![]() ![]() I once had a client create a prototype based on our design, which turned out to be a big mistake, because the prototype didn’t exactly follow our design, and we had no ability to change it to fit our design prior to testing. It sounds obvious, but if someone other than the designer is creating the prototype, you must ensure that the prototype matches the design. Make Sure the Prototype Is Correct and Matches the Design If someone else-such as your client-is creating the prototype, it’s more difficult to make these changes quickly and correctly. As you plan your study, you commonly have to make changes to the prototype so it fits the tasks you need to test, and it’s often necessary to fix errors or add other functions. Whenever possible, create the prototype yourself or work closely with someone who can build it for you. Figure 2-A prototype that uses a famous name may be distractingīe Careful with Generic Placeholders If the presence of actual images is important to understanding a user interface, use appropriate example images. A good source for names is one of the many random name generators on the Web. Instead, use realistic, but generic names. ![]() You don’t want participants who are in the middle of a test session to be distracted by thinking about Johnny Depp or how bad the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie was. For example, I once tested a prototype that displayed Jack Sparrow as the name of the logged-in user, as shown in Figure 2. Figure 1-A prototype with Lorem Ipsum textĭon’t use the names of well-known celebrities or characters in your prototypes. Whenever possible, use the actual content or create reasonable placeholder text. Sometimes it’s necessary to have that context to understand a page’s purpose. Don’t Use Lorem Ipsum TextĮvery time Lorem Ipsum text appears in a prototype, as shown in Figure 1, at least one participant will ask, “Why is this in Spanish?” Besides its being distracting and potentially confusing, Lorem Ipsum text fails to give any context or clue to the type of content that would appear on the actual page. There are several types of problematic information that you should avoid. That’s fine-as long as the content is realistic and doesn’t distract participants or give them the wrong impression. So, you often have to use placeholder data instead. Ideally, you should test a prototype that has its actual content in place, but it’s rare that the real content exists at the prototyping stage. It always amazes me how participants notice the smallest details and get hung up on unrealistic data.
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