Thanks, Todd Your questions are the kind I am asking myself! :)
I have read Dan Brown's "Communicating Design" book and I like his idea about layers of fidelity. On the layer 1 of wireframe, there are only things that make it a wireframe – layout and labeled boxes. On layer 2 there are optional things that make it mid-fidelity, such as un-styled un-typed and un-colored dummy text, links and controls. The high-fidelity visuals go on layer 3, but I believe this layer is most often dropped, especially in an agile process. What I think is a "must" is to keep all these layers strictly separate and let the user himself decide how detailed the wireframe should be, and at any moment show/hide different layers of fidelity at will. Moreover, the user should decide himself, which "interesting" areas to provide further detail with, and which just leave out as a plain box. The question is - how to introduce richer UI widgets into the content areas without over-complicating the app? If I just let the user enter widgets inside the content boxes, it would be much like in a widget-based app, and thereby defeat the initial idea. Also, I'd like to keep the user free from too fine control when entering UI widgets. My next idea is to allow HTML code snippets to be entered inside the content areas. 1) It will give great freedom to the user to enter arbitrary content and lay it out arbitrarily inside the content box area. Also it will be displayed exactly the same way as it will be in browser. 2) All content can be styled via external CSS. 3) It allows building huge libraries of reusable components by me and by other users, and exchange them. 4) These components can be design patterns rather than single widgets. For example, it can be "Breadcrumb" or "Doormat Navigation" instead of a bunch of links, or it can be "Search box" instead of a label, text box and button. There are great libraries of interaction design patterns over there that I could look at, including the Yahoo UI Library. 5) The output to HTML is a snap and can be even production quality. Doesn't it make the process more agile? One question that is still bothering me is what to do in case if once in a while the user wants to enter a separate widget and position/size it arbitrarily? And how practical is this case to be taken into account? In regard to the future of the prototype, I think it should be of course a replacement of the "traditional wireframes". There are though still a bit of things to be done before it happens :). Oleg. -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/An-Idea-about-Drawing-Wireframes-tp16024126p16047431.html Sent from the ixda.org - discussion list mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ________________________________________________________________ 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
