A Comparison of Prototyping on Paper (POP) Software and Traditional Paper Prototyping for Developing Mobile Products with Optimal User Experience

摘要

Prototyping is a quick and effective way to facilitate iterative conceptual design, and allows userexperience researchers to test the user experience of early conceptual designs. The current study comparedusability testing that was supported by traditional paper prototyping methods with testing that wassupported by a new iPhone software application called Prototyping on Paper (POP). POP supports testingand development by allowing uploaded images to be linked together to form virtual interactive prototypes.Usability testing was carried out on an actual smartphone product that is currently under developmentcalled ‘Fleet,’ a product that provides travelers with crowd-sourced information about commercial airtravel. Data from the user testing showed that participants slightly preferred interacting with POP incomparison with traditional paper prototyping, but no reliable differences were found in terms of userperformance. Test facilitators also showed no reliable preference between the two techniques. Theincreased level of interactivity POP offers and its ability to better model actual interactions on a mobiledevice makes it a novel prototyping technique for smartphone applications that should be considered byusability experts.