Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Prototypes are a great way to explore design solutions with the developer team and the client, and to even test them with the end user at an early point of the work process. Unlike static wireframes, they let people try out the navigation and test interactions, fill in forms and follow external links.

Some UXDs and IAs have used Flash, HTML, XHTML or even Powerpoint prototypes for years. Many others have not experimented with anything else except the occasional paper prototype, because prototyping that requires programming skills can be far too time-consuming for rapid development processes and some experience designers lack the necessary skills to put a prototype quickly together on their own.

Recently the number of prototyping tools available specifically for web designers has quickly gone up. I personally favor Axure because of its intuitiveness and features. iRise Pro is another, powerful solution made more for software developers, but prohibitively expensive and a bit excessive for my needs. Recently I've tested Oversite, which is more affordable, but far more stripped down than Axure and a bit slow to use.

ProtoShare offers an online prototyping solution instead of a software installation, and that also means that prototype projects can be quickly and easily shared and reviewed by the whole team online.

In ProtoShare, having to first upload the images or my own custom elements that I want to use in my prototypes is a weakness that will make me stick to Axure for now. ProtoShare doesn't yet offer a way to duplicate or import project templates either. But on the other hand, ProtoShare is an interesting concept that offers a solution that could potentially get the whole team, perhaps even the client, working together on the early stages of the design process, moving and editing the page elements. It might not be enough to make ProtoShare the tool that revolutionizes the entire process of web design, like the ProtoShare site proposes, but nonetheless an interesting step in the right direction.

Karri Ojanen