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Re: Testing paper prototypes with low-vision users

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From: Karl Groves
Date: Apr 9, 2009 8:05AM

Angela,

First, kudos for considering this ahead of time. I am a huge fan of paper
prototypes, even going so far as to first develop pen-on-paper prototypes
before doing things like wireframes in Visio.

What you describe really sounds like a case for providing best practices
during this phase of the design. Doing so will benefit all users, not just
low-vision users. From an accessibility standpoint, these best practices
need not be too dissimilar (in spirit) than the best practices you'd apply
for basic user interaction design - think Nielsen & Molich's heuristics
here, just at a much more granular level. You should establish a clear,
organized list of best practices prior to design. This reduces the time
needed for multiple design iterations and gets you closer to a compliant
system much earlier in the SDLC and avoids a LOT of headaches on the part of
development staff, again not too dissimilar to getting a good usable design
created prior to laying down code.

Karl


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