A Case Study of How User Interface Sketches, Scenarios and Computer Prototypes Structure Stakeholder Meetings

Abstract

In stakeholder meetings during an interaction design project, prototypes are commonly used for creating shared representations of design ideas. It can, however, be difficult for designers and meeting facilitators to know which prototyping technique to use. In this case study we compare user interface sketches, scenarios, and computer prototypes, and analyse video material from six stakeholder meetings. The scenario did not facilitate a focus on aesthetic or ethical perspectives, nor did it facilitate operational or perceptual issues. The prototype did not facilitate discussions on the overarching concept of the design, to the same extent as the sketches did, but it did facilitate operational issues. The sketches gave the broadest discussion. The groups also approached the design differently; for example, the system developers constantly returned to a constructional perspective. This means that the choice of prototyping technique should be made based on the composition of the group and the desired focus of the meeting.

Bodystorming for movement-based interaction design

“…Our embodied sketches, as well as the result of other embodied methods presented in this article, have the particularity that they are not persistent but ephemeral (Arvola & Artman, 2007;Johansson & Arvola, 2007). They are shaped as the activity unfolds, but then disappear afterwards.…”

Crosside: A Cross-Surface Collaboration by Sketching Design Space

“…Sketching covers many domains of human activity and inside these domains, there are several works exploiting sketching for one or many sub-activities such as for example: problem analysis in general [44], computer science [17] (e.g., user experience support [8], [18], user interface design, prototyping, and recognition [23], [13], [14], [39], [3], [2], [47], cross-device UI design [25], user-centered design in agile projects [32], [7], system walkthrough [24]), system development (e.g., QUILL [16] for model-based design of web applications), flexible modelling [40] (e.g., FlexiSketch [54], [55] for model sketching), RAPIDO [35] for web API development, sketching UML models (e.g., TAHUTI for sketching UML Class diagrams [19] and SketchML for various UML diagrams [3]), distributed software design [29], [33], task modelling [41], notation creation [55]), computer-supported collaborative work [21] (e.g., stakeholders' meetings [20], collocated tables for meetings [51] and interactive design spaces [6]), product and service design (e.g., sketching in design [21], extreme designing [15], industrial design [52], shape-changing products [42]), public displays [36], learning (e.g., classroom design studio [26], teaching geometry [11]), ideation [4] and concept generation…”

Prototyping in Game Design: Externalization and Internalization of Game Ideas

“…Interaction designers often distinguish between rough low fidelity paper prototypes and detailed high fidelity computer prototypes (Walkers et al 2002). The designer should have the audience and the desired focus in mind when choosing what kind of prototype to make (Holmquist 2005, Houde & Hill 1997, Johansson & Arvola 2007, Sellen et al 2009.…”

“…The purposes of the prototype, the game type, the project type and the phase of the project have been suggested as important considerations to be taken (Ollila et al 2008). The same line of argument has been used in interaction design (Houde & Hill 1997, Johansson & Arvola 2007, Sellen et al 2009. The results of this study indicate that the interpersonal aspect is important when discussing what type of prototype to use.…”