[Sigia-l] your'e invited- ART OF THE PROPOSAL- NYC

[Listera]

"Andrew Hinton" wrote:

> It's true that the experience of the information environment isn't "real"
> until it's a clickable prototype with all the bells, whistles, dogs &
> ponies. 

I haven't said that. Information cannot really be consumed without an
interface. That doesn't mean, however, that it has to come with "all the
bells, whistles, dogs & ponies." That's a choice, not a necessity. There are
many different "levels" of prototypes, with varying degrees of
functionality, depth, sizzle, etc., for different constituencies, presented
at appropriate milestones.

> But waiting until you have a complete prototype before getting
> approval or feedback from the client or users is just dumb.

Take this example, for instance. The poster, instead of saying prototyping
can be "generally inadvisable" (wireframe), comes right out and says it's
"just dumb" (prototype), under fabricated conditions. There's no ambiguity
and "imaginative work on the part of the user" is not required, which is
good. This way I can ascertain more quickly how wrong the poster was.
 
> For this latter set, it's fine to just do all the work then ceremonially
> unveil it, but that invites huge risk ("Um, we don't like it, please start
> over; the deadline doesn't change though.")

There doesn't have to be any ceremony. Prototyping does not have to be a
laborious, resource-hogging, all-or-nothing exercise in futility. It can be
very fast, flexible and responsive. (There have been several discussions
here on prototyping, so I refer you to my earlier remarks, in the archives.)

Best,

Ziya