HCI:
Prototyping

Mick McQuaid

2024-03-07

Week EIGHT

Today

• Q and A from last time
• Naheel Jawaid recap
• Discussion
• Prototyping

Q and A from last time

Learning

There were so many experiences shared that addressed about the accessibility for the disability community. Recognizing and acknowledging the diverse feelings and challenges faced by individuals with disabilities is an essential first step towards creating inclusive solutions. There are possibilities that one solution works for a group doesn’t work for the other: think for avenue for the product can help. One can include more than one avenue can help(subtitles, images can have more texts, etc). So, “Diversity in solutions is key”.

Erica’s talk was very inspiring.

I wasn’t aware that screen sharing tools override screen readers functions making it inaccessible to blind and low-vision users. Other interesting issues I learned about were security and information sharing using screen readers.

I really enjoyed Ananya’s presentation on Context-Awareness Settings. I think it was a very engaging presentation and topic that was very easy to understand, given the capabilities of devices these days. I think it was also from a good article.

Q and A

Nothing unresolved. The class discussions were quiet broad and descriptive.

How can the process of co-ideation be made accessible using automated tools?

N/A

Naheel Jawaid recap

Naheel Jawaid

• Currently a UX designer at Google
• Plans to start own company soon
• Gave an engaging talk at UX Design club yesterday
• Offers free design school!

Four things you do

• Product thinking
• Interaction design
• Visual design
• Communication

Example: AirBnB vs CraigsList

Your portfolio

… must prove you can do these four things

More from Naheel

• Schools set standards too low
• Show your work to industry people
• Pick one thing and go deep—keeping all doors open means you’ll be last in line at each door
• If you’re not getting offers, concentrate on doing good work—offers will emerge
• ARglasses example—constraints and landscape

Recommendations

• tools: Protopie and Origami
• portfolios: thereal.kim and rauno.me/craft

Discussion

Prototyping

I teach a course on this topic and a couple of you are in that course! What do you think are the most important things to say about prototyping after seven weeks of it?

Where do prototypes fit?

This is a picture of design from the designer’s point of view. It doesn’t mention the developers or clients. It’s a picture of design activities apart from communicating with stakeholders, because communicating with stakeholders may happen at any moment in the process.

Design could also be called generate alternatives. Prototyping could also be called implement one alternative. So you could say evaluate means to evalauate one alternative.

How many kinds of prototypes are there?

I claim there are only two: prototypes for contention and prototypes for refinement. Of course, that raises the question of where Wizard of Oz prototypes fit into that dichotomy.

How many kinds of prototypes do you believe there are?

What is the purpose of different levels of fidelity?

Do different companies have different prototyping processes?

A VP of Oracle Medical Systems told me that his customers don’t want to see lofi prototypes at all. They want their branding in everything they see.

A guest speaker from ExxonMobil told my other class that he wants to see paper and pencil sketches or whiteboard sketches.

Wizard of Oz

I disagree with the book that this method is rare. I saw a demo of it yesterday for a study of new VR technology that is not yet implemented. The designers are trying to decide which technology to implement, so they’re doing a Wizard of Oz study of five possibilities.

Misinformation in affordances

A previous student (Christina Jia) pointed out that this can occur anywhere, not just doors. Can we think of some examples?

Is affordance only relevant as an influence?

Well, is it?

Do designers bear responsibility for privacy?

What if privacy conflicts with engagement?

How much information should affordances share?

Can there be too much? Too little?

Do people make prototypes that require different skills?

What about physical prototypes? (I’ve seen plenty for a wide assortment of reasons—can you imagine some of the kinds and some of the reasons?)

What terminology is common in industry?

What industry do you mean? Tech may be homogeneous because of groupthink, but others may be less so.

Prototyping

All you need is here

A view from Becker (2020)

lofi from Buxton (2007)

The “conversation” between the sketch (right bubble) and the mind (left bubble). A sketch is created from current knowledge (top arrow). Reading, or interpreting the resulting representation (bottom arrow), creates new knowledge. The creation results from what Goldschmidt (1991) calls “seeing that” reasoning, and the extraction of new knowledge results from what she calls “seeing as.”

lofi and hifi from Buxton (2007)

Sketch but Hifi

What can you refine?

• Color
• Typography
• Layout
• Animation

Prototyping tools

• Components
• Design Systems

Readings

Readings last week include Hartson and Pyla (2019): Ch 15, 16, 17, Norman (2013): Ch 3, 4

Readings this week include Hartson and Pyla (2019): Ch 20

Assignments

Milestone 3

References

Becker, Christopher Reid. 2020. Learn Human-Computer Interaction: Solve Human Problems and Focus on Rapid Prototyping and Validating Solutions Through User Testing. Packt Publishing.

Buxton, Bill. 2007. Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufman.

Goldschmidt, G. 1991. “The Dialectics of Sketching.” Creativity Research Journal 4 (2): 123–43.

Hartson, Rex, and Pardha Pyla. 2019. The UX Book, 2nd Edition. Cambridge, MA: Morgan Kaufman.

Norman, Donald A. 2013. The Design of Everyday Things, 2nd Edition. Basic Books.

END

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