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From: Angela Colter
Date: Thu, Apr 09 2009 7:55AM
Subject: Testing paper prototypes with low-vision users
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I'm working on a web site redesign project for an organization whose primary
audience is low-vision users and their caregivers. One of the usability
research activities we're considering is user testing with paper prototypes
to try to get some user feedback on the visual design prior to coding it.

The reason we're considering this is to identify visual design concepts that
aren't worth pursuing, given the target audience. Now, this will probably
work just fine with sighted users, those who don't use assistive technology,
and those who use screen magnifiers (assuming that the "paper prototypes"
are static images presented on-screen). But it won't work for people who
increase the text size in their browser or who use a screen reader.

Have any of you ever done early-stage (in other words, static images only,
no code) testing with this audience? Any experiences or advice you'd like to
share? Is it worth testing at this phase, or should we wait until we've got
code?

Thanks,

Angela

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Angela Colter

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215-921-6677 (home)
443-803-8211 (cell)

From: Karl Groves
Date: Thu, Apr 09 2009 8:05AM
Subject: Re: Testing paper prototypes with low-vision users
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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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