On 7 Mar 2009, at 18:38, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote:
Explain to me how a one page sketch can be a prototype? A concept,
sure. But a prototype?
The point of a prototype is to communicate a design concept and see
how it works. You can't really see/show how something works with
just one sketch.
[snip]
An experience with a client a few years back comes to mind...
We were working on an old-school information-based website for an
organisation. The client wanted the site split by org-chart. We
thought this wouldn't match the users needs. The client insisted that
they understood the issue - and the public had no problem finding the
appropriate areas of the organisation. We pointed out this was because
they had humans redirecting them to the right area because their
interactions were face-to-face or on the phone. He disagreed.
So...
I drew a mock home page on a piece of paper with the six or so
organisational areas as the main navigational areas.
I asked whether this was what he wanted? He said yes.
We asked the client which area he would go to if he wanted X, Y or Z.
He, unsurprisingly, knew the correct answers [Actually - it turned out
later that one of his answer was actually incorrect! But that doesn't
matter for the story]
We took the client and the piece of paper outside onto the street and
stopped a random person and asked them the same questions. They had no
idea. As did the next random person. As did the next. The client was
convinced on #3. We went back inside and had a productive conversation.
So - single piece of paper produced in under a minute. We could give
it to users with a goal. We could get a very good idea of their
behaviour with that goal. That gave us just enough information to move
forward.
Prototype? Not-prototype? Does/should anybody care? :-)
Cheers,
Adrian
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