Paper Prototyping: User-Centered Design, User Interface Design, Usability Testing, User Interface, Software Prototyping, Contextual Design, Prototype

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Paper prototyping is a widely used method in the user-centered design process, a process that helps developers to create software that meets the user's expectations and needs - in this case, especially for designing and testing user interfaces. It is throwaway prototyping and involves creating rough, even-hand sketched, drawings of an interface to use as prototypes, or models, of a design. While paper prototyping seems simple, this method of usability testing can provide a great deal of useful feedback which will result in the design of better products. This is supported by many usability professionals. Paper prototyping saves time and money since it enables developers to test product interfaces (from software and websites to cell phones and microwave ovens) before they write code or begin development. This also allows for easy and inexpensive modification to existing designs which makes this method useful in the early phases of design.