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What Tools Do You Use for UI Prototyping?
AccUser asks: "There are many articles discussing methods of UI prototyping. Having been involved in the design and implementation of a number of commercial applications (both desktop and embedded), I know the value of producing early prototypes of the UI. In the past I have used visual programming tools, such as Visual Basic, but there is always that request: 'Can't you just complete the prototype and release it?' One project I was involved with, the UI prototype employed hand drawn graphics (including hand written text labels, etc) in order to be explicit about the fact that it was a prototype. What I would like to know is what tools and techniques do you use for UI prototyping, and how do you manage your client's expectations?"
I like to use pen and paper, personally. Pen and paper is good for anything, it seems.
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
"how do you manage your client's expectations?"
A good solid "NO!" with lots of eye contact.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
Make unfinished items on your prototype have a funny font or a strange color. When the client asks you to fix it, say that it looks bad because it isn't finished. Generally, people who aren't programmers have no idea that writing an application is any harder than changing the font on a button, or that changing the font on a button is trivial. If your mockup uses Comic Sans with random alignment, they can evaluate it while realizing that it is not actually near completion.
I draw out a UI before writing a line of code. Depending on the problem at hand, I then draw (again by hand), implementation details like class hierarchies, interfaces, callbacks, etc.
e -1.01/lib/File/CreationTime.pm
;)
When you're sitting in front of a computer, it's too easy to just start writing code. When you lose your train of thought, though, you'll end up throwing it all away because you won't know how it works. If you go to your local coffee shop with a notebook and a pencil, and start prototyping, you'll have a good plan on paper. It will be much easier to implement from a fixed plan that's written down than from some idea that you have. It will also be easier to come in the next day and start where you left off, rather than going off on some other tangent because you forgot your idea that seemed good yesterday.
My usual successful development strategy is this:
1) plan UI, interactions, structure, etc. on paper.
2) design reusable modules to do the grunt work.
3) write the documentation and unit tests for said modules. This is where you get the chance to play test your modules before you've committed to an interface. The SYNOPSIS section of your documentation (where you show example use of your module), is a great place to experiment with how your code is going to work and interact with other pieces of code. Once you know what the interface is going to look like, document the methods. Then write unit tests for them. If your interface is no good, you'll know by now, and you won't have wasted any time writing code that you're just going to trash.
4) go home and relax. you don't have to think about your code anymore because "perldoc My::Module" is going to tell you everything you need to know when you come in tomorrow morning.
5) write the actual code
6) move on to the next piece, knowing you have a well-designed, documented, tested module to build on!
I'll throw in a link to a module I developed like this. It's not particularly good in the sense of using amazing algorithms or being incredibly useful, but the documentation and tests are decent.
http://search.cpan.org/~jrockway/File-CreationTim
Note that every interaction the module has with the outside world has at least a little blurb to refresh my memory about what happens. That's the important part. (It's an added bonus if some random person on the Internet can understand how your code works too
My other car is first.
This is an an excellent reason to develop with the Model-View-Controller paradigm. You can develop the UI to be as complete as you want. It becomes reasonable to turn the prototype into the final product. However, that doesn't mean you can release it right away since the interface is only the view. You still have to develop the other two parts of the architecture. It is good for the customer because you can say yes to their request. It is also good for you since this separation has kept you from accidentally polluting the the rest of the code with the UI prototype/non-prototype. Also you can use separate languages for each part of the MVC architecture. Use a language that suits itself to the UI and then change to something else that better fits the controller and likewise the model.
Surprised no one has mentioned DENIM, it's a free (as in juice) UI design tool that basically combines the advantages of a traditional whiteboard (it uses a drawing tablet for the primary interface) and something like the VB6 IDE. Check it out at http://dub.washington.edu/denim/