A faster way to paper prototype
I recently created a Keynote template to help with paper prototyping. It has seemed a few others in the Made by Many design team have found it useful so I thought I’d share it with you as well.
Why we paper prototype
Sketching is a very useful tool, especially when it comes to quick and dirty prototyping. What we sometimes refer to as ‘sacrificial sketches’ allow us to quickly and effectively test ideas and propositions. In the early stages of the project, sketching allows us to move quickly, by not getting caught up in the detail of styling, brand or interactions. They act as disposable artefacts to help us learn what our users value and guide the decisions we make.
The fact that the paper prototypes are disposable is what make them such powerful things to test with. It gives users the perception that there has not been a great deal of investment put into the concepts so they feel more comfortable giving honest feedback, criticising and imputing on ideas – the stuff you’re after.
Unfortunately, sketching doesn’t have an undo button and mistakes happen, sketches need redrawing. This can often take up a lot of time with a process that should be rapid. So I created a simple Keynote template.
Sketching.key
The file comprises of a few simple things:
1. 4 basic text styles. I prefer (1) Netsrak for titles, links and body but you can easily swap that out for something you prefer. (2) SymbolSet icon fonts are awesome for speed and variety – these are not in the file bundle as they require a licence but you should definitely buy a bunch. And finally, I often use lines in my sketches to indicate unimportant body copy. I went on the hunt and found (3) Redacted which works brilliantly. Mash some keys on your keyboard and you’ve got a brilliantly squiggly line you can scale to your design.
2. Simple shapes with a marker pen styling. Draw whatever you like and choose from predefined styles – outlines, form fields, greyed out and buttons. All the shapes will format contained text as ‘body’ unless you modify it.
3. 4 simple master slides. A blank slide, a phone, a browser and a tablet. Everything I’ve needed so far.
This also brings the added benefit of being able to iterate designs between testing, tweak copy and with Keynote being so accessible it helps anyone get ‘sketching’ despite their capability.
It’s not going to solve all your sketching needs, but hopefully it’s a useful tool to your arsenal.
Download the files here.
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