Despite advances in prototyping technology paper prototyping is still Jared Spool's favourite approach.
The downside of computer based prototyping tools such as Visio, Dreamweaver and Acrobat is that:
- They are clumsy, time consuming and too cumbersome for producing rough designs
- You get bogged down with lining things up neatly and other micro-design activities that take time and tell us nothing about the design's effectiveness
- They are restrictive, since only one person at a time can update the interface
In Jared Spool's opinion the programs are great once the basic design elements are established, but for the initial round of tests, they are overkill and distracting.
Links:
- The article Looking Back on 16 Years of Paper Prototyping
Henrik Olsen
- August 06, 2005