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Farmer, Rod | 1 Nov 2007 01:39

[Sigia-l] AXURE and prototyping demonstrations

Hi,

We have been looking at many of the same problems described by the
previous threads with AXURE. Someone raised the point - "Ultimate
prototyping tool". We've been doing our own little internal list for a
"Oh my god - that's the one" tool.

We were fortunate enough to see an internal presentation yesterday for a
new Adobe product called "Thermo" - and this is by far the closest thing
I have seen to date that meets our requirements. Thermo is pre-alpha and
internal presentations only, but you should see what you can get out of
Adobe. 

*	Create high level wireframes and skin them later with detailed
design components - check
*	Creatives can provide vision to the UX team who can add
interaction flows and high-level functionality with one-click
simplicity(including data sources for run-time testing) - check
*	Developers can add complex backend behaviour for end-to-end
development - check
*	Fit within your RUP, DOORS, SPIRAL, XP, latest agile methodology
whatever - check
*	Whole thing works with the usual Adobe characters - check

Looking forward to beta testing this one.

Keep an eye out on labs.adobe.com

Rod
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John Fullerton | 1 Nov 2007 01:54
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Re: [Sigia-l] AXURE and prototyping demonstrations

Thermo demo video

http://www.peterelst.com/blog/2007/10/02/adobe-max-chicago-thermo 

Have a nice day
John Paul Fullerton
j-fullerton <at> tamu.edu

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Ziya Oz | 1 Nov 2007 02:30
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Re: [Sigia-l] Axure

> I think it would be a tad harsh to an entire product lifecycle team to
> due away with annotations or other documentation at his point in
> digital product design.

In design, the 'ultimate' or the most 'appropriate' time is never around.
Design is a matter of risk management in time. While absolute elimination of
documentation/annotation may not necessarily be the objective, the goal of
rapidly moving in that direction should be.

We don't ship products that *require* copious amounts of documentation,
annotation, help, etc. Why should designers then produce products for their
intended audiences that require them. It's a matter of discipline.

Some of the most difficult aspects of software production are compatibility,
scalability, compliance, latency, performance, resiliency, etc. While these
are supremely important for the final product, they are by and large
irrelevant for the prototype, which is a vehicle for communicating design
intend.

Once you take away the necessity of paying attention to those constraints of
system performance, prototyping becomes much easier. Then you have to figure
out if you want a prototype that shows how the design works or one that
shows how to build that design.

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It depends.
If it didn't, you'd be out of a job.
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W Evans | 1 Nov 2007 02:58
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Re: [Sigia-l] Axure

"which is a vehicle for communicating design
intend."

Sometimes - depends on where in the process you are. Far upstream you may be
using prototypes to validate good/bad ideas during the ideation phase - way
before you have arrived at a design worthy or tossing around some
requirements and specifications.

"Then you have to figure out if you want a prototype that shows how the
design works or one that
shows how to build that design."

Amen - or if you want three or four quick prototypes to makes sure you are
traveling down the right path, see which one/s resonate most with user test
groups.

I am moving far away from the old "define, document, wireframe, prototype,
test, build, deploy" process - and thinking that prototyping, fast, nasty,
ugly prototyping - should move far upstream in the process - way before a
prototype for the purposes of functional and design specification is even
thought of being done.
--

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~ will

"Where you innovate, how you innovate,
and what you innovate are design problems"
-------------------------------------------------------
will evans
user experience architect
wkevans4 <at> gmail.com
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Ziya Oz | 1 Nov 2007 03:17
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Re: [Sigia-l] Axure

W Evans:

> depends on where in the process you are.

In case you're not familiar with my age-old rants, for me, prototype is
owned and operated by designers, not something developers do for the benefit
of designers and other stakeholders. Personally, I also encourage developers
to create their own prototypes to focus on various aspects of system design,
for their own benefit. If a designer has already specced, say, continuous
scrolling of a table without paging, it's incumbent upon the developers to
prototype until they get, say, sub-second latency. The design prototype
assumes that level of latency, the production prototype makes sure that it
will be so. Management in most places may get to see either prototype. If I
am leading that design effort, they will only see the design prototype and
may never see a level of detail such as that, just as they don't get to see
accounting process, media buying or legal deposition details.

Designers ought to live to prototype.

Management who make decisions without seeing prototypes are fools.

--

-- 
Ziya

It depends.
If it didn't, you'd be out of a job.

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Andrew Boyd | 1 Nov 2007 04:22
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Re: [Sigia-l] Axure

On 11/1/07, W Evans <wkevans4 <at> gmail.com> wrote:

> I am moving far away from the old "define, document, wireframe, prototype,
> test, build, deploy" process - and thinking that prototyping, fast, nasty,
> ugly prototyping - should move far upstream in the process - way before a
> prototype for the purposes of functional and design specification is even
> thought of being done.

Hi Will,

I'm coming to the same conclusion. That conceptual design should be
done before the project proposal, before the funding proposal - use it
to define the business case/statement of need (or local equivalent)
prior to going anywhere near the high level design spec.

And yes, I take your point that design is not linear, nor is it a
stage in a wider process, but an ongoing activity (albeit one that may
have strategic-within-project and tactical-within-project tasks).

Best regards, Andrew

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Andrew Boyd
http://onblogging.com.au
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Matthew Hodgson | 1 Nov 2007 04:58

Re: [Sigia-l] Axure


Andrew is right. Conceptual is the best way to go -- rapid, iterative, dirty, rough, with all its wrinkles so
we can get to best articulate how the UX will operate.

M

________________________________________
From: sigia-l-bounces <at> asis.org [sigia-l-bounces <at> asis.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Boyd [facibus <at> gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, 1 November 2007 2:22 PM
To: W Evans
Cc: SIGIA-L
Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Axure

On 11/1/07, W Evans <wkevans4 <at> gmail.com> wrote:

> I am moving far away from the old "define, document, wireframe, prototype,
> test, build, deploy" process - and thinking that prototyping, fast, nasty,
> ugly prototyping - should move far upstream in the process - way before a
> prototype for the purposes of functional and design specification is even
> thought of being done.

Hi Will,

I'm coming to the same conclusion. That conceptual design should be
done before the project proposal, before the funding proposal - use it
to define the business case/statement of need (or local equivalent)
prior to going anywhere near the high level design spec.

And yes, I take your point that design is not linear, nor is it a
stage in a wider process, but an ongoing activity (albeit one that may
(Continue reading)

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Ziya Oz | 1 Nov 2007 07:01
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[Sigia-l] Thermo (was AXURE and prototyping demonstrations)

Farmer, Rod:

> this is by far the closest thing I have seen to date that meets our
> requirements. 

John Fullerton:

> Thermo demo video

> http://www.peterelst.com/blog/2007/10/02/adobe-max-chicago-thermo

Exactly. This is why I facetiously started the thread with an allusion to
Thermo.

What's interesting is the approach, in comparison to pretty much everything
else out there. Yes, there's MS Blend, which wants to travel in the same
path, but because it's from MS that has little insight into how designers
actually work, it's inadequate at least in this release.

Leveraging Adobe's PostScript, Photoshop, Flash and Flex assets, Thermo
moves the pivot of design-level decisioning squarely into the domain of
designers. 

As an exercise, think of just how many annotations and reams of
documentation have been made obsolete by the designers ability to define not
just the look and feel but also the behavior and data binding of the slider
example in that video, when compared to what one would have to do in a
static wireframe environment. Sure some of that can be captured in Axure or
other similar prototyping tools but they leave so much to imagination and
interpretation that one is compelled to do a lot of dirty work to convey the
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oliver green | 1 Nov 2007 13:07
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[Sigia-l] CFP - FLOSS Usability Sprint V

   - What: Sprint #5 for improving the usability of FLOSS
   - When: Friday Nov 2nd - Sunday Nov 4th, 2007
   - Where: Google<http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=google&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.160552,62.578125&ie=UTF8&ei=_cMOR9HsGqeKjQP3_vjUCw&sig2=7YaIfBpkAdSiTecO9UF2bA&cd=1&cid=37423154,-122084918,17163390823250487868&li=lmd&z=14&t=m>,
   Mountain View, CA, USA

The fifth FLOSS Usability Sprint will be held on November 2-4, 2007 at
Google <http://www.google.com/> in Mountain View, California. At the sprint,
open source developers, usability practitioners, project managers, and users
will gather to discuss methodologies for improving the usability of
Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) and to apply those processes towards
specific projects. The goal is two-fold: To improve the usability of the
participating projects, and to
catalyze<http://www.flossusability.org/wiki.pl?TheBigPicture>greater
shared understanding and ongoing collaboration between the usability
and open source communities.    <http://www.flossusability.org/#nid1>

This will be our fifth sprint, after throwing successful sprints in
February<http://www.flossusability.org/200502/index.html>and
August <http://www.flossusability.org/200508/index.html> 2005, October
2006<http://www.flossusability.org/200610/index.html>,
and March 2007 <http://www.flossusability.org/200703/index.html>. This
upcoming sprint will have the added bonus of being the first organized by
the community itself! As always, our focus will be on working with a
fantastic set of free (libre) / open source (FLOSS) software projects,
focusing especially on users from nonprofit organizations. This year, we'll
also spend some time organizing our first remote usability sprint.
<http://www.flossusability.org/#nid13>

If you are a usability practitioner, FLOSS developer, or user and are
interested in participating, please fill out our
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Joe Leech | 1 Nov 2007 13:32
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[Sigia-l] Bristol (UK) usability group – meeting next Tuesday 6th

Come and meet other usability folk from the area.   Please pass around.

Just to let you know the meeting is next Tuesday 6.30pm at Futurelab,
round the back of the watershed.  We meet for an hour to discuss
something, then to the watershed for drinks.

Topic for the next session:  Interfaces of the future.  Can people
bring some examples

Why people come...
Networking and meeting people with similar interests; get a job;
discuss different usability methods and approaches; gossip; keep
abreast of what is going on in the field; see what projects others
work on and what practices they use; learn and share experiences...

http://b-u-g.wikispaces.com/
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/264522

Give me a shout if you have any questions.

joe

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*****************************************************
joeleech.net   +447905 33 4163

Interesting?
http://interesting.org.uk
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