Paper Prototyping

Chapter 2 Case Studies

So what is paper prototyping good for? In a nutshell, it lets you create and refine an interface based on user feedback before implementing it. This chapter contains several real-world examples where paper prototypes provided that important—and often surprising—feedback.

To illustrate that paper prototyping works for a variety of interfaces, I’ve chosen a software application, a Web site, a Web application, a telephone display, and a small touch screen. In each example, the product team created a paper prototype of the interface before a working version was available and tested it with about a half dozen users.

   You’ll notice several types of findings from these case studies:

1. Usability issues. This broad category contains ...