Paper prototyping is a process where design teams create paper representations of digital products to help them realize concepts and test designs. They draw sketches or adapt printed materials and use these low-fidelity screenshot samples to cheaply guide their designs and study users’ reactions from early in projects.
See why paper prototyping is a small, yet invaluable investment.
“Paper prototyping is great for exploring design possibilities. You can try as many as you want, and if they don’t work for you it’s fine, just throw them in the bin and start over. It opens your eyes on things you haven’t thought of and gives you new design perspectives.”
— Chaymae Lougmani, CEO & Co-founder at www.Snaget.io
Paper prototyping is a core activity in design processes. You depict screenshots (in what you can call “paper-shots”) to help determine how your design/product should appear. Like other forms of low-fidelity prototyping—e.g., card sorting—paper prototyping is a cheap-and-easy way to help shape concepts. If you use it early on, you can prevent unwanted development costs.It’s useful in brainstorming, where your team searches how to address users’ problems best. As you proceed, you can do “down-and-dirty” or guerrilla testing to informally test ideas with users and course-correct as needed.
Consider the strengths and limitations of paper prototyping:
Pros:
Quick iteration
You can build overviews without getting bogged down in details. In minutes, you can see whether an idea works on paper.
Cheap
Paper is inexpensive; so are printed prototyping materials/kits.
Universal
Everyone can make rough sketches of ideas. Stakeholders from outside the design team can join in.
Pieces serve as documentation
Later on, you’ll have annotated hard-copy evidence of what works and what doesn’t.
Team-building
When team members get creative, they can bond. Everyone can get involved in drawing, cutting and pasting and forget role/department barriers.
Honest feedback
People comment more freely than if they must criticize polished prototypes (i.e., someone’s “baby”).
Useful throughout the design process
You can use paper prototyping to help stay flexible about revisions throughout development.
Cons:
Lack of realism
Whatever you draw, you can’t completely mimic an interactive design. Also, users’ gut reactions will differ compared with the finished product.
Inappropriateness in some contexts
You can’t always translate users’ constraints onto paper, especially regarding accessibility. You may need a sophisticated high-fidelity prototype to capture the user experience.
Requires in-person testing
You have a smaller pool of test users and greater risk of missing insights.
Lack of user control
Without an interactive design, users must give blow-by-blow accounts of their actions and thoughts. Also, you can’t moderate from a distance. You must give directions about next steps, without leading users.
More work
You’ll make digital prototypes, anyway. These may suit your concept without the need for primitive prototypes.
Interpret results carefully
Users can’t get a real feel of the product. Positive feedback is a good indicator of how to proceed, not a guarantee.
You should enter with the right tools and mindset. So,
Remember, the earlier you use paper prototyping, the better.
Dive into our Design Thinking course to see all about paper prototyping: https://www.interaction-design.org/courses/design-thinking-the-beginner-s-guide
This UX Planet blog has some helpful paper prototyping tips: https://uxplanet.org/the-magic-of-paper-prototyping-51693eac6bc3
Discover a wealth of insights into paper prototyping from UX content strategist Jerry Cao: https://www.uxpin.com/studio/blog/paper-prototyping-the-practical-beginners-guide/
Here’s the entire UX literature on Paper Prototyping by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:
