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Dangers Of Rapid User Interface Prototyping And How To Cope With Them
Author : Martin Metz
Submitted : 2011-12-02 Word Count : 687 Popularity: Not Rated
Tags: interface design, wireframes, user interface design, UI design, interface design software, interface design tool, wireframe software, wireframe tool
The benefits of rapid user interface prototyping are not in question. Numerous articles and blog posts on the web explain the advantages of this process and how it aids the development of a website. In essence, user interface prototyping can be compared to laying the foundations of a project. Now I would like to take some time to go through the main dangers of rapid user interface prototyping, and how one can cope with them.
Clients may be disappointed by the results of early-stage rapid interface prototyping
Sometimes clients look at an early-stage prototype and get disappointed because they cannot yet see much resemblance between the prototype and the product idea they envisioned. In order to sweeten the pill designers may be tempted to add colors, images or some other extravagant details to the prototype. Now, when the client evaluates a detailed prototype like this it may occur to him or her that the color, for example, is not the right shade of blue or the image is not appropriate to their corporate style. What happens is that the discussion deviates from the main concept because details grab our attention more than general ideas. Clients must be made aware of the objective rapid user interface prototyping has, which is to demonstrate how various elements would be positioned and how functional and user-friendly such design would be.
Designers like designing, even during rapid user interface prototyping
This danger comes from the designers themselves. Designers are just used to designing, and they often cannot switch gears easily, which is why they gladly embark on something they like doing and do best: going into the visual details of the design. User interface prototyping then becomes a lengthy and costly process. But more importantly, the designer spends so much time on details that he is in danger of getting attached to the prototype design. The danger here is not just loss of time and money, but that the final result might look like a colored wireframe. The lesson is simple: rapid interface prototyping should be performed rapidly. The ideal situation is when usability is taken care of by an information architect – and the actual design by a designer. If you are a jack of all trades, you must remember which role you are performing at every stage.
The user interface prototype gives the client a false understanding of the scope of work
Another danger that stems from detailed user interface prototyping is that the client misunderstands the scope of work required for the project. After you spend a considerable amount of time visualizing details of an interface and the client gives you a green light for execution, you know that you still need a sizeable chunk of time to implement this prototype. To the client, however, the elaborate prototype looks like a website that requires just some more revision and polishing. It may turn out that the project will be significantly more costly or take significantly more time than the client may have imagined. The solution is that the first set of wireframes should be created in low fidelity. After discussing the concept with the client make sure to explain what steps the development of the project will have and estimate the time requirements for each.
Rapid interface prototyping and reusable code
Many developers are tempted to kill two birds at once at the user interface prototyping stage: produce a representative prototype to show to clients and create bits of code that can be used at later stages. The bad news is that the code resulting from rapid interface prototyping is often created in complicated ways which make it too messy to use again. There are some prototyping tools that allow for reuse of some of the code, however, it is not as neat as it could have been when written manually. Most developers agree that rapid user interface prototyping has enough benefits to ignore this small shortfall. Moreover, an experienced developer will be able to write these short bits of code himself in a matter of minutes.
Author's Resource Box
Pidoco.com – <a href="https://pidoco.com/en" target="_blank" title="Interface Design, Interface Prototyping">Interface Design</a>, Wireframe, Wireframe Software, Interface Design Tool, Online Wireframe Tool, Wireframe Tool, <a href="https://pidoco.com/en/features/prototypes" target="_blank" title="Interface Prototyping, User Interface Prototyping">Interface Prototyping</a>, Clickable Wireframes, Usability Testing and Digital Paper Prototyping. User centered design for improved UI Design.