Why Visio wireframes are outmoded (Was [Sigia-l] NYU IA class description link)

[Donna Maurer]

All good, but there are lots of different types of projects and 
relationships and different ways to deliver them. I'm a freelance IA, so 
people are usually paying me to deliver a part of the project, and paying 
me by the hour to do so. They need me to work fast, and for me drawing 
is faster than creating XHTML/CSS. Believe it or not, some clients don't 
even know how to spell XHTML, so coding wireframes in this way is 
ineffective. This may not be the ideal world but it is the IA world I work 
in. 

In my world, there are times when Visio works well and times when 
clickable wireframes work well and times when a Flash prototype works 
well. Depends on the project, team and outcome ;)

Donna

On 10 Jul 2005 at 13:35, Anders Ramsay wrote:

> First, I realize my previous remark came off as a bit pompous - not my
> intention - as a recovering Visio junkie, I think it was just my
> frustration shining through at seeing what is so obviously the wrong
> tool (but seemed like just the write tool when IA was young and we
> were trying to find some means of communicating our work) still being
> incorporated into a course on information architecture. Yes, many IAs
> are still--unfortunately--using Visio (or Omnigraffle or some other
> illustration/diagramming software) - I used Visio myself for about 7
> years and still have to for maintenance of some legacy projects--but I
> do maintain that it is an outmoded approach. Paraphrasing Thomas
> Vander Wal, one of the pioneers (together with Christina Wodtke and
> Nate Koechley and others) in developing the far more robust XHTML/CSS
> wireframing model, which I expect will completely replace Visio
> wireframes, here are some reasons why:
> 
-- 
Donna Maurer
Maadmob Interaction Design

e: donna at maadmob.net
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