1. Low Fidelity Prototyping and Wizard of Oz Studies

1
WOZ Pro
A Pen-Based Low Fidelity Prototyping Environment
to Support Wizard of Oz Studies
Christopher D. Hundhausen, Anzor Balkar, Mohamed
Nuur, and Stephen TrentVisualization and End
User Programming LabSchool of Electrical
Engineering and Computer ScienceWashington State
UniversityPullman, WA 99164-2752hundhaus,
abalkar, mnuur, strent_at_eecs.wsu.eduhttp//eecs.w
su.edu/veupl/

• 3. WOZ Pro DesignThrough an iterative,
  user-centered design process, we have developed
  WOZ Pro (Wizard of OZ Prototyper), a pen-based
  software environment that supports the quick and
  easy creation and testing of low fidelity user
  interface prototypes. With WOZ Pro, constructing
  a low fidelity prototype and running a wizard of
  oz study are as easy as 1-2-3

1. Low Fidelity Prototyping and Wizard of Oz
Studies Because they are easy to create and
modify, low fidelity prototypes commonly provide
designers with valuable feedback on user
interface designs. They are often used within the
context of wizard of oz studies, in which a human
wizard simulates the interface as test users
interact with it.User interface designers
typically construct low fidelity prototypes with
various tools
1. Low Fidelity Prototyping and Wizard of Oz
Studies
simple art supplies (e.g., pen, paper, and
scissors)general-purpose graphics and
presentation software (e.g., PowerPoint,
Photoshop) Pen-based low fidelity prototyping
software (e.g., SILK, DENIM see
http//dub.washington.edu/denim/research/)
WOZ Pro supports a novel feature that allows the
designer to propagate a series of recent edits to
an arbitrary subset of screens. Here, we have
changed the Caffeine menu item to Smoothies
(see Preview pane), and we are about to
propagate that change to all screens.
1. Create a low fidelity prototype by sketching
screens in Design Screens mode. A toolbox of
sketching tools appear on left screen thumbnails
appear on right
2. Problems with Existing Low Fi Prototyping
Tools 1. Design change propagation is cumbersome.
With art supplies, making changes to multiple
screens requires repetitive erasing and
redrawing. With computer-based tools, it may be
difficult to apply changes to a specific subset
of screens. 2. Running wizard of oz studies
incurs a potentially high cognitive load. Low
fidelity prototypes can grow to dozens, even
hundreds, of screens, making it difficult for
human wizards to quickly navigate from screen to
screen. If one is willing to put in
implementation effort up-front, tools like SILK
and DENIM can eliminate the need for a human
wizardand hence do not technically support
wizard of oz studies.
2. Problems with Existing Low Fi Prototyping Tools
5. Future Work In order to better support
wizard of oz studies, we will explore such a task
pile metaphor in future versions of WOZ Pro.
In our experiment, WOZ Pro participants often
created large, cluttered STNs that were difficult
to work with. In contrast, pen-and-paper
participants simply organized their screens into
piles according to task.
3. Present prototype, in wizard of oz fashion, to
test users in Run Screens mode. Pop-up
navigation menu constrains valid next screens
according to STN defined in (2)
2. Specify state-transition network (STN) in
Edit Screen Transitions mode. Drag-and-drop
screens from Unlinked Screens pane onto canvas
link screens via drag and drop
This research is funded by a Hewlett Packard
Technology for Teaching grant (no. U06TFH0033E)