reasonably well based task flows for design reviews
 Enables quick design, faster iteration, creativity  They were gorgeous! (Especially compared to XP)
 Has the least investment and commitment  Typical outcome
 Focuses on the high-level issues instead of details  Design reviews “went well” with few problems found
 Perceived as unfinished and easily changeable, so  The actual results were often disappointing (to me)
doesn’t discourage feedback
 The task flows were super high maintenance
 People react emotionally to beautiful things
 Beauty hides flaws
 People react emotionally to beautiful things
 Beauty hides flaws

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Rule 4: Choose the right tool Rule 5: Avoid tool bias
There is no single best prototyping tool, but here are  Is your prototyping tool biased towards certain
some attributes designs?
 Efficient (can prototype quickly)  Ease of use equals use
 Expressive (can prototype any ideas)  Ifyour prototyping tool makes solution A easy but
solution B difficult, which do you think you will use?
 Flexible (can choose your level)
 Don’t let the tool determine your designs
 Easy to maintain, manage (important for large projects)
 Paper has no bias!
 No design bias (more later)
 Do you have a personal tool bias?


Rule 6: Avoid commitment Rule 7: Throw it away!
 A prototype is a prototype only if it is easily thrown away  A prototype is a prototype only if:
 This means avoiding commitment  It is easily thrown away
 The goals of prototyping lead to changing or even  It is actually thrown away!
abandoning a design idea  A common conversation with a developer…
 A test: Suppose you determine that a design isn’t working:  Code prototypes tend to not get thrown away
 Is this good news or bad news?
 Are you willing to start completely over or make radical
chances? (Or will you fight for just small changes?)
 If bad, you have too much commitment


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Prototypes aren’t production code What about SketchFlow?
 …and vice versa  Isn’t code reuse the entire point?
 Problem: Goals of prototyping fundamentally conflict  Yes, but it shouldn’t be…any decisions based on a code
with goals of production code reuse goal are likely to be bad
 If you are writing production code  “We want to reuse the prototype code, therefore…”
 You aren’t really prototyping, you are coding
 Better approach
 You can’t achieve any goals of prototyping
 Focus on the goals prototyping
 If you are writing prototype code
 When done, let reuse happen—don’t try to force it
 The code will be hastily written, poorly designed, poor
implemented, full of bugs  More later…
 Reuse would be a mistake

Rule 8: Watch for team culture traps Evaluate your prototyping efforts
 Managers who are “visual thinkers”  What were your goals?
 Problem: Manager has weak design skills, demands high  Were they achieved?
fidelity prototypes
 Result: Design team wastes time on wrong things,
 Was the prototype worth the trouble?
prototypes take too long and don’t get good feedback  Could the goals be achieved more efficiently?
 Higher fidelity prototypes get higher review scores  Did you use the right tool?
 Problem: Team claims it wants low fi prototypes, but
people who do high fi prototypes get better review scores
 Did you consider design alternatives?
 Result: You get what you reward  Did you throw the prototype away?
 Managers who want code reuse

Prototyping tool attributes
The ideal prototyping tool:
Prototyping tools  Is easy to learn and use

 Enables you to communicate your ideas quickly
An agenda-free survey  Is expressive, enabling a wide range of designs

 Focuses you on the design, not the tool itself

 Isn’t biased towards particular designs

 Enables good prototyping habits

 Encourages feedback
 Creates prototypes that are easy to manage and maintain

 Is a good value


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10/25/2011

Good ol’ paper Good ol’ paper pros and cons
Pros
 Is easy to learn and use


 Is expressive, enabling a wide range of designs



 Enables good prototyping habits, including low commitment


 Is a good value

Cons
 Prototypes not easy to manage and maintain


You can usability test using paper! Whiteboards


Microsoft Word Microsoft Word pros and cons
Pros





 Is a good value

Cons
 Not expressive, focused on text and basic controls

 Biased towards particular designs



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10/25/2011

Balsamiq Mockups Balsamiq Mockups pros and cons
Pros






 Is a good value

Marginal
 Try web version for free at  Is expressive, enabling a wide range of designs

http://www.balsamiq.com/demos/mockups/Mockups.html Cons
 Prototypes aren’t easy to manage and maintain

SketchFlow SketchFlow pros and cons
Pros


 Is a good value

Marginal




Cons
 Isn’t easy to learn and use

 Doesn’t enable you to communicate your ideas quickly

Using Photoshop Photoshop pros and cons
Pros



Cons
 Difficult to learn and use

 Doesn’t enable good prototyping habits, including low commitment

 Discourages feedback

 Doesn’t enable you to communicate your ideas quickly


 Not a good value (Photoshop Elements is though)


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10/25/2011

Other tools
 More Office: Visio, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote (on a
tablet) Some examples
 Windows Paint (horrible!) Let’s look at some real prototyping examples
 Axure (expensive!)

 OmniGraffle (Mac)

 Mockingbird (SaaS)

There is no “best” tool!
Use my pros and cons to help you decide

Balsamiq Mockups in action Microsoft Word in action


SketchFlow in action SketchFlow: apply the criteria
The ideal prototyping tool:





 Enables good prototyping habits


 Is a good value


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10/25/2011

SketchFlow: my analysis Does this mean SketchFlow is bad?
This is what I saw:  No, SketchFlow is awesome (but dangerous)
 Focus was mostly on using tool, very little design
 Mentioned xaml, color, tagging, components  You have to use it the right way
 Lots of setting properties
 Design a Sign In screen (in 30 seconds or less)  Always start on paper to think the design through
 Design choices (what few there were) were biased what is easy to do  When using focus on the design, not the tool
in SketchFlow
 Why did he define all those pages?  Think: Issue by issue, not dialog by dialog
 Why did he use an animation?
 Don’t worry about reuse
 Design decisions feel “one off”, “spur of moment”, and overly focused
on details  If you can reuse the xaml, great!
 A Sign In screen isn’t even worth prototyping…completeness  Don’t let reuse drive any decisions
 Most Sign In screens have a poor UX, but layout and lack of animation
aren’t among them

Designing animations and transitions My favorite prototype
How I would design do it:
 Determine goals

 Research existing examples (software and real world)

 Define an animation vocabulary on paper

 Evaluate on paper

 Create interactive prototypes using SketchFlow

 Evaluate and improve using scenarios, context


Everett’s rules for effective prototyping

 Rule 1: Have clear goals
Everett’s rules for effective prototyping
 Rule 2: Determine the right communication
If you remember only one thing…  Rule 3: Choose the right level
 Rule 4: Choose the right tool
 Rule 5: Avoid tool bias
 Rule 6: Avoid commitment
 Rule 7: Throw it away!
 Rule 8: Watch for team culture traps

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10/25/2011

Related things to consider
 Lower is better
 Always start with paper Wrap up
 Consider using paper—even for user testing
 More alternatives, iterations is better
 Reconsider Photoshop

 Tools
 Focus on the design, not the mechanics
 Consider using different tools for different goals
 Use “my favorite prototype” as an inspiration

Prototyping resources UX Design Edge offerings
 Sketching User Experiences, Bill Buxton  UX Design Edge is all about helping teams without
 Paper Prototyping, Carolyn Snyder design resources do their best work
 Dynamic Prototyping with SketchFlow, Chris Bernard  Efficient,cost effective consulting
and Sara Summers  Team, onsite, and online training
 Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide, Todd Zaki Warfel  If you need design help, please contact me at
 Paper Prototyping: A How-To Training Video (DVD), everettm@uxdesignedge.com
Jakob Nielsen
 Subscribe to my blog and join my mailing list
 Get Effective Prototyping deck from
http://uxdesignedge.com/EffectivePrototyping

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 Check http://uxdesignedge.com/training for details


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10/25/2011

Coming soon! UX Design for Silverlight Top UX Design Edge blog posts
 Course concept: Provide developers the UX design From http://www.uxdesignedge.com/blog :
 Getting started in interaction design
knowledge they need to use Silverlight to its full
 Why “everybody is a designer”: The UX Design Skills Ladder
potential  Intuitive UI: What the heck is it?
 With hands-on exercises using Silverlight and Blend!  Don’t design like a programmer

 Partnering with Run At Server, a Montreal-based  Design scenarios—and how thrilled users ruin them

 Icon design for non-designers
Silverlight training company
 Are you sure? How to write effective confirmations
 First course scheduled for October 2011 in Montreal  Interaction design interview question #1

 The politics of ribbons

 Personas: Dead yet?


Got feedback?
 Would love to hear it!
 Contact me at everettm@uxdesignedge.com
Questions
 Be sure to get a biz card and flyer


Thank you!

Copyright 2011 UX Design Edge. All rights reserved.

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Effective prototyping

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