Prototyping in Pixel Perfect

Starting from scratches

Prototyping is an interactive and communication driven approach to software design.It is based on the fact that no first design will get everything right. The best way to success is to create, test and iterate using the fastest and most appropriate tools during each iteration. No other medium or tool comes close to paper's flexibility or sheer creativeness. Certain prototyping tools do a good job in trying to emulate working on paper in a digital form hence in the end, using paper has a low fidelity and collaborative feel to it that no screen can ever match. Software tools have a purpose but they come later in the design flow when we are iterating with two of the key groups that will define the success of the design, which are our customers and our users. 

Customers and users

The easiest way to recognise your customer though is that they are the person that always pays for the project and by virtue of that, is the person who decides whether it is considered successful or not. Regardless of whether they ever actually use the finished product. In certain cases, the customer is also the user but more often that not, users are a distinct group of people and must be treated separately. Users are the people who will use the products every day, learning to love or hate it depending on how well it solves their problems and how easy it is to use. While the customer will sign off on the design, the users are the ones that will define whether it is successful in the long run. Whether hard work continues to see the light or whether it is consigned to the dusty shelves of the software graveyard.

Getting feedback

Feedback can come from three separate sources. First source is from your fellow designers and developers in the development team, secondly from the customer and thirdly from the users. The best designs come when all three of these groups work closely in tandem but often one, both or all three of these are unavailable during the majority of the design process. The more closely you can work with the customer in this first phase, the more successfully the design is likely to match the customer's needs. The customer will typically bring the sharpest focus on the business problem to the table, though may sometimes lack the technical depth of understanding needed to work effectively with you on the design. The customer who has plenty of time available to work with the design team and who understands the paper prototyping approach will add far greater value than any other approach. The requirements can be misinterpreted as the feedback comes purely from the rest of the design and development team without close access to this critical member of the team. Often people who aren't familiar with the business challenge at hand. It is recommended to get as much customer time as possible at this stage by including a number of sign off and review session designed to capture the design in as much detail as possible.

Iterating and moving up the fidelity curve

When presenting concepts more formally to customers for sign off and approval, testing with users for whom a higher quality bar is vital and when handing over to development and QA alongside a detailed requirement specification, are the three main situations you want to use higher fidelity prototypes. It is likely to use paper prototype with the design/development team before creating a higher fidelity mock up for management review. Testing with users should happy only after developing a higher fidelity prototype and should always come after you have gotten first guidelines from the customer about the design. This is to ensure the business case is met before ensuring that the software is usable. 

Time to remove Lorem Ipsum

Having as much graphics and copy as much as possible before handing over to developers is recommended. Never use placeholder text when doing later phase digital prototyping. The more you can focus on the exact wording and functionality, the less time is needed to explain functionality and the less the user will have to imagine how things work. It reduces their suspension of disbelief, giving you better feedback on a real world prototype.

Handing over the reins

The more feedback before handing over to development is given, the better the design will be. Time and budget factors will push the design into production in order to keep the project moving forward. The design will never be perfect no matter how hard anyone tries, especially parts of the products evolve and more and more users use the product in the real world for unintended consequences. The balance of creating a great design now moves from exploring ideas to executing and creating a functional product.

A blog about efficient teams using design thinking to solve real user problems. (2015). Building the perfect prototyping process. [online] Available at: http://blog.fluidui.com/building-the-perfect-prototyping-process/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2016].