[Sigia-l] Wireframe/Prototyping tools (was RE:IntelligentsignsatMicrosof t)

[Fred Beecher]

On 8/24/06, Jonathan Baker-Bates <Jonathan.Baker-Bates at wheel.co.uk> wrote:
>
> The reason I have been following Axure over the past three years is that
> it's the only tool that holds out the possibility of exporting UI
> designs as data descriptions via XML. The writers of Axure,
> unfortunately, don't seem to understand why I'm so excited about this
> possibility (I exchanged as few un-productive emails a year or two ago).

Neither do I, but I'm listening... : )

> Personally I'm not fussy about the schemas we might use, or whether
> they're the result of 10 years of philosophical introspection. The
> important thing is to ensure that we're thinking about content and data
> as part of the foundation of what we do, as user experience experts.

Agreed... I specify page types in my Axure-generated functional specs,
but it's really just a matter of slightly clever formatting to make
this happen. Regarding data, it's easy to use annotations to specify
business rules around collecting, submitting, and displaying data. The
addition of user flows positively contributes to this.

Regarding content, I don't feel like a functional spec is the right
place to document content. In my own work, I do so with two separate
documents. The content strategy (which is developed earlier in the
project) communicates 1) what the client wants to communicate to whom,
2) who at the client is responsible for communicating that
information, and 3) some ideas on how that will play out on the Web
site. When we've done the user research and gathered stakeholder
goals, etc., at that point we can define all the individual content
types and what their component elements are. This is documented in a
content matrix, and the actual content is filled in based on these
types.

Are you expecting to accomplish this sort of task in a tool like
Axure? What's your vision for this?

> To put it simply, if a developer is looking at a wireframe, or any other
> user experience specification, she's wondering how to describe the
> content they see on it. Too often we are happy to assume this is
> implicit, leaving the data modelling or content type specification jobs
> to tech guys - who are frequently not in a position to reflect the
> customer or business needs properly.

Yeah, this situation you describe is no good. That's why page types
should specify content layout for all content types, while the content
matrix should specify content types and actual content. I'd never want
to send a developer a functional spec without some sort of additional
content doc... I just don't see how to manage that kind of thing
within Axure, which is focused, really, on the prototyping aspect of
application design (which is appropriate, if you ask me). The
documentation side is really just... well, a kind of necessary bonus
for us. We need to do documentation, so Axure's real value add over
something like Dreamweaver is that it facilitates both. But the
*focus* is on the protyotyping aspect. I don't see how it would be
possible or beneficial to manage content in such a tool...

Maybe I don't understand clearly what your need is... enlighten me?

> Without getting into further detail on this - does anyone else here want
> to join me in emailing the makers of Axure to see if we can get the
> penny to drop? If it does drop, they will be millionaires, and we will
> be heroes (and possibly millionaires too, but that's unlikely...).

If you can convert me, sure. : )

- Fred