Hello all, I just finished reading Todd's book. It's a great resource for learning how to use tools at hand to build interactive prototypes. (Catalyst and SketchFlow are a different conversation.) We might consider PowerPoint, Visio, Fireworks and the others (except Axure and HTML) for wireframing, but we don't usually think of them for building interactive prototypes.
We typically expect to use a book like this as a reference, to be picked up when we have a problem to solve, like figuring out how to prototype in PowerPoint. But the book is truly engaging. I read it straight through. I especially like the guidelines for the prototyping process and the eight guiding principles. These help us structure a method for prototyping. They all make sense and are points we already know (we say, yes, of course), but outlined like this they provide tangible direction and boundaries for the work. With each chapter that describes a prototyping tool, I found myself saying, "Yeah, I can't wait to try prototyping in that," and I'd say it again in the next chapter. This even happened reading the chapter on HTML, and I'm no coder. The GUI components, templates, and articles that Todd points readers to are worth the price of the book. Actually, they're worth more. I've often spent hours - sometimes days - trying to track down resources like these. Sometimes I find them, other times I don't. Having these references handy is a huge time saver. One constructive observation: I think the section on Progressive Reveal should be pulled from Chapter 11 (HTML), as this is a general lesson in "best practices" for UI design, similar to the guiding principles. All readers would find this information valuable, but those that skip the HTML chapter might miss it. Cheers, David Scharn ________________________________________________________________ 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
