[Sigia-l] visio feature improvements

[Listera]

"Livia Labate" wrote:

> Makes me wonder: am I stuck in time, am I using some foreign
> concept or am I doing the right thing?

I hate it when people do stuff on their own without proper dispensation from
the Definition Authority and the Constructive Relevance Police. :-)

Be that as it may, if you enjoy primitive tools and your clients/employer
accepts them, who's to say you're wrong?

When it comes to presentation, you have choices from the proverbial napkin
drawing to a fully functional prototype, and everything else in between.

Having been a designer for so long, I too use paper and pencil even when I
write code. I block things, inter-relate them, scribble, etc. Only after I'm
satisfied do I then go the PC. During requirements gathering and other
client discussions I always carry a pad and profusely sketch while
explaining things. But that's the only time the client ever sees anything on
paper from me. I try to get to the prototype as soon as practical.

You listed a number of apps that people have said they use here. Not one of
them was originally developed or can currently serve specifically as an
interactive online app prototyping tool. Web page-layout prototyping is
considerably easier than interactive application prototyping (when you need
to simulate dynamic data exchange from a server). Even though the latter is
by far the most illuminating for the client, people shy away from doing it
since it involves a bit of programming and time.

But think of it this way: if interactive prototyping were, in fact, easy,
fast and cheap, wouldn't you do it?

Well, it could be. I'll give one example to illustrate: a product not yet
mentioned, Apple's WebObjects.

<http://www.apple.com/webobjects/specs.html>

Using WebObjects DirectToWeb, if you have a basic understanding of app
development and programming, logic flow, and how the request-response loop
works in HTTP and client/server apps (not entirely rocket science), you
could generate fully functional, interactive prototypes (virtually) without
writing any code. 

D2W is a RAD tool for non-technical developers to rapidly construct an app
and then modify its look and feel at via a Java applet while app is running
in a web browser, essentially by manipulating GUI attributes.

DirectToWeb

The Best Kept Secret of The Best Kept Secret
<http://www.stepwise.com/Articles/Technical/D2W/D2W1.html>

<http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/webobjects/Developing_With_D2W/WalkThro
ugh/chapter_2_section_2.html>

D2W is based on rules and templates, so if you are more knowledgeable (Java)
and adventurous you can really fine tune the end product to look remarkably
like the final product, and even go directly into final coding and
deployment. You could do the same for 2/3-tier Java apps
(DirectToJavaClient) and web services (DirectToServices).

JavaClient
<http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/webobjects/DesktopApplications/index.ht
ml>

Web services
<http://www.apple.com/webobjects/web_services.html>
<http://developer.apple.com/internet/webservices/wowebservices.html>

Again, the important thing to remember here is that your constantly evolving
prototype generates no code, even though you're continually tweaking it.
This is why you can start prototyping literally the day after you take on a
project and expose that to the client the minute you feel comfortable. *And*
you continue to alter it freely, writing no (or next to no) code, until
you're done.

Is this a tool any IA can just pick up and use? No. Not unless you're
technical. But while it's a decade old, it does definitely show a model of
prototyping that's incredibly developer-friendly and agile, for larger scale
projects. Can all this be further refined and simplified so more people can
take advantage of it? I sure hope so. Until then that's why God created
designer/developer duos. :-)

Ziya
Nullius in Verba