Falling Dominos

So… it’s early Wednesday morning and I walk into a Hands-On session I signed up for: HND105 Measure Twice, Cut Once: Low Fidelity Prototyping Hands-On. I have to admit… I signed up for these sessions based on name only. I really didn’t know what to expect.

I walk into the room and each “station” has paper, post its, scissors, and some tape. I was a little afraid. I opened the handbook and it looked normal… it discussed “use cases” so I figured I was in the right spot.

Then, Russell Mullen starts talking. He’s a fast talker and sounded like a sales guy. I quickly thought to myself… “Oh crap… did I finally get sucked into an Amway meeting?”

But… I continued to listen. They had some good justifications for this Low Fidelity Prototyping (if you don’t know what it is… start here).

• 1. Once users see that anything was done with a computer… the amount of input received on your wireframes is greatly diminished. They didn’t have much justification for this but from my own experience it was true. I just never realized it.
• 2. If a user doesn’t like the interface… they can cut, paste, write, erase, or whatever to change it. You only spent an hour or so on the drawing… who cares… pencil in a new one.
• Iterations of the wireframes can be done in hours… not days or weeks. How many times have you had to rework your wireframes in visio just to make it look close to what the user just suggested?

I liked the team of Russell and Steve Caudill. For as fast as Russell talks, Steve makes sure you understand everything by giving really great examples of his work. Plus, as an IT Manager at PepsiCo, you know his techniques have worked in corporations as large as the one I work in.

I’m not saying that the Low Fidelity Prototyping Hands-On was in the top 3 (it’s hard to break into the top when there is no flashy code demos) but they sold me on the value of Low Fidelity Prototyping and how I can integrate it with my budding project management skills.

No Responses so far | Have Your Say!