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Rapid Prototype with SketchFlow
I remember teaching user interface design courses back in the mid-nineties. In those courses there was a slide entitled "rapid prototype, " and on that slide were all the reasons why rapid prototyping was a bad idea. Most of the reasoning centered around prototyping tools being so complex back then, they needed to be operated by developers; subsequently, the design process tended to be influenced by all design work needing to be interpreted through the lens of what a prototyper could actually achieve. Fast forward to 2010 and there's been a rethinking on prototyping. A slew of new prototyping tools have appeared over the past few years and they're rapidly being adopted by interaction designers. I guess the creators of these tools never attended one of my courses! What Changed?
In fact, two things changed to bring prototyping tools back into favor: the tools themselves and the task they're being used to accomplish. Prototyping tools [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]ay are much more designer-friendly. The adoption of user interface markup languages (like HTML, XAML, and MXML) our ability to build and run more sophisticated software today has made it easier to create design tools that work for designers, rather than developers. At the same time, the nature of what we're designing is changing. As we move away from designs that are a series of relatively static pages or screens,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], to designing applications that use fewer, more dynamic pages, it becomes harder to prototype these experiences using the traditional tools of paper prototyping and diagramming applications. So we have perfect conditions for a new wave of prototyping tools: rising demand and increasing capability. Microsoft's Contribution: Expression Blend SketchFlow
Among this new breed of prototyping tools we find Microsoft Expression Blend SketchFlow (for the purposes of this tutorial, I'll be referring to it as simply SketchFlow). While maintaining the Microsoft tradition of remarkably long product names, SketchFlow takes a fairly unique approach to prototyping. Expression StudioFirst, I'd like to point out that SketchFlow is part of Microsoft's Expression Studio range of design tools. After a lackluster history with design tools, Microsoft seems to be finally getting their act together with Expression Studio (disclaimer: I've previously worked at Microsoft). Expression Studio is up to its third release and comprises four or five products depending on how you count them: Expression Blend: For building user interfaces for Silverlight, Windows, and Surface. Expression Blend SketchFlow (part of Blend): For prototyping user interfaces. Expression Web: For building user interfaces for web standards. Expression Design: For creating graphic assets for the Web or Silverlight, Windows, and Surface. Expression Encoder: For preparing video assets for the Web or Silverlight, Windows,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and Surface. You can check out the SitePoint article by Raena Jackson Armitage for more information on Expression Web. There will also be later articles in this series, which will cover Expression Blend and Expression Web in more detail. SketchFlow and Expression BlendIt's important to note the relationship between SketchFlow and Expression Blend. Expression Blend is the production tool for Silverlight, Windows (Windows Presentation Foundation), and Surface, whereas SketchFlow is a prototyping tool built on top of Expression Blend. The fact that the prototyping tool is built on top of the production tool raises some interesting possibilities��which you may see as positive or negative, depending on your disposition: The positive is that you have access to all the production tool's features, so you can take your prototype as deep as you want,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], by accessing production features like data binding, web services, third-party components, and, let's face it, the entire Microsoft. NET platform. This also means you can more easily migrate your prototype (or parts of your prototype) into production if you wish. The downside of this access to the underlying production tools is that designers can be overwhelmed by the depth of functionality lurking just below the surface of SketchFlow. Being productive with SketchFlow does require you to understand some of the b[link widoczny dla zalogowanych] ideas of the Microsoft platform, which may be more that you wished for when you thought you were just going to draw boxes on some pages. So SketchFlow is just for Microsoft projects? Expression Blend is the production tool of choice if you're designing for Microsoft Silverlight, Windows (WPF), or Surface. So if you're prototyping for these platforms, [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]sing SketchFlow as your prototyping tool is a no-brainer��particularly since SketchFlow comes free with Expression Blend in the Expression Studio suite, or in many MSDN subscriptions. If you're prototyping for other platforms (including HTML/CSS/Ajax) then SketchFlow is certainly an option, especially if you already have Blend or SketchFlow experience. However, in this case��as with most prototyping tools��you'll be unable to migrate your prototype into production. You'll have to build the production version from scratch. Let's Give It a Whirl
We'll now have a look at how SketchFlow works. You might find it quite different from other prototyping tools of which you're familiar. When you're ready to start on our own SketchFlow prototype, return to the welcome screen (Help>Welcome Screen), select Projects, and click New Project��. You can choose WPF for Windows or Surface development, but if you're working on the Web you'll want to choose Silverlight 3 SketchFlow Application. As you can see, the SketchFlow prototype includes your functional screens,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], as well as navigation and other tools on the left side. These tools help you navigate your prototype, as well as allowing users to provide feedback (more on feedback in a bit). So it turns out that it wasn't strictly necessary to set up the navigation straight away. For each screen of your prototype, the Navigation panel shows which screens that screen leads to, based on the connections you made in the SketchFlow Map. So you can simply move through your screens using the list on the left. If you're importing a set of paper sketches for your prototype, for example, you'd probably just start with this option, and add in your functional navigation afterwards. The SketchFlow Killer Feature: FeedbackGathering feedback is handled particularly well by SketchFlow. Whether you're working in Silverlight or WPF, you can package up your prototype and distribute it for review by stakeholders, project members, and even users. In the case of Silverlight, SketchFlow creates a Silverlight website that you can distribute or host yourself, in which case you can just send a link to reviewers. When viewing your rapid prototype, reviewers are able to draw on individual screens with their mouse, in addition to typing in comments. Reviewers can then export their feedback into a file they send back to you. You then load the files back into Expression Blend and review the feedback, overlaid on top of your original screens. You're also able to give reviewers access to the annotations you've made within the screens as you built the prototype. We are providing professional precise rapid manufacturing, prototype rapid, 3d prototype, plastic prototype, 3d prototyping, 3d rapid prototyping, plastic prototyping, rapid tooling and rapid prototype in China. We look forward to participating at the success of your next project.Topics related articles：


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