Paper Prototypes
What is a paper prototype?
Paper prototypes are used for testing the concept or task flow for a product. The intent of this process is used to describe, refine, test, answer, and resolve
Why we created a paper prototype?
We created paper prototypes as it provided a low cost users away to physically test and interact with our product. This allowed use to describe, refine and resolve some flaws we may have had with task flows and interactions.
Paper Prototype 1
Paper Prototype 1 demos the process a user will take to sign up for a new account and identify their plant by search. This process begins with having the user put in their account information. It is then followed by a questionnaire for account set up. After the user has completed all questions, they are brought to a page indicating it will take a few seconds for their curated schedule to be created. The custom schedule is seen on the home page.
This feature is was seen as a promising prototype as it was both a feasible and and creative way to collect data on the experience of first time users.
Paper Prototype 2
Paper prototype 2 shows the interaction of the search feature for when a user searches for a plant. This prototype shows the user searching for a plant using the camera feature. The user then visits the plant profile that gives more information about the plant. On this page, the user can use the pin feature to find the plant near them. When the user clicks on the pin, it takes the user to a map page that allows users to see local plant nurseries near them that sells that specific plant. When the user clicks on a desired plant store, the map feature shows the location of the plant nursery and how long it will take the user to get to the store given different transportation options. The user then clicks on the ‘learn more’ button to take the user to the plant store profile where the user can learn more about the plant nursey and contact the store for more information.
This paper prototype is more promising than other sketches of the interfaces because it is simple, it allows users to perform their necessary tasks, and there is a lot of useful functionality. For instance, searching for a plant using the search bar or using the camera is useful. Likewise, allowing users to upload a picture of a plant is useful as well for users to search for that plant. This design is also feasible as it fulfils all the requirements and functionality the user would need. In the prototype below, I also showed many of the primary tasks a user would need to do when searching for a plant.
We created this paper prototype to show how our sketches link together to show the interactions between components. This paper prototype shows how the pages related to the search functionality work together. Some changes we made from our sketches include changing the order of the lower navigation bar. We also combined ideas from our sketches to create a more functional paper prototype. This paper prototype generally shows the flow of our main features of our application. The next step after creating our paper prototypes will be to create wireframes.
Paper Prototype 3
Paper prototype 3 demonstrates the steps a user would take to post a question to the forum page and then message another user a specific question about a plant. In order to post a question to the forum, the user must navigate to the forum page and then use the message element to create and submit their question. In order for the user(1) to message another user(2) a question, user(1) would have to first navigate to the 'my plants' tab to gather more information on their plant of interest and then navigate back to the forum tab and locate a user who has made a post addressing a similar topic, then the user(1) would click on the user(2) icon to navigate to their profile and click on the 'message' button to start direct messaging that user(2). We created this prototype to address two different interactions that both use the forum page. The first showcasing how a user would post a question to the forum and the second showcasing how a user would message another user a question through the forum page. The changes that were made from the sketching phase to the prototyping phase included removing the search tab and adding a prospective upvoting feature. We removed the search tab because there was already a search option included in the bottom navigation and we thought that having multiple search options might be confusing for the user. We added an upvoting feature to better explain how the featured topics tab works such that topics that a greater amount of upvotes will be represented at the top of the page versus pages with a smaller amount of upvotes. We thought that might help the user better understand what featured topics meant and would also allow for a more interactive experience because users can essentially vote on topics.