Paper or interactive?: a study of prototyping techniques for ubiquitous computing environments

ABSTRACT

We studied the effects of varying the fidelity and automation levels of a Ubicomp application prototype. Our results show that the interactive prototype captured the same usability issues that the paper prototype studies did and more. We found that paper prototyping is insufficient for supporting unique Ubicomp requirements, such as scalability, but a prototype with higher fidelity and automation levels can enhance the quality of interaction data available for evaluation.

REFERENCES

• 1: Sunny Consolvo , Larry Arnstein , B. Robert Franza, User Study Techniques in the Design and Evaluation of a Ubicomp Environment, Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Ubiquitous Computing, p.73-90, September 29-October 01, 2002, Göteborg, Sweden
• 2: Marc Rettig, Prototyping for tiny fingers, Communications of the ACM, v.37 n.4, p.21-27, April 1994 [doi>10.1145/175276.175288]
• 3: Karel Vredenburg , Ji-Ye Mao , Paul W. Smith , Tom Carey, A survey of user-centered design practice, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Changing our world, changing ourselves, April 20-25, 2002, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA [doi>10.1145/503376.503460]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Evaluation/methodology

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
      H.1.2 User/Machine Systems
          Subjects: Human factors
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Prototyping; Voice I/O

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
Wizard of Oz, lo-fi prototyping, ubiquitous computing