I’ve been working with Axure for seven years now, and I’ve learned a thing or two about working with it efficiently. What follows are 10 rules that will help you build your Axure prototypes efficiently too.
Archive for the ‘Tools and Techniques’ Category
Fred's 10 Rules for Working With Axure
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012A Detailed Look at HTML5 for UX Designers
Monday, August 9th, 2010/* < ![CDATA[ */
var quicktagsL10n = {
quickLinks: “(Quick Links)”,
wordLookup: “Enter a word to look up:”,
dictionaryLookup: “Dictionary lookup”,
lookup: “lookup”,
closeAllOpenTags: “Close all open tags”,
closeTags: “cl
ose tags”,
enterURL: “Enter the URL”,
enterImageURL: “Enter the URL of the image”,
enterImageDescription: “Enter a description of the image”,
fullscreen: “fullscreen”,
toggleFullscreen: “Toggle fullscreen mode”
};
try{convertEntities(quicktagsL10n);}catch(e){};
/* ]]> */
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Lately, I’ve been preaching about how it’s important for UX designers to understand the technology our designs will be implemented in. I’m going to try to put this gospel into practice by unpacking for you the hidden treasures that HTML5 offers UX designers. HTML5 is a big deal. Maybe the biggest deal in Web technology since JavaScript. (I’m still in denial about Flash.) HTML5 is going to make it easy for developers to make websites with desktop application interactivity, performance, and functionality, which is going to open up vast horizons of possibility for UX designers.
Mobile Prototyping Tools (Part 1 of 2) – Axure
Thursday, July 15th, 2010In the recent past, I have been tasked with designing mobile applications for iPhone. Axure is the prototyping tool we use at Evantage and it has served me well in terms of creating prototypes for mobile applications and demonstrating them on a l
aptop. However, I have had trouble viewing the prototypes on an iPhone. The screen size shrinks on the iPhone making it difficult to read the content on the screen. In the near future we expect to use these prototypes to gather feedback from users and design applications for other devices (Android, Blackberry, iPad, etc). To ensure that we have the tools at Evantage to meet the demand, I spent some time looking at the workarounds with Axure and pros and cons of other mobile prototyping tools designed for the UX community.
(more…)
Where business analysis and user experience intersect: the benefits of collaboration
Monday, July 12th, 2010/* < ![CDATA[ */
var quicktagsL10n = {
quickLinks: “(Quick Links)”,
wordLookup: “Enter a word to look up:”,
dictionaryLookup: “Dictionary lookup”,
lookup: “lookup”,
closeAllOpenTags: “Close all open tags”,
closeTags: “cl
ose tags”,
enterURL: “Enter the URL”,
enterImageURL: “Enter the URL of the image”,
enterImageDescription: “Enter a description of the image”,
fullscreen: “fullscreen”,
toggleFullscreen: “Toggle fullscreen mode”
};
try{convertEntities(quicktagsL10n);}catch(e){};
/* ]]> */
edToolbar()
According to Harvard Business Review editor Julia Kirby, 2010 may be the year for a resurgence in companies reconnecting with their users and focusing on user experience, but don’t forget about business analysis! It’s the BA’s job to ensure that the issues and business objectives are understood. When the solution involves end users (of a new or enhanced application/website/product), that’s where we need team up with a user experience (UX) professional.
A Template for Gathering Plausible Prototype Content
Sunday, May 30th, 2010/* < ![CDATA[ */
var quicktagsL10n = {
quickLinks: “(Quick Links)”,
wordLookup: “Enter a word to look up:”,
dictionaryLookup: “Dictionary lookup”,
lookup: “lookup”,
closeAllOpenTags: “Close all open tags”,
closeTags: “cl
ose tags”,
enterURL: “Enter the URL”,
enterImageURL: “Enter the URL of the image”,
enterImageDescription: “Enter a description of the image”,
fullscreen: “fullscreen”,
toggleFullscreen: “Toggle fullscreen mode”
};
try{convertEntities(quicktagsL10n);}catch(e){};
/* ]]> */
edToolbar()
At Evantage, interactive prototyping and iterative prototype testing are key components of our process. We typically work on complex, business critical systems that must serve a wide array of audiences. Iterative prototyping and testing are absolutely crucial to designing a pleasant, usable experience for systems like these. There are many factors that contribute to the effectiveness of prototype testing, but one of the biggest is content. I recently cooked up a tool to help designers articulate their needs and get that content from those who have it.
Fred is speaking at SXSW 2010!
Thursday, March 11th, 2010/*
var quicktagsL10n = {
quickLinks: “(Quick Links)”,
wordLookup: “Enter a word to look up:”,
dictionaryLookup: “Dictionary lookup”,
lookup: “lookup”,
closeAllOpenTags: “Close all open tags”,
closeTags: “cl
ose tags”,
enterURL: “Enter the URL”,
enterImageURL: “Enter the URL of the image”,
enterImageDescription: “Enter a description of the image”,
fullscreen: “fullscreen”,
toggleFullscreen: “Toggle fullscreen mode”
};
try{convertEntities(quicktagsL10n);}catch(e){};
/* ]]> */
edToolbar()
Are you going to SXSW? If you are then check out “The Right Way to Wireframe!” This is a two-part talk in which myself and three other user experience designers tackled
the same business problem using different tools.
In the UX world, we don’t get to see each other’s work very much; this talk changes that. It shows how, no matter what tool you use, the important part is the thought process you go through to arrive at your solution. Here are the links to the two workshops:
The Right Way to Wireframe – Part 1
The Right Way to Wireframe – Part 2
Also, I’m running a little social & technological experiment… I’m sharing all the notes I take at SXSW with the whole world via Evernote. Of course I’ll take notes at panels, but the really interesting part of SXSW is the discussions on the side. Those’ll show up in my notes too. Here’s the URL if you want to follow along!
http://www.evernote.com/pub/fred_beecher/sxsw2010notes
The environment at SXSW is… well, I’ll be kind and say,
“fluid.” If you want to see what I may or may not be attending, check out my schedule on Sitby.Us.
http://www.sitby.us/schedule/fred_beecher/
edCanvas = document.getElementById(‘content’);
Blogging for Thought Leadership – Part 1: Why & How
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009/* < ![CDATA[ */
var quicktagsL10n = {
quickLinks: “(Quick Links)”,
wordLookup: “Enter a word to look up:”,
dictionaryLookup: “Dictionary lookup”,
lookup: “lookup”,
closeAllOpenTags: “Close all open tags”,
closeTags: “cl
ose tags”,
enterURL: “Enter the URL”,
enterImageURL: “Enter the URL of the
image”,
enterImageDescription: “Enter a description of the image”,
fullscreen: “fullscreen”,
toggleFullscreen: “Toggle fullscreen mode”
};
try{convertEntities(quicktagsL10n);}catch(e){};
/* ]]> */
edToolbar()
One of our company’s business goals in 2008 was to promote thought leadership occurring within our organization. To meet this goal, we decided to try it out with one practice area. The User Experience group took on the challenge and decided to launch a blog. This article is the first of two in which we’ll discuss why we chose to publish a blog and how we went about it.
