Abstract:This paper presents a prototyping framework situated mid-way between low fidelity and high fidelity. The framework is used after requirements definition and early design but before development. The approach provides a solution to the classical trade-off between the ease of production associated with lowfidelity approaches and the realism associated with high-fidelity techniques. Within this framework, we present a generic mid-fidelity prototyping method supported by a tool, MS-PowerPoint, which we have found well adapted for mid-fidelity prototyping.

As defined in this paper, universality is a step beyond the concepts of software and information systems internationalization, accessibility, as well as usability and universal usability. Universality emerges from the needs to design computing devices and software products that accommodate a large diversity of users using various computing platforms to interact with the system and with each other from anywhere and at any time. We define universality as a quality attribute while contrasting the multiple perceptions of universality in the context of multi-devices and multi-platform applications. In addition to a state of the art review that defines the concept of universality, intrinsic criteria and measures that quantify universality, the final outcomes of our research is quality model that can be used to evaluate existing designs, guide the design process and educate both designers and developers about the characteristics of more universal software and information systems. This paper provides a first answer to the following questions. What is special and interesting about defying universality as a quality attribute, beyond the fact that it is the first or only attempt to create such a quality model? What are the challenges of creating such a model? What types of global properties or criteria we were striving for when we designed the model? What are the interesting or unexpected insights through compiling this model?Index Terms-Design for all, universality, universal usability, accessibility, user diversity, multi-platforms applications

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The Computer Research Institute of Montreal (CRIM) is a non-profit R&D institute in computer science. The HCI group performs both consulting and precompetitive research.Our approach emphasizes multidisciplinary teams, participation of our own software engineering experts on projects, and sensitivity to our clients' business goals and culture. Research focuses on methodologies for designing and evaluating interfaces.

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