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Chapter 6 • agile Modeling and prototyping 155

CONSULTING OPPORTUNITY 6.2

Clearing the Way for Customer Links

World’s Trend (see Chapter 7 for a detailed corporate descrip- and let the customer click a button to ask for more informa-
tion) is building a website on which to sell clearance merchandise tion, or to be as complete as possible on one page? If I use the
usually sold through the Web and through its catalog operation. As linking method, then I could fit more items on the screen . . .
a newly hired Web consultant, Lincoln Cerf finds himself in a very but it might be too orderly. Customers like the look and feel
cold, wintry city, fighting his way through several inches of snow of a sale in which merchandise is kind of jumbled together.”
to meet with one of the systems team members, Mary Maye, at Linc continues her line of thought, saying, “Yeah, I won-
World’s Trend headquarters. der how customers want the information organized. Have you
Mary welcomes Lincoln, saying, “At least the weather doesn’t actually watched them use the Web? I mean, do they look for
seem to affect our Web sales! They’re brisk no matter what.” shoes when they buy a suit? If so, should shoes appear on the
Lincoln groans appreciatively at her weak attempt at humor, suit page or be linked in some way?"
smiles, and says, “I gathered from your email last week that you Mary comments, “Those are my questions, too. Then I won-
are trying to determine the type of information that needs to be der if we should just try this approach for men’s clothes first,
displayed on your clearance website.” before we implement it for women’s clothing. What if men’s
Mary replies, “Yes, I’m trying to get it organized in the best and women’s approaches to shopping on the Web are different?"
possible way. Our customers are all so busy. I know photos of all As a third member of the World’s Trend website develop-
our merchandise can take a long time to appear on the page if a cus- ment group, respond in a brief written report to Lincoln and
tomer is accessing the Web via a slower modem from home.” Mary Mary about whether you should use a prototype to elicit rec-
continues, saying, “Linc, I’m not even that concerned about how to ommendations from potential customers about the proposed
design our clearance site at this time. I am worried, though, about website. What type of prototype is appropriate? Consider each
how much information we need to include on a page. For example, form of prototype and explain why each type would apply (or
when items are on clearance, not all colors and sizes are available. would not apply) to this problem. Devote a paragraph to each
Which do you think is better, to include some basic information explanation.

against overcommitting resources to a project that may eventually become unworkable. In addi-
tion, agile modeling also builds on quick turnaround times.
MODIFYING A PROTOTYPE. A third guideline for developing a prototype is that its construction
must support modifications. Making a prototype modifiable means creating it in modules that
are not highly interdependent. If this guideline is observed, less resistance is encountered when
modifications in the prototype are necessary.
The prototype is generally modified several times, going through several iterations. Changes
in the prototype should move the system closer to what users say is important. Each modification
necessitates another evaluation by users.
A prototype is not a finished system. Entering the prototyping phase with the idea that the
prototype will require modification is a helpful attitude that demonstrates to users how necessary
their feedback is if the system is to improve.
STRESSING THE USER INTERFACE. The user interface for a prototype (and eventually the system)
is very important. What you are trying to achieve with a prototype is to get users to further
articulate their information requirements, so they must be able to interact easily with the system’s
prototype. They should be able to see how the prototype will enable them to accomplish their
tasks. For many users, the interface is the system. It should not be a stumbling block.
Although many aspects of the system will remain undeveloped in the prototype, the user
interface must be well developed enough to enable users to pick up the system quickly and not be
put off. Online, interactive systems using GUI interfaces are ideally suited to prototypes. Chapter
14 describes in detail the considerations that are important in designing HCI.

Disadvantages of Prototyping
As with any other information-gathering technique, there are several disadvantages to proto-
typing. The first is that it can be quite difficult to manage prototyping as a project in the larger