Assignment 6: Prototyping

Readings

• Beaudouin-Lafon and MacKay’s chapter on Prototyping Tools and Techniques from the HCI Handbook

Assignment

For your class project, think about methods in the Beaudoin-Lafon and Li articles. Write briefly about which techniques might be best for your project, and why

Response

Prototypes

We will need to create prototypes for designing our public display. Below are the following types of prototypese which will be benefical for our project:

• We will use rough sketches to allow early evaluation of design ideas. We want to make something easy to iterate on, that isn’t time consuming while we work to understand what our main goals of our public display are.

• We will create working prototypes to understand how users interact with our dashboard. We want to understand what is confusing to the user, and how we can make the process easier and more natural.

• Once we feel confident with our working prototype and have built something accessible, and usable for the public, we will create a software prototype using a tool such as Adobe XD.

Prototyping Strategies

There are many types of prototyping strategies, including: horizontal prototypes, vertical prototypes, task-oriented prototypes, and scenario-based prototypes.

For our project, scenario-based prototypes will be a great technique to ensure we are designing for every type of situation. We want to target real world tasks, such as “where to best catch a fish”, because our dashboard is going to be a tool used in the middle of the real world world.

Techniques

Brainstorming: Lucy and I will both have great ideas for what to put on our public display, and how to arrange it. That being said, we will probably not always agree. Brainstorming is important because we can work off of eachothers ideas, to make something stronger than our individual ideas. I’m confident Lucy and myself could individually make beautiful dashboards for our project. Although together, we can make something even greater by debating, and iterating accordingly. Since it will only be two of us, we will not need to worry about one person’s opinion overcoming an entire room of designers. We will stick to the simplest form of brainstorming, and draw out ideas together.

Heursitic Evaluation: I think it very important to use this technique to understand human cognition, memory, and sensory perception (as stated in the article). We want to truely understand the user, and what they would like to see on a live data dashboard of the Boulder Creek. Here is a start:

• Who is Involved: Fisherman, Families, and individuals enjoying the Boulder Creek, or using the Creek for recreational activites.

• Where the Activites Take Place: The Boulder Creek. Specifically, Eben G. Fine Park, and peninsulas facing the creek where fisherman can fish.

• What the User Does: fish, swim, take photographs, paint, walk dogs, take fishing classes, run, bike, meditate, eat, tube, and more!!

Once we have these pieces in mind, we need to think about what is important for the users to do these tasks more successfully and efficiently. We will take on the roles of each of these groups, and create prototypes for each one of them individually.