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Paper prototyping proved to be an invaluable lesson. Not only did paper prototyping help us iteratively think through the UI design and implementation for BrackeTracker, it also provided us with insight on the process of creating a successful User Interface. We learned that certain features, such as the icons on our header bar, which we thought had clear meaning, did not clearly convey the messages and affordances we expected. Through observing users work through various tasks we were able to develop a better understanding for the aspects of our design that dealt with factors such as learnability, efficiency, and visibility. We realized that we needed to emphasize certain aspects of our design, such as including animation for our sidebar, while getting rid of other aspects that users did not find as important, such as the notifications search bar. Furthermore, observing and talking with users after completing the tasks enabled us to pinpoints areas in the overall process flow of our design that needed further clarification such as the tournament search paradigm. The overall process of paper prototyping allowed us to weed out any major problems that were present in our design. However, there are limitations to this approach - it lacks the fidelity to allow us to test some of the finer details that will only be present once we move on to digital drafts. The observations, feedback, and improved prototype design will enable us to create a better computer prototype in the next stage of our design process.
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