Below is a link to a simple demonstration of how PowerPoint can be used to build an interactive UI prototype. This particular prototype is of a clothes dryer front panel - not very complicated or sexy, but it demonstrates some important points about what PowerPoint can do:

• You can select any cycle at any time; the timer window updates to reflect the cycle type
• You can increase or decrease the time for a given cycle (demonstrates how Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) can be used to create and manipulate a display independently of the slide being viewed)
• You can toggle between three levels of dryness (demonstrates how VBA can be used to adjust the states of displays independent of the slide being viewed)
• After you select a cycle and make whatever adjustments are desired, pressing START starts an abbreviated cycle (demonstrates how VBA can be used to perform a timed sequence of steps)
• The entire demo was built in about a day
• With some additional VBA code, user selections can be recorded and sent to Excel with time tags, to enable automated capturing and analysis of user performance data (errors, delays, total task times, etc.)

To run the demo, right-click (PC) or control-click(Mac) on this link and select "download linked file", or whatever the equivalent selection is in your browser. Open the file and enable macros. When the file opens, select "slide show" mode. Now, you should be able to move the cursor around and select objects. Click on any cycle button to select that cycle, and the light on that button should light up. You can also make adjustments to dryness and timing, and select START when ready. When the cycle ends (in about 8 seconds), select "PAUSE/CANCEL" to reset. If you wish to view the VBA code that makes the demo work, go back into slide view mode and select TOOLS, MACRO, VISUAL BASIC EDITOR.

Troubleshooting: If the demonstration doesn't seem to be working, or the wrong buttons are lighting up, it may be that macros are not enabled in the current PowerPoint preferences. Select TOOLS, MACRO, SECURITY and set to MEDIUM. Close PowerPoint and re-open. At this point, it should ask you if you want to enable macros for this file. Click YES and start the slide show again. Also note that only the simulated buttons are clickable - clicking on any other part of the slide, such as the labels or indicator lights, simply advances the slide show to the next slide.

If you have any problems or questions, please don't hesitate to contact me by email or at 360-945-0206.

Quick Usability Assessment Form:

This is a link to a quick usability assessment form that I have found useful for initial evaluations of interface designs. It is an Excel forms-based checklist that guides the designer or evaluator through a relatively thorough evaluation of an interface in just a few minutes. The advantage of using a checklist like this is that it can force the evaluator to consider many attributes of the interface, including feedback, error potentials, control/display relationships, automation, navigation, functional logic, and so forth. This particular form also focuses on modes, convoluted functional logic, and hidden functions, three of the major problems that many electronic products suffer from. The advantage of using an electronic checklist like this is that it can provide easy access to a place to make comments and observations during the evaluation, and to documentation explaining the definition and application of the characteristics being considered.

This tool also provides an overall score at the end, although this is not intended to be an absolute measure of usability. Instead, it may provide a means for quickly comparing competing designs or estimating the impacts of proposed improvements to a design. The score is based on the notion that the attributes being considered for each design characteristic fall along an ordinal scale of goodness; for example, "functional logic" can be assigned as "externally consistent" (meaning that the design conforms to an external model that users are likely to be familiar with - a metaphor), "internally consistent", "inconsistent", "arbitrary", or "externally inconsistent". The first is the best, because it takes advantage of mental models the users may already know, while the last is worst, because violating user expectations is likely to lead to errors.

The tool itself can be downloaded from here and documentation from here.