On 7/29/08, Jennifer Hoppenrath <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > We're doing more and more rich media here at Razorfish and probably > elsewhere, and the old wireframe > comp > prototype methodology is proving > more difficult, because while wireframes are great for static websites, they > really don't express the various interactions that a rich media environment > can provide. Having 20 wireframes to show the various states >
That's exactly what got me started using Axure in 2005. That and wanting to integrate prototyping into my practice since I began, but without having the necessary coding skills or client budgets to support a whole separate prototyping resource on a project. I've been trying to find tools which will allow us to create 1) dynamic > "wireframes" to emulate rich media, and 2) early prototypes to help guide us > prior to launch. Azure and iRise both seem to do well in the latter, but > poorly in the former, with one being considerably more expensive. > Hmm. I'd say they both achieve these tasks very well. They are the raison d'etre for both these tools. I've seen iRise demoed a few times, but my main familiarity is with Axure. I have prototyped many many rich interactions with the tool, and I even taught a half-day workshop on the subject at the 2007 IA Summit. Axure offers many different tools that support the creation of rich interactions, but sometimes it takes a little creativity and forethought in combining them to make more advanced interactions happen. [Plug: I actually teach basic and advanced Axure prototyping classes, so if you're interested please contact me off-list.] Regarding which would work better for you, that's ultimately up to you to decide. But I can tell you that I work, like you, in an agency model, and Axure works much better for us in that situation. We took a look at iRise but the costs for just a single license (or "seat" as they call it) were... very, very high. And the price we were quoted was a *discount* based on our small size. I've seen iRise used effectively in large enterprises, but never in an agency. I've toyed with just developing in interactions Flash, but that may not be > realistic. I have seen a new Adobe product called Thermo ( > http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Thermo ) that seems to promise to > solve both dilemmas, but it hasn't been released yet. > Ah Thermo. : ) The only prototyping tool to induce iPhone-like lust in the IxD community. I've seen it in real life at interaction08 and it is *slick.* I have two concerns with it though. 1) The workflow we've seen is Visual Designer > Developer. So far, I haven't seen wireframes done in Thermo. Only comps (imported from Photoshop). 2) How does it handle printed documentation? On the projects I work on, clients almost always want printed documentation, which is a big reason I use Axure. I can do my prototyping and my documentation pretty much at the same time. Now... responding to the folks who are saying that you need these code-based toolkits. If you and your UX team already have coding skills, great. Check out those toolkits. If you don't, then having a separate prototyper on your projects use them is only slightly more efficient than someone coding a prototype from scratch, which is the whole thing I personally am trying to avoid. And second, there's this debate about whether the prototype should be in a form that can be evolved into a production system. Personally, I am strongly against this in most situations. I strongly believe that the prototype is the designer's playground. It is where we can be creative, test our crazy ideas, obliterate the bad ones, and iterate on the good ones. Obviously we should be collaborating with developers on the impact that *fully tested* interactions will have on them, but we should be free to get all our failures out of our system before that happens. I imagine that there are situations where it could be efficient to intend prototype code to evolve into a production system... very large projects that *do* require a dedicated prototyper, etc. But most of these situations that I've run into have been efforts that enterprises have staffed and managed themselves. Wow... it's a long drop from up here on this high horse... : ) Anyway, I hope this is useful to you. - Fred ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fred Beecher Sr. User Experience Consultant Evantage Consulting O: 612.230.3838 // M: 612.810.6745 IM: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (google/msn) // fredevc (aim/yahoo) T: http://twitter.com/fred_beecher ________________________________________________________________ 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
