Method acting can take your personas from the page to the stage. Think beyond traditional practice to give emotional life to your personas.
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In the same way that the Internet took us to the next level of interaction, complete with rich visuals, simulations are doing the same for application definition. McDowell explores the ins and outs of new simulation tools. Will one of them work for you?
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In part one of "Metrics for Heuristics," Andrea Wiggins discussed how designers can use Rubinoff’s user experience audit to determine metrics for measuring brand. In part two, Wiggins examines how web analytics can quantify usability, content, and navigation.
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Katzenbach Partners is looking for a Experience Designer in New York City.
The Royal Order of Experience Design is looking for a Jr. & Intermediate UX Architects in Chicago, IL.
hmm.. well.. how come tiddlywiki wasn’t mentioned here?
I’m with Simunication and have talked with many different companies regarding simulation & prototyping. I am a developer/analyst by trade and I’d like to share some observations …with my Simunication hat off :-)
Firstly, I agree with Scott that there is no doubt that simulation/prototyping tools are real, effective and here to stay. It’s a reflection of the maturing process of the ~20 year old enterprise/web software industry. It took a century for airplane, auto and manufacturing sectors to mature processes like simulation.
I think what will be interesting to see is how the role of simulation will evolve in app development. In regards to this forum, the BA role was created to fill a communication gap between computer programmers and the business users yet we still have an endemic requirements problem. This is not a reflection on the BA’s competence, as many other factors come into play as we know. Now viewed from another level, the BA is now being asked to perform the role of computer programmers to build simulations, now “possible” with the support of these new tools. Will that work better? Maybe?
Now throw in new methodologies like Agile with developers typically programming a prototype with the intention to evolve and refactor it into the end application. This prototype is developed in short increments and reviewed constantly with the stakeholder to address inevitable changing requirements. Will that work better? Maybe?
I think the combination of these two approaches suggest the following to increase the project success rate:
1.) an interative process with customer involvement is necessary
2.) a prototype or simulation be developed in the elaboration phase, nothing beats this to flush out user requirements
3.) the simulation tool must support that a user could be any of the following, BA,UX, IA, Architect, developer, etc. with the nature and risk level of the project dictating the skills required to build a simulation that ultimately will put the customer at ease at signoff
4.) the simulation can’t be thrown away and minimally must export real assets for development, in the future maybe even evolvable into the final application
If I was starting a software project, there is no question I would simulate or prototype first. My tool considerations if I was new to simulation would be both short and long term. In the short term, I’d try several tools on several projects, and insist with vendors on a free trial of a month or two. There is a relatively low learning curve to most tools and little risk of jeopardizing a project. After trying a project or two then you can see what features work for your own particular environment.
Long term I suspect the following feature questions will weigh heavily on product choice: Do you need true interactive data driven simulations or dynamic screen flows? Will you mainly be creating high or low fidelity? Do you need reusability so you don’t have to start from scratch every time? Do you need exportable assets like HTML/JS/CSS? Do you need web based distribution? Do you need requirements export to tools from Borland/IBM/Telelogic etc? Do you need incubation that gives the customer the ultimate simulation experience?
(Simunication hat on) Let me just update the information provided regarding Simunication. Our product was renamed to Simunicator about six months ago with a new AJAX version made available a couple of weeks ago with new features and improved usability.
It’s an early market and all products are evolving very quickly. The users will dictate the product features through forums like this and thoughtful insight is always appreciated.
Great article, I really wish I had more time to check out some of these tools for myself. I’ve been dealing with prototypes a lot more over the last year as well, and have found that certain ideas and solutions are much better communicated though an interactive demonstration than through the paper wireframes.
One other solution that wasn’t covered in the article is a sort of halfway solution between static wireframes and fully interactive prototypes. I’ve created swirp to do just that. You create your sitemaps/screenflows wireframes in the standard way using visio, but you then you press the magic button and out comes an interactive HTML prototype. Definitely not HiFi, it can only be used to show navigation concepts (no text input etc.). But it does provide all the benefits that Visio gives you (perfect prints, annotations, multiple documents so more than one designer can work on it, etc). Check it out at swipr.com (free & open source!).
In the end it probably all boils down to the right tool for the right job. And time and money restrictions are always a problem, of course.
Join Eric Meyer, Jeffrey Zeldman and guests Steve Krug, Dan Cederholm, Molly Holzschlag, Andrew Kirkpatrick, Cameron Moll, Ethan Marcotte, and Jason Santa Maria for two days of design and code.
Adaptive Path will bring together thought-leaders in design and business for "MX San Francisco" - a new conference about managing experience through creative leadership - on February 12 & 13, 2007.
Why haven't we figured out search yet? Amanda Spink talks with Christina Wodtke on why searchers still can't ask a useful question of a search engine, and how Google may be part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
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It's true: even simple projects get messy. Christina Wodtke comes clean on Swiss Army knives, the writing on the wall, and the untidy glory of the Boxes and Arrows redesign contest.
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Web analytics typically provide intelligence for executives and marketers, but the real value comes from evaluating the online experience. Andrea Wiggins shows how designers can use analytics to quantify the user experience.
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When navigating a complex system—be it a website or a large transport network—it's easy to get lost. Ross Howard points out how subtle signifiers can make a big difference.
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Putting the White Back in Stru… | |
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Visio Replacement? You Be… | 15 |
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