I have been getting excited about comic prototyping recently and how it has the ability to reflect the feelings and aspirations of the end user to the client. Rather than emphasis on the interface and placing it centre of attention based on analysis, comic prototyping is end user centric. This, in my opinion opens up new design avenues. And, because the fact that what is being created is a comic, an understanding of the values, aspirations and feelings from using the interface rather than the product itself, it encourages the notion of play making. The comic prototype will never feature in the final product, the end user will never see it. There is nothing precious around the prototype and it feeds into the further iterations around the design process. I believe this is a good place to start to get the iterative process working but we must try and continue this throughout the lifecycle of the design too. But when should we stop? Until the product is at a stage where it is suitable for production? Or time and budget restraints are exhausted?

“What are the buttons? How do they work? What displays when? Where is everything in relationship to everything else in the design? No doubt, these are important issues, but they are only one side of the story.

What’s often missing is the view from the user’s experience: What’s frustrating? What works well? What is their motivation? What do they do with the results of the interaction? How does it dovetail into other aspects of their life?”

Comic prototyping does reveal the experience and concept, revealing the reactions of the user and their emotions and feelings as a result of using the interface. This gives a more rounded picture of the user experience and in doing so helps us place the outcomes of the experience into the design of the interface.

For some of my clients, seeing an interface wireframe and bridging the gap between that and the final website interface is tough. They find it difficult to understand how it corresponds to the final product and their audience of users engaging with it. It could be argued that it is my job to break down these barriers and to make the information architecture design more understandable. Which I do. However, using comic prototyping to assist wireframes the communication of how the final product will work and assist users is far improved. In some cases comic prototypes could replace wireframes completely. The graphical method of a comic and its narrative is easily understandable whereas wireframes to the untrained eye need to be explained.