Prototyping

Case Study | MFA Graduate Thesis Project

Academy of Art University Graduate School of Web Design & New Media

Week 10

Paper Prototyping

This week I made revisions to my initial wire-frame prototype proof of concept  (POC) based on valuable feedback provided by my peers and professor. I created new slides incorporating these edits for my main task flow wire-frame POC.

 

I learned about paper prototypes and how to use them to analyze my POC wire-frames. The purpose of the test is to get feedback on what's working, and what's not working, with the current interface or task flow.

There were some really great examples of paper prototypes and their tests ("Rotori" app and headset, and "On the Road" app) in the module that helped me solidify my understanding of the technique.

Task Sheet

I conducted paper prototype testing sessions using my project's key task flows and provided a user task sheet to each participant so that that tasks objectives were clearly understood.

 

Moderator, Tester, and Designer

Your user testers should not know too much about your Project.

The less they know, the better the test results will be, and you will receive more effective feedback.

Testing with Paper Prototypes

Ideally, I would have liked to have had a moderator other than myself to work with but I ended up doing the testing myself with each user.

I had four user-testers and each test took about 1 hour to conduct.

A BIG thank you to my test participants for taking the time to provide valuable feedback to improve my project!

A BIG Thank you to my classmates also who took the time to test my paper prototypes online. And also to my professor for her valuable feedback and guidance in helping consistently improve my project!

There were a lot of amazing project POC examples covered in the module this week, as well as some great POC videos!

They provided insight and helped to visualize the interaction in various formats (apps, games, websites, etc..).

Coming-Up Next...

Next week, I will be learning about visual design and branding.

• Visual Style Guide
• Content Fidelity
• Overall Look and Feel of My Project
• Project Branding and Identity
• Logo Development
• Project titles

 

This blog will serve as a place to create my case study. I invite you to follow along with me as I journey through this process.

Thank you for reading and for your interest.

Julie A. Davis Veach