Blank Page is the BEST Paper Prototype

Yes, you heard it. Blank page may turn out to be the best and effective way to start your prototypes.

We, including myself, are guilty for being too fancy when it comes to low fidelity prototypes. We come up with all the best possible ways how the user might want to interact with our new product. This costs us time in terms of iterations, redesigning the prototypes again but we still might not get to the best solution that how our target user want to interact with the product. With readily designed prototypes, we are limiting the user with options to interact to a particular product. It limits the user with navigation, or to enter the data in a particular way and so many things.

LET THE USERS DESIGN THEIR OWN PROTOTYPE.

Now this does not mean they start sketching or use design tools to make a prototype. No, we will not let them do that.

So here’s what we are going to do. We will give our target user a blank page and a pen to how would they like to solve that particular problem that our product would solve. How would they like the navigation? How would they like to enter data? Which data would they like to enter first?

If you come up with a ready prototype where user has to enter the Email first first but he might like to enter his or her name first, there is a problem.

Blank page will give the way of interaction of the user without the interface.

And guess who will be the interface between the user and the system? YOU!