I'm working on a desktop application right now and using Flex/Flash to prototype it. My process is definitely a work in progress, but so far it is:
1) Sketch out initial ideas on paper 2) Pop into Flex and create initial dialog/window designs in the WYSIWYG editor At this point I have something that looks like the window, but isn't interactive. 3) Bust out Actionscript and hook up the widgets and fake the behavior. At this point I (hopefully) have walking, talking documentation. The thing I like about Flex is it pretty easy to create different test cases by swapping out the XML data. My hope is that these prototypes can be documentation for the developers and also provide something tangible for stakeholders to look at. I like the fact that I can easily share the prototype by sticking a .swf on a web server somewhere. Flex is also nice for creating simple paper prototypes. The design tool in Flex is very pleasant to use and has most of the basic GUI patterns covered, so to create a new paper prototype I just draw what I need, throw together an XML file with the test data, open the swf in a browser, and hit print. I haven't figured out a way to use Flex for printed documentation; our design doc is a wiki so I just embed links in the wiki to the appropriate prototype. Flex lets you create your own re-usable components, so you can build a library of specialized parts. This definitely speeds up prototyping once you get them all setup. The big downside to Flex is if you want more than pretty pictures you really do need to know Actionscript. If you can code though Flex is pretty great. This whole Flex based process is new to me and the company I work for. I'll do a post-mortem on it once we ship. =) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss?post=24306 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
