Rapid Prototyping and Usability Testing of User Interfaces

Learn how to collect data from user testing of a proposed design before you have written a single line of code or generated a full set of content.

Low-fidelity prototyping is one of the best and most cost-effective methods of gaining design insight and direction early in the design process. This method allows you to identify major navigation and usability problems before your company spends enormous amounts of time and money developing and coding user interfaces. Participants will learn the value, cost benefits, and time savings of paper prototypes, how to introduce paper prototypes into the design cycle, how to create low-fidelity paper prototypes and mock-ups, how to plan and run usability studies with paper prototypes, and how paper prototypes foster teamwork across multidisciplinary teams.

This technique is especially suited for early testing of alternative homepage designs, but any screen-based user interface can benefit from low-fidelity prototyping, including complete websites and intranets.