There is a vast array of tools to mockups user interfaces and create prototypes. I am a big lover of Balsamiq Mockups, because it lets you create mockups extremely quickly. It is a great tool to express the ideas in your head.
My expectations for a prototype
But I want to be able to create enganging prototypes for my customers and for user testing. Prototypes in which the user can really interact with the prototyped application. Most mockup tools are not good at handling different states and simulating interactions. But this is what you need for an engaging prototype. I like how Todd Zaki Warfel, in his book on Prototyping, differentiates between wireframes, storyboards and prototypes:
A prototype, regardless of its fidelity, functionality, or how it is made, captures the intent of a design and simulates multiple stats of that design. Wireframes and storyboards are static representations of a design that on their own merit do not simulate multiple states of a design. It’s the simulation and multiple states part that creates the disctinction.
Prototyping tools lack flexibility and ease of creation
I looked at a lot of tools like Axure or Just-In-Mind-Prototyper that allow for more interaction, multiple states, live feedback, even with variables and data sets that can be edited. While I never really dived deep into it, I couldn’t shake the feeling, that in the end you are just programming within a very limited framework. You will programm, but you will not have the freedom of a real application development framework.
What about HTML/CSS/JS prototypes?
I mainly work on web applications, so I thought: “Ok let me just improve on my HTML/CSS/Javascript skills…”. There are more and more people advocating prototyping user interfaces in code. And I agree.
But there is too much manual setup, too much stuff to do by hand. And suprisingly I cannot find any framework that is focused on just UI prototyping an application. Of course there are wonderful frameworks like Twitter Bootstrap or Foundation and there are powerful Javascript frameworks, but creating something that ties all these things together in a way it suits me, I could not find.
So what now?
Well, I will just build this myself. So that is what UI prototyper codename “jeizinen” should become.