Design, Prototyping and Construction

• Prototyping and construction
• Conceptual design
• Using scenarios and storyboard in design Based on material from: Sharp, H., Preece, J. and Rogers, Y. (2019). Interaction Design Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. 5th Ed. Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

• Describe prototyping and different types of prototyping activities
• Enable you to produce simple prototype from the models developed during the requirement activity

• In interaction design it can be (among other things):
  • a series of screen sketches
  • a storyboard, i.e. a cartoon-like series of scenes
  • a Powerpoint slide show
  • a video simulating the use of a system
  • a lump of wood (e.g. PalmPilot)
  • a cardboard mock-up
  • a piece of software with limited functionality written in the target language or in another language

• Evaluation and feedback are central to interaction design
• Stakeholders can see, hold, interact with a prototype more easily than a document or a drawing
• Team members can communicate effectively
• You can test out ideas for yourself
• It encourages reflection: very important aspect of design
• Prototypes answer questions, and support designers in choosing between alternatives

• Technical issues
• Work flow, task design
• Screen layouts and information display
• Difficult, controversial, critical areas

• Uses a medium which is unlike the final medium, e.g. paper, cardboard
• Is quick, cheap and easily changed
• Examples:
  • sketches of screens, task sequences, etc
  • ‘Post - it’ notes
  • storyboards

a) Storyboard

• Often used with scenarios, bringing more detail, and a chance to role play
• It is a series of sketches showing how a user might progress through a task using the device
• Used early in design

• Uses materials that you would expect to be in the final product
• Prototype looks more like the final system than a low-fidelity version
• For a high-fidelity software prototype common environments include Macromedia Director, Visual Basic, and Smalltalk etc
• Danger that users think they have a full system

• Transform user requirements/needs into a conceptual model - the first step of design
• “a description of the proposed system in terms of a set of integrated ideas and concepts about what it should do, behave and look like, that will be understandable by the users in the manner intended”
• Mood board may be used to capture feel
• Don’t move to a solution too quickly. Iterate, iterate, iterate

• Which metaphors would be suitable to help users understand the product?
• Which interaction type(s) would best support the users’ activities?
• Do different interface types suggest alternative design insights or options?

• Interface metaphors combine familiar knowledge with new knowledge in a way that will help the user understand the product.
• Three steps: understand functionality, identify potential problem areas, generate metaphors
• Evaluate metaphors:
  • How much structure does it provide?
  • How much is relevant to the problem?
  • Is it easy to represent?
  • Will the audience understand it?
  • How extensible is it?

interface types

• Which interaction type?
  • How the user invokes actions
  • Instructing, conversing, manipulating or exploring
• Do different interface types provide insight?
  • shareable, tangible, augmented reality, etc.

• What functions will the product perform?
  • What will the product do and what will the human do (task allocation)?
• How are the functions related to each other?
  • Sequential or parallel?
  • Categorisations, e.g. all actions related to privacy on a smartphone
• What information is needed?
  • What data is required to perform the task?
  • How is this data to be transformed by the system?

• Express proposed or imagined situations
• Used throughout design in various ways
  • scripts for user evaluation of prototypes
  • concrete examples of tasks
  • as a means of co-operation across professional boundaries
• Plus and minus scenarios to explore extreme cases

• Build and code prototypes using electronics
• Toolkits available include
  • Arduino
  • LilyPad (for fabrics)
  • Senseboard
  • MaKey MaKey
• Designed for use by wide range of people

• Different kinds of prototyping are used for different purposes and at different stages
• Prototypes answer questions, so prototype appropriately
• Construction: the final product must be engineered appropriately
• Conceptual design (the first step of design)
• Consider interaction types and interface types to prompt creativity
• Storyboards can be generated from scenarios
• Card-based prototypes can be generated from use cases