Communications of the ACM
Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests
Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests
Testing web applications focusing on their specialties
ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes
Heuristic evaluation of paper-based Web pages: a simplified inspection usability methodology
Journal of Biomedical Informatics
Proceedings of the 4th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction: changing roles
Using paper mockups for evaluating soft keyboard layouts
CASCON '07 Proceedings of the 2007 conference of the center for advanced studies on Collaborative research
Usability testing using physiological analysis
Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges
The anatomy of prototypes: Prototypes as filters, prototypes as manifestations of design ideas
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)
Sketching interactive systems with sketchify
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)
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Paper prototypes are a low-tech, low-cost, but highly effective,form of usability testing for web site design. Creating a web siteis relatively easy, given the technology and tools now available.All too often, web site developers tend to be enamored with thetechnology and forget the needs of end user. As a result, many website developers delay usability testing until their web site iscompletely designed, only to uncover significant interface,content, or structural problems with the site once the customerstry to use it. Significant redesign may be impossible due to time,cost, or personnel constraints.This paper discusses the benefits ofusing paper prototypes to conduct usability testing of a web sitefor Mercer University's School of Engineering Center for Excellencein Engineering Education (CE3). These benefits includethe following: 1. Low cost, both in terms of time and materials required tocreate the prototype;2. Critical feedback from users, who appear more willing tosuggest significant flaws when the site design is obviously veryrough;3. Willingness on the part of the designers to change thedesign, since they have invested minimal time and effort intocreating a paper prototype; and ultimately4. Improved usability..This paper also discusses how to create a paper prototype, how toconduct a usability test with the prototype, and what to do withthe test results. This process can be used to enhance the usabilityof any web site.The design of the CE3 is a project of ateam of senior technical communication students in the Departmentof Technical Communication at Mercer University. This paper alsodiscusses the importance of training technical communicators to beuser advocates.