Lecture Topics in HCI, by Saul Greenberg
Contents for:	All Topics	CPSC 481	SENG 609.05	Industrial Course

User Centered Design and Prototyping

This topic considers why users should be an integral part of the design process, and discusses methods for involving them. After briefly introducing user-centered system design and a (simplified) version of participatory design, I walk students through a variety of methods that involves users in the design of prototypes.

Methods starts as simple verbal exercises, but rapidly go through paper and pen sketches, storyboards, Pictive, scripted simulations and so on, each getting slightly more sophisticated. I stress in class that early versions of prototypes should be very low cost (e.g., paper and pencil, postit notes, etc), and its purpose should be to garner high-level reaction and input from the user. As the design progresses, prototypes will become more refined and the user's input should reflect smaller, but still important, design and usability decisions.

Two assignments are used to complement this section. In the assignment on task-centered design and prototyping, students have to create initial prototypes. In the follow-up assignment, students redesign their prototypes and implement a working prototype. Together, these becomes a capstone assignment, where interface development uses some of the methods taught here (e.g., storyboards, horizontal prototypes, and a vertical prototype that serves as a proof of concept).

Overheads

User Centered Design and Prototyping: [Adobe PDF]

Topics covered

• Involving the User in the Design Process
  • User-centered system design
  • Participatory design
• Specific methods for involving users
  • Verbal techniques
  • Storyboards
  • Tutorials and manuals
  • Pictive
  • The role of prototypes
  • Scripted simulations
  • Interface builders
  • Wizard of Oz

Required readings 

• Re-read How to Design Usable Systems
• Good, M. (1992) Participatory design of a portable torque-feedback device, ACM CHI'92. Reprinted in the course text.
• Nielsen, J. (1993) Extract-Chapter 4.8: Prototyping. In Usability Engineering, p93-101, Academic Press.
• Rettig, M. (1994) Prototyping for tiny fingers. Communications of the ACM, 37(4), ACM Press
• Rudd, J., Stern, K. and Isensee, S. (1996) Low vs. high fidelity prototyping debate. Interactions 3(1), p76-85, ACM Press.

Optional readings in Baecker Grudin Buxton and Greenberg

• Chapter 3: Considering Work Contexts in Design, p.187-195, This chapter introduction talks about work contexts. Since much of this involves understanding users and how we can involve them in the design process, it is relevant background for this topic.
• Chapter 2: Design and Evaluation which deals with elements of user involvement during design.
• All the papers included in Chapters 2 and 3 concern these topics, and are well worth reading.

Videos

Silk is a resarch prototyping tool that lets designers sketch out a working interface to create an active storyboard.

• Sketching like Crazy with Silk, by James Landy

In-class teaching tips

Most techniques are demonstrated live. For example, we do a walk-through of a storyboard design. I then introduce an interface as a Pictive design, and a volunteer student interacts with it. The student and class identify problems, and we redesign the system on the fly by having people construct new components/labels etc on postit notes. Also, I have (sometimes) devoted a class to a live Wizard of Oz demonstration.

This topic also has a hands-on component: the assignments on task-centered design and prototyping, which is optionally continued in the final course project. Leading up to the design of a substantial interactive system, these assignments require students to prepare a paper prototype, and then later a working horizontal prototype of their system. Each prototype is examined by the teaching assistant and discussed in lab time by the class for their reaction, and students are expected to modify their designs accordingly. Most students' designs change quite a bit from the paper version to the working prototype. Their final implementation usually reflects refinements of the design presented in the working prototype.

Major sources used to prepare lecture material

• All readings mentioned above
• Prototyping an intelligent agent through Wizard of Oz, by Maulsby, Greenberg and Mander (Proc ACM 1993 SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) provided the guidelines to help structure the Wizard of Oz methodology.