[IxDA Discuss] What do these prototyping tools give me? (RE: Axure RP Pro prototyping tool)

[Todd Warfel]

On May 13, 2006, at 11:30 PM, Jay Morgan wrote:

> [I laughed after reading: *If it isn't in something like PDF, HTML,  
> SWF, or DOC, then I can't be bothered with it.  *Is it that four is  
> your limit? What about MP3, JPG, GIF, or EXE?  How is not  
> *something like* those, if they're all extensions for filetypes?]  
> Special Example:  For usability testing, we simply open the  
> simulation in a browser using a Reader license on the test  
> machine.  We run Morae to record the test session.

Why those four? Well, we don't have any clients who don't have a web  
browser. We don't have any clients who can't read a Word document (we  
do have a Web 2.0 client who is Linux-based and uses OpenOffice. They  
use OpenDoc internally, but pass things as .doc to externals like  
us). We don't have a single client who doesn't have Adobe's Acrobat  
Reader or the Flash plug-in.

See, the biggest difference is that all of our clients and the people  
we interact with already have these tools. As for JPG and GIF, well,  
those are assumed with HTML. We don't deliver images by themselves.  
We deliver images w/notes, which typically means a PDF. They already  
have these. I don't have a reason to tell them to download another  
plug-in, and quite frankly don't want to when there's already  
existing "standards" out there that we're all already using.

And nope, .exe won't work. See, we're a Mac shop and many of our  
clients work in a mixed environment. So, a .exe is rather worthless  
to us ;). And an .mp3? Well, not likely. We'll deliver a DVD with our  
usability vignettes. We may incorporate screens with audio, but that  
would be delivered as a .swf typically. Last time I checked, .mp3 was  
just audio ;).

Seriously, though. When we're evaluating a tool, or help our clients  
evaluate tools, one of the biggest criteria is "Will it work w/our  
existing environment?" And it doesn't sound like iRise will.

Case in point. We have a client who has another vendor using Test  
Director for keeping track of bugs. That's a big problem, because TD  
only works on Win/IE (there's a plug-in for Win/Firefox, but it  
blows). So, every time we want to look at one of the bugs, or  
respond, we have to fire up Win/IE to do it. Major hassle. Their  
internal designers don't even use it, because they can't be bothered  
with using a web-based app that won't work on Mac. And there's  
nothing TD does that really needs ActiveX. It's just a case of poor  
planning and implementation.

Cheers!

Todd R. Warfel
Partner, Design & Usability Specialist
Messagefirst | designing and usability consulting
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Email:    todd at messagefirst.com
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