Paper prototyping is a quick way to test your designs on users. Use your sketches and wireframes to test your ideas.
How? Have people in your target audience try to complete realistic tasks by interacting with a paper version of the interface. This paper interface is usually manipulated by a person ‘playing computer,’ while observing users’ actions.
By testing low-fidelity paper prototypes with your user base, you can identify:
Watch this 90-second video for a great demonstration of paper prototyping and testing
Paper Prototyping Excels when Exploring New Ideas
If your project is just a variation of a well-known transaction such as sign on, you might want to skip paper and go straight to a digital prototype. Paper prototyping truly excels when you are designing something novel, since you can solicit users’ opinions and preferences as they are interacting with an interface that is clearly unfinished. If you start with a predefined software interface, you may already be too committed to a concept to tailor it based on your users’ preferences. But by starting with a bare-bones design, you’re ideally suited to create an interface in response to their needs and wants. Let users tell you:
And many other things.
Here is a simple paper prototype used by one of our staff to learn users’ preferences in terminology, item placement, and the hierarchy of information for a new product.
To be clear, you are not letting users design your product, but rather you are getting their opinions in a manner that’s uninfluenced by a pre-planned design.
In a Twitter thread, Alan Cooper, creator of Visual Basic and the company Cooper UX, wrote:
“When you put an artifact in front of a user, you instantly shut down an infinity of good ideas, avenues of thought, opportunities to create … Knowing your user isn’t hard, but it demands that you first let go of your bright ideas. That’s hard. And special. And rare.”
You can read Alan Cooper’s full thread at
https://twitter.com/MrAlanCooper/status/900728419087900672
Hi-Fi is for Refinement
Software and high-fidelity prototypes serve a valuable purpose – and that is REFINING your product. They are best used to test an existing solution.
But low-fi prototypes are great at generating product ideas and learning about your user’s concerns, priorities, and language.
Why Low-Fi? Reduced Inhibition
Users are less inhibited about commenting on rough-looking prototype than when viewing a professional-looking piece of software.
In the early stages of design, you’re trying to learn about user behavior. A low-fi or no-fi interface keeps the focus on behavior rather than visual preferences. It can help you generate ideas to tailor your mobile or web application to your users’ precise needs instead of starting with the designer’s preconceptions.
Paper prototypes are easier to change than their software-based cousins. You can adjust the interface on the fly without using a computer or other digital product, and you don’t need to ensure consistency among the screens. Scribble in changes at any time!
Low-Fi Whys: Jim Ross in UX Matters
An important advantage of paper prototypes is their sketchy look. The prototypes you create look like you’ve quickly thrown some ideas together to get people’s feedback.
Participants tend to feel more comfortable providing critical feedback on designs that feel unfinished.
Paper Prototyping can be an effective way to quickly test your concept. But it is also a great way to explore the possible functionality and design of a product by allowing users to map their ideas on an unfinished canvas
Read Jim Ross’s article comparing the benefits of paper and digital prototypes.
Users may find it easier to comment on paper prototypes
Studies have shown that users find an equal number of problems on paper and software prototypes. However, they will make additional comments regarding the visual appearance of a software prototype. Read about this here.
Resources
Neilsen and Norman offer a paper prototyping cutout kit
This video explains some techniques valuable for both paper and digital prototyping