Agile + Paper Prototypes … its all in the tape?
Paper prototypes … yawn
I know .. however this clip points out … to me .. a valid nuance of paper prototyping … how to be agile in its dissemination. And how to focus what its used for.
| Webcast Details | Notable Points |
| Title/Link: Paper Prototyping
Speaker: Joe Arnold A lead for Agile at Yahoo. Don’t let the video fool you (it is filmed as he walks along a marina it looks like). He knows his stuff. Recommend to Watch? Yes.
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1. The tale of the tape
The nuance I heard here was the use of tape. Taping someone actually walking through a paper prototype. Heck you could do it by yourself and your phone camera (if yours has a video camera mode) if you are dexterous enough. Typically, taping of paper prototypes is done to let the Interaction Designer team (UX, Usability, whatever) ponder the nuances of test subjects messing with an interaction of a model. But is that efficient relative to getting input from a broader passive (not playing with the model) audience? By sharing out tape of prototype interaction (you or test subjects) you can (1) get feedback from those that typically wont be tested like your developers and (2) communicate very quickly where the design is headed and why (now or in the future). In addition, it is a much more powerful medium for your vision. 2. Developers Don’t Read How many times have you seen BA’s or UX resources slave away at a design / requirements doc and then the developers don’t read it. Or they skim it and then just start whacking away. All the time. But will they, more importantly, digest what you are thinking via a video medium? Probably so. If you agree, taping should be part of how you communicate. 3. Tape your way into Agile? By using the taping approach to requirements you force yourself into documentation of smaller chunks (scenarios) of a specific function. Probably would get old after 3-4 scenarios of the same screen flow (who wants to watch the 53rd version of interacting with a process) so choose wisely BUT it is a great method to show your base success path through a process and the 2-3 core exceptions or design considerations. |
In short, by putting some expectation of any process getting a few ‘taping’ artifacts created around it (base flow, 2-3 core exception / design feature flows) I think you position yourself for better uptake by the current and future teams on what you were trying to achieve. People will check the tape. Documentation … if they can’t search for it … forget it.
** START OF RAW SCRIBBLE TAKEN WHILE RUNNING **
– Explaining goal … talking to developer via prototype
– Example of yahoo Brazil site
– Lo Fi (Joe is not a latent artist … at least in his fast scribble [wink]
– Its all in spanish (the prototype)
– He then tests with a Portuguese waitress
– Separate visual design from interaction design
– end (~3m)
** END RAW SCRIBBLE TAKEN WHILE RUNNING **
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