NordiCHI 2000 — Tutorials

Natural Prototyping

Natural Prototyping is a new method for specifying and designing web applications in a very short time. Its purpose is to clarify goals and requirements as well as to visualize (prototype) realistic solutions quickly. It is based on active user- and stakeholder participation throughout the design process. The realistic prototypes that evolve in the process enable users with no UI experience to make complex design decisions. The method is specially suited to conceptual design and the design of small web applications.

Natural prototyping addresses many of the challenges that face web-projects by

• assisting the clients and their users in clarifying and defining their own goals
• creating realistic prototypes of the system
• meeting expectations within tight budgets and short timescales
• being able to deliver quickly
• involving stakeholders in the process

Natural Prototyping has been applied in projects for Aftenposten, Telia, Storebrand, Telenor Mobil, Zalto.Com, Riksrevisjonen, Nynorsk Pressekontor and OBOS.

Tutorial: Natural Prototyping
The tutorial is an introduction to Natural Prototyping. This full-day tutorial is a combination of short lectures and exercises based on a realistic case study.

Who should attend?
Developers, web designers, facilitators and project managers.

Goal
After the tutorial, participants should

• Be able to plan and carry out Natural Prototyping
• Have learnt how to elicit and define goals, needs and requirements
• Learnt techniques for visualisation
• Created a prototype and evaluated it
• Be able to use ObjectWallware and ObjectWeb

Course content

• Planning the process
  • things you need to clarify before starting process
  • time-frames
  • what you wonít achieve
  • when is the method applicable
  • visual profile and other issues

• Running Joint Application Development (JAD) workshops to clarify the business and projectís goals.
  • ensuring active user-involvement through
  • documenting the process with ObjectWallware
  • defining users and roles
  • use cases ñ what the users wish to do with the system

• Natural Prototyping with ObjectWeb
  • preparing the workshops
  • using the magnetic user-interface - ObjectWeb
  • building a prototype step-by-step
  • evaluating the prototype with users
  • diagnosing the usersí input
  • documenting the process
  • design decisions

• Experiences from projects

Biographies

Øystein Gutu is chief designer at Objectware AS. His main focus is the quality of interaction and visual design of IT systems. He is instrumental in interpreting clientís goals, usersí needs and the conversion of ideas to practical solutions. He has broad experience in analysis and design with special emphasis on user-driven processes, such as prototyping. ÿystein Gutu completed his education as an industrial designer at Institutt for Industridesign at Statens HÂndtverks og Kunstindustriskole in Oslo in January 1994. He is a popular lecturer on matters concerning web design.

Gautam Ghosh is a principal consultant at Objectware AS where he is responsible for usability. He has extensive experience with user-centered analysis, design- and development and is one of Norwayís leading experts in usability. His present emphasis is on usable webs, particularly e-commerce sites. His main area of interest during the last decade has been user-interface design and usability evaluation. He is involved in several computing societies and founded the HCI SIG for the Norwegian Computer Society in 1993. He lectures and holds courses on user-interface design, usability evaluation and prototyping. Gautam Ghosh holds an M.Sc in Human-Computer Interaction, a B.Sc in informatics and an engineering diploma in Electronics.