PROTEUS: Artefact-driven Constructionist Assessment within Tablet PC-based Low-fidelity Prototyping

Low-fidelity prototyping is a widely used HCI knowledge elicitation technique. However, empirical evaluation methods for low-fidelity prototyping have remained relatively static even with the development and use of software prototyping tools. In this paper, we describe a framework based on constructionism theory to model design artefacts as measurable constructs within low-fidelity prototypes. This provides a novel approach to acquiring further cognitive user metrics within software based low-fidelity prototyping in the HCI domain. We describe two mobile software tools, PROTEUS and PROTEUS EVALUATOR, developed for the Tablet PC platform, which use our framework to aid our understanding of prototypes during their temporal construction. Results of using the tools in two scenario experiments are reported, each conducted with 40 HCI postgraduate students.