In this age of commodity Flash component libraries, how do you ensure that the prototype you design can be effectively implemented, without either compromising on the design when using off-the-shelf components, or compromising on the timescale/cost through having to develop your own Flash components? In particular your zooming flash charts are such a huge boon to usability it is difficult to see how your design could do without them, and yet I’m just not sure such things are available from component vendors.

I loved the post. Getting entrepreneurs to actually do this is another story. Kudos to Xero!

Interesting to see that 37 Signals is an inspiration to you (as they have been to us). We use 37 Signals products ourselves, and have recommended them to many of our clients, friends, family, and helped people get going with them. We will take a closer look at Xero, and this may well be the next SaaS product we’ll be recommending.

Maybe a time-lapse screen cast of the process from beginning to end?

Having worked in both the Xero and Agile methods, I far prefer the Xero approach… less PM heavy, and giving more power to the creatives (developers and designers).

The reasons we use Flash:

• It’s a great drawing tool, so you can do simple graphics for lo-fi prototypes, or pixel perfect hi-res, production ready graphics

• Flash is timeline based, so you can preview the user experience from start to finish as if it were a movie or slideshow. This makes a HUGE difference when you’re developing and refining concepts.

• Flash has an object Library, so you can re-use your common design widgets (menus, buttons, images, etc) and edit them across your entire prototype in an instant.

• Flash files are easy to publish and share over the web. At Xero, we built a wiki where we publish and share all our prototypes. So anyone on the team can just fire up their browser and easily view the prototypes.

The way we use Flash for screenflows utilizes only a tiny fraction of the simplest features in Flash. The only code we write is gotoAndStop(“frame”) to navigate back/next through the screenflow.

Hope that helps.

Prototyping is just a way to communicate an idea so that other people ‘get it’. Anyone with an idea can do a simple prototype and achieve wonders.

To do a refined, production ready prototype does takes design skill. But you always get a designer to design, right?

Some people learning this method are suspicious that anything so fast and easy can be effective. Those who have tried it, swear by it (developers, designers, project managers, clients alike).

Thanks for writing it …

Thanks
Chris

Killer post – love it.

Do you think this process is just as applicable to hardware as well as software?
What do you need to look for in terms of people to establish this type of capability in house – my assumption is that this will be somewhat un-natural for lots of people, business oriented and technically oriented. Do you have to go through a ‘everything you have learned, you need to unlearn’ experience to make this work?

Cheers

Miki