Experience Prototyping

 

How complex should a wireframe be?

I was thinking about that very question while exploring the wireframe application justinmind. 

It provides functional diagrams and a worksheet for requirements. It also has a great way to annotate and share mockups. Since most of my mockups will probably serve early conceptual work this tool is overkill. However, on second thoughts working with it could provide more insight into actual software development and implementation. 

I have just downloaded the 30-day free trial and will be back with my experiences. 

Filed under  //   Wireframes   justinmind  
Posted October 14, 2009 by John Pereira 
 

Affordable prototyping software

Just finished playing with iPlotz an Adobe Air wireframing solution. The desktop single user verision is available for $79 or you can get online access plus space from $15 per month. It is one of the most intuitive and simple to use tools I have tested to date. The guys at iPlotz have added collaborative and project management features which are extremely useful, especially the easy comment feature. They have version 2.0 in beta which introduces a more sleek UI. Check out the version 2.0 demo at http://iplotz.com/index.php. The only negative point is that I cannot view my project in trial version, bummer. 

For a comparison between iPlotz and Balsamiq Mockups see http://www.flairbuilder.com/balsamiq-mockups-and-iplotz-comparison/ Please note however that the writer is the developer of FlairBuilder 

Filed under  //   Wireframes   prototyping  
Posted October 6, 2009 by John Pereira 
 

User Stories and Agile Software Development

If we try to explore "Experience prototyping" (EP) and grow our
understanding, perhaps Agile Software Development is a good place to
recommend because there is a focus on "User Stories". The wiki article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development provides also a
comparison with other approaches and would be useful for non-developer
"facilitators" to understand. Our notion of facilitator, the one with
the EP or requirements,etc methodologies background. A person who
coordinates/focuses (?) domain experts and developers and brings them to
a common understanding (?). Well, the roles need to better defined and
explained.

+Agile Software Development i
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development

+How to communicate? Stories and prototypes
http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/Stories.html

+Total Quality Management
Since TQM is an important theme, it seems we must figure out how to
document the EP process - the plan and the actual work so that the
results are actually useful to someone ... who/roles ...

Filed under  //   Agile software development   user stories  
Posted September 23, 2009 by bmule 
 

Wireframes

Wireframes is a very useful site that I need to spend some serious time getting into. The tag prototype offers great ideas on how to use traditional tools (i.e. MS Excel) to develop smart looking GUI prototypes. 

Filed under  //   Wireframes  
Posted September 23, 2009 by John Pereira 
 

Getting started

This blog is at least in the first phase a dumping ground for any information, thoughts and comments on the theme Experience Prototyping. The concept Experience Prototyping is understood as the playing field between the phases (in technology development projects) concept and design. Our goal is to get a better understanding of the methods and tools out there to improve our technology projects.

Posted September 23, 2009 by John Pereira