Mobile User Interface (MUI) Prototyper

What is it?
This project's goal is to create a simple way for designers to perform lo-fi, Wizard-of-Oz style user tests using a variety of mobile devices.

Why?
There are no existing methods to rapidly create and test interfaces for mobile devices. Traditional paper-prototyping methods are extremely limited for mobile applications, as paper-prototypes are fragile and tend to work best in the lab, not in the field.

How?
Our solution to this problem is to effectively develop a "dumb terminal" for a mobile device. Using a Bluetooth serial connection, a server application will allow the designer to feed pre-built screens and menus to the device. Any events (menu commands or key presses) on the client will be delivered to the server, where the Wizard-of-Oz designer can determine the correct action.

What do I need to use it?
First off, you'll need some patience, since it's still in development. Then, all you need is a MIDP 2.0 compliant device that supports JSR-85, the J2ME Bluetooth extension. Your PC (or OS X Mac) will need a Bluetooth device and a driver that allows you to map a serial port to your Bluetooth device. Oh, and you'll need an appropriate JavaComm API implementation.

How do I get it?
Whoa, there, partner. It's not really ready for prime-time yet. Give us a few weeks, and it will be bug free (we kid) and ready for you to use. Right now, you can poke around our CVS repository on Sourceforge. Our Sourceforge area is at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mobileprototype/

The Team