[IxDA Discuss] True or False: In a perfect world we'd all create html clickable wireframes after the static ones have been don

[bjminihan at nc.rr.com]

I'm not sure if I'm responding to this thread from 3 months back, or if your post is new, David, but I agree that prototypes first and foremost (for me) are for my own use above and beyond all others.  The only way I can describe my method is that I naturally "think" in functional prototypes, and wireframes are actually kind of backward in designing the functionality of a single page.  Again, this is just me, and I do use wireframes for site and process flows, but for a highly interactive single page (I build a lot of portlets), I have to build them in D/X/HTML first.  I get into a rapid experimental mode, once the construct is there, and can quickly turn around a dozen variants of a working model, but if I can't prove to myself that it will work in HTML first, how can I prove it to a developer?

Another aspect we fall into a lot is that our standard stylesheet uses relatively sized fonts, and many of our employees take advantage of that and set their browser accordingly.  I haven't tried Axure yet, but I haven't seen a wireframing tool that can illustrate the consequences of fluidly resizable text on a very compact interface.  Similarly, many of our tools are translated into 8 languages, to the effect of German on a 2" x 3" box is quite profound - with a few Javascript variables to hold jiffy-translations, you can see all of that in a few clicks, with very little additional setup required.

I also have a network engineering background, and do a lot of performance tuning consulting for our portal, so many of my prototypes are shippable code.  In that way, it does save a lot of time to start with a prototype in many situations.  The majority of our developers are not savvy DHTML programmers, and project budgets tend to be much lower when we deliver the documented front-end to them with the business requirements (on the order of 1/5 the original cost, on occasion).  It also lets us (my team) bake in the usability recommendations, without having to sacrifice them to project timelines...

 - Bryan
http://www.bryanminihan.com

---- David Malouf <dave at ixda.org> wrote: 
> Elizabeth, prototypes are not ONLY about communicating outwardly about
> your concepts. I would suggest that prototypes are a primary design
> tool for you. 
> 
> How can you design in an interactive medium without creating in that
> medium? No other design discipline completely ignores its primary
> output form and it seems wise to me that we require a basic system of
> output modeling as part of our core design methods.
> 
> Even if I eventually hand off digital or printed documents to
> communicate down stream, I believe that prototypes are not a
> replacement for documentation or 2nd fiddle (if ya got time)
> artifact, but rather THE primary formation from which documentation
> should be derived.
> 
> Validation w/ users and stakeholders and communicating ideas up and
> down to me are quite necessary, but not primary for prototypes.
> 
> The problem is building them (skills) and ingraining them into your
> design project plans.
> 
> 
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