Usability testing with prototypes

We've run usability studies on paper printouts of prototypes, pencil-and-paper sketches, plastic or wooden models, and running code. Here are some examples.

Paper prototypes

We had two methods for phone-book lookup that seemed equally good. We did a paper usability study, printing out sample screens instead of writing even a prototype in code. (See examples of the printouts used in testing.)

Participants told us what buttons they wanted to press, and we showed the appropriate next page. There was a clear preference for one of the lookup schemes, which we couldn't have anticipated.

Running code: HTML, Visual Basic, Excel macros and more

This was a quick prototype originally done with Excel macros, and later in HTML.

Because it was interactive, participants could react to the feel as well as to the general look shown in the prototype.

Early testing is great because it provides feedback with a small investment of time. Developing a prototype further makes it more realistic, and makes the feedback even better.

Models of physical devices

This is a prototype made of wood in a Group Design Workshop. Developers, a user and business people paired up to create a series of these models, showing what they thought the microphone should look like.

We used them in informal tests, looking at them, holding them and getting design ideas. When we had plastic mockups, we tested them with radiologists in a hospital lab.

Group design workshops are a great way to get at information deep in people's minds, things they may not have shared before.