A method for prototyping graphical user interfaces by sketching on multiple devices

People today use an ever increasing number of devices in widely different contexts, since in the past few years the possibilities of interaction have significantly grown. Designers of information systems need to address more issues today than ever before because of a recent multi-device context – to design, test and validate User Interfaces in this complex context is a challenge that cannot be efficiently approached with traditional tools. Based on observations of current UCD practices, we identified the iteration of four activities – Define Structure, Define Behavior, Test and Reflect. To support them, as well as sketching and prototyping with multiple devices, in this work we propose a method and we demonstrate its applicability with the development of a novel tool, that is then validated with two case studies. Among our findings we highlight firstly that devices serve different purposes within a design session, and those differences have a significant impact on the conversation that takes place in a design session – thus there is a potential benefit on using multiple devices for designing interfaces; secondly that designers can make use of prototypes for gathering requirements from users at early stages of design – thus increasing the designer’s knowledge about users’ needs before investing time and resources on making a design concrete and thirdly that there might be an optimal range, in terms of refresh rate speed, for rendering electronic sketches on multiple devices.