Product Description
Much as we hate to admit it, most prototyping practice lacks a sophisticated understanding of the broad concepts of prototyping-and its strategic position within the development process. Often we overwhelm with a high fidelity prototype that designs us into a corner. Or, we can underwhelm with a prototype with too much ambiguity and flexibility to be of much use in the software development process.
This book will help software makers-developers, designers, and architects-build effective prototypes every time: prototypes that convey enough information about the product at the appropriate time and thus set expectations appropriately.
This practical, informative book will help anyone-whether or not one has artistic talent, access to special tools, or programming ability-to use good prototyping style, methods, and tools to build prototypes and manage for effective prototyping.
Features
* A prototyping process with guidelines, templates, and worksheets;
* Overviews and step-by-step guides for 9 common prototyping techniques;
* An introduction with step-by-step guidelines to a variety of prototyping tools that do not require advanced artistic skills;
* Templates and other resources used in the book available on the Web for reuse;
* Clearly-explained concepts and guidelines;
* Full-color illustrations, and examples from a wide variety of prototyping processes, methods, and tools.
Jonathan Arnowitz is a principal user experience designer at SAP Labs and is the co-editor-in-chief of Interactions Magazine. Most recently Jonathan was a senior user experience designer at Peoplesoft. He is a member of the SIGCHI executive committee, and was a founder of DUX, the first ever joint conference of ACM SIGCHI, ACM SIGGRAPH, AIGA Experience Design Group, and STC.
Michael Arent is the manager of user experience design at SAP Labs, and has previously held positions at Peoplesoft, Inc, Adobe Systems, Inc, Sun Microsystems, and Apple Computer, Inc. He holds several U.S. patents.
Nevin Berger is design director at Ziff Davis Media. Previously he was a senior interaction designer at Oracle Corporation and Peoplesoft, Inc., and has held creative director positions at ZDNet, World Savings, and OFOTO, Inc.
* A prototyping process with guidelines, templates, and worksheets;
* Overviews and step-by-step guides for 9 common prototyping techniques;
* An introduction with step-by-step guidelines to a variety of prototyping tools that do not require advanced artistic skills;
* Templates and other resources used in the book available on the Web for reuse;
* Clearly-explained concepts and guidelines;
* Full-color illustrations, and examples from a wide variety of prototyping processes, methods, and tools.
* www.mkp.com/prototyping
Strongly recommended - Reviewed on 2007-08-01
8 customers found this review helpful.
As a visual interface designer (and a reviewer of this book while in its manuscript stages), and as someone who has worked for fifteen years in software interface design, I recommend this book. The authors are experienced designers themselves, and this book is strong on both theory and practical advice. It can be read through in page order or used as a reference for just-in-time help. The text provides detailed advice about how to select and use appropriate tools for building various kinds of prototypes, how to plan for the full range of prototyping activities, and guidelines for basic visual interface design. As far as I know, there is no other text available covering this range of topics.
The authors also talk about important process issues, and talk about how prototyping is used to learn not only about product features but also about users and markets. They argue that prototypes are a risk-reducing activity, and this business case for prototyping may the best way to promote adoption of more and better prototyping practices.
The text is well organized and does a good job of identifying appropriate techniques for early, mid-term, and late development phases. This won't substitute for actual professional experience, but it will undoubtedly save many readers from choosing the wrong method at the wrong time. The book is a virtual template for best practices in software prototyping.
Another important aspect of the book is the author's attention to the value of prototyping in supporting collaborative work and building a shared sense of purpose and strategy among teams. It's another argument that ought to appeal to management.
This is an ideal text for software engineers and designers who have not done much prototyping as well as students in engineering, design, and human factors. I recommend it to my own clients who are still developing their capability in this area. A basic familiarity with the aspects of prototyping presented in this volume should really be considered a part of the fundamental knowledge base of anyone in the software development field.
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