I am working on the rewrite of a large VB6-based application. We are moving from Windows Forms to web-based deployment using ASP .Net. There are about 50 core users and all are internal to the company.
We need an efficient way to try out different designs in order to investigate the information architecture of the site, the workflow, and the overall look and feel. Ideally, the prototype would look good enough to show to the users in order to gather feedback.
A few ajax-style drop-down menus or controls would be useful to demonstrate our ideas, but not at the expense of quick prototyping.
It feels too early to break out Visual Studio, and we need something more than pen and paper or Visio... Any suggestions?
Jeff Atwood had a nice article a while back about this:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001091.html
We used Visio the last project and while the Visio document screens look nearly identical to the end result I'd recommend against doing a pixel-perfect prototype. Simple rectangles and simple coloring are better and gives the designed and the web developers more freedom.
In our case some of the screens were developed by a person without good knowledge of limitations of web apps. Depending on the team members, this could lead to endless discussions about what is possible and what is not.
Have you taken a look at the excellent Balsamiq?
I use JustProto.com - it's very simple but works very fast. I regret there are no ready components to use but you can create your own masters.
Anyway - I did a few prototypes with JP and for me it's fine enough.
In the past we've used full page graphics - either pretty designs from our design team, or just Visio/PowerPoint (don't ask) mockups - dropped into HTML pages as a background and then added ImageMap links and dropped some dynamic controls on top - Drop-downs, pop-up/accordian menus etc to link most of them together.
This worked quite well in for A/B usability testing with our users - some were slightly confused by the pretty design versions, as they looked more like usable web pages, but they quickly got the hang of it.
For large systems, you really need something with masters/templates. Two good threads here on SO:
What tools are there:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/156937/balsamiq-mockups-alternative-for-building-wireframes
Why mockup tool instead of IDE:
Whats the best way to create interactive application prototypes?
And here is the most complete list of mockup tools I know of:
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?GuiPrototypingTools
(I am the author of this one: MockupScreens).
You can use Balsamiq mockups, is a very good software and easy to use for prototyping, mockups can make dynamic and complexity you need, not very expensive and has an evaluation version and limited version online.
If you want a much more complex software has components and functional and you can use Axure is a prototyping software very complete, you can export and test the prototype in the browser with all the features, I invite you to go to the official pages there you can find examples.
Balsamiq link: http://balsamiq.com/products/mockups/
Axure link: http://www.axure.com/
Related
I am developing WebApps with Backbone, node, jQuery and so on.
In my beginnings I have used Twitter Bootstrap for designs.
Then I started to use own designs which I have created with the Chrome Addon Stylebit which allows to modify CSS in real time.
Unfortunately this is very time expensive at the end.
So I decided to develope the design by side with some editor and then rewrite this design per hand as CSS. I have read this is a common practice and most use photoshop for this task.
Is photoshop still recommend or are there other tools which should be used?
(I actually do not want a full WYSIWYG. Just something to test designs and layouts in general)
Cheers and happy new year,
Bodo
For the short answer no. There isn't a tool that I know of that will allow you to build layouts in code easily that isn't a full WSIWIG solution like Dreamweaver, Aptana etc.
For testing out designs you would normally build wire frames such as the ones you see from Balsamiq. There are other tools as well, Axure, Pencil and others. Do a search for wire frame software.
As a Sr. UX Architect I've heard and seen people mockup what they're building in Html and CSS. While this can work. You might as well continue and just build it if you're going to invest the time, effort and money into writing code.
Spin over to my "User Experience" group on Linkedin and ask the question there. Your going to get a ton of answers.
If you're searching to find Wireframing and Mockup tools.Then you can use Balsamiq Mockups
It's having features like
Low-Fi Sketch Wireframes
Click-Through Prototypes
UI Components & Icons
Export to PNG or PDF etc
You can get more details from Balsamiq Mockups Here
I hope this will help you.
You can try out ForeUI (http://www.ForeUI.com/), which allows you to build layouts visually and export your design to HTML5 simulation. You can also manually modify the generated code to fit your needs.
Some interesting examples are available on http://www.foreui.com/store/
I'm working for Pidoco.
It's a german company based in Berlin and we develop a online prototyping tool.
We have nice features like:
Interactive prototypes
Collaboration and invitations
iOS App to simulate mobile prototypes (Android is coming soon)
You can start with a 30 days free trial and then plans are starting at 9$ per month.
Here is the complete list of mockup tools:
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?GuiPrototypingTools
I work for a small data management/warehousing company that also focuses heavily on web applications. We are looking to "beautify" our existing web apps into something along the lines of mint.com or sifterapp.com or any of the 37signals sites for example. We are a .Net shop so whatever framework used on the front end would need to play nice with a .net back end and also use asp.net.
My question is what skills should we be looking for and what is the proper title for a person that knows how to create very nice looking web applications like the ones I've mentioned? I think having some experience with photoshop is always necessary, but it seems like a lot of the design patterns can be done using css and/or other front end technologies, or am I off base here? Basically, what skills should we be looking for in a candidate if we are looking for them to have skills in creating beautiful web apps that are both very nice looking and also very usable and what is that position called? Web developer? Designer? UI Engineer? Web Experience Designer?
I am also aware of some UI oriented frameworks like YUI, is this something that we should be looking for in a candidate, experience with this? Is a likely candidate going to be someone with a graphic design/artist degree or will it be someone more programming oriented? Is this actually a task for 2 separate people, one doing the graphics and another doing the user experience/css layout? It just seems very confusing to figure out what exactly we should be looking for so the interviews have been rather hit and miss so far.
Thanks!
you need a Graphic Artist, a usability expert and a web developer.
it is rare/unlikely that you will find one person who excels at all three
the good news is that you'll only need the graphic artist and usability people short-term
I would look for a Javascript developer with experience in integrating with ASP.NET. You need to explicitly require experience with CSS layouts, Javascript, frameworks such as jQuery, Prototype, etc. I know a lot of people that are ASP.NET developers and think they are good web developers just because they can drop a few controls on a page and have no understanding of what is happening on the client-side. Also, make sure that they provide you a portfolio.
There are almost always 3 parts of a website:
1.) Design: The designer(s) is(are) planning the layout of the website, with the following in mind:
- maximalization of usability
- nice looking
- using only needed components (no elements to "fill the void")
2.) Backend: The backend guy(s) is(are) working on the functionality of the server
3.) Frontend: The frontend guy(s) is(are) working on the frontend
The backend and frontend guy might be one person, but programmers are code writers (with no artistic inclination), designers are artists. If you put a designer to write code (for example CSS), he might not solve the problems well enough, the same is the situation if you put a programmer to make a design. In my opinion you should hire a designer (some designers work for a very low salary) and a programmer.
In my opinion nobody can honestly say that he/she is a good backend and frontend developer and a good designer in the same time. For example I'm a good backend guy, a decent frontend guy, but I'm not a designer.
We are looking for a prototyping tool to allow our business analysts (and myself) mockup sites. Some people have suggested using the MS Expression suite of tools for this. I am worried it might be a bit too technical for the non-programmers.
Does anyone have any experience using Expressions Web (or Blend) as a prototyping tool? Is there anything else anyone would recommend.
Take a look at Balsamiq Mockups.
Very easy to use, and the resulting mockups actually look like mockups.
I would not recommend that. You should use something that isn't intended for real application design. Mockups shouldn't look real, and your mockup tool shouldn't be difficult to use. When mockups look real, users get confused when the actual product looks different.
Visio works well for this. Usually for mockups you should be looking at what pieces of information go on a page, general layout, menu at the top, content in the middle kind of things.
If you build your mockup in HTML you may spend to much time fiddling around with things that do not matter early in the project, colors, exact spacing etc. Since it is a "real" form you will also get a lot of feedback on these items.
You don't even need a computer, just get GUI Mags.
If you are familiar with Eclipse then take a look at WireframeSketcher. It's a plugin I am developing for quickly sketching screen mockups.
There is a comprehensive list of such tools here.
Some of those are targeted for non-programmers (as my own, MockupScreens, it's also on the above list) but most can be used by business analyst, UX designers and the like.
The real difference is whether the tool is aimed at communication (e.g. clarifying requirements together with users) or at application design (ie. mockups being as precise and as complete as possible)
Axure RP is the best tool I've seen for this.
It's expensive (free trial available), but it's absolutely wonderful. Goes way beyond static wireframes, allows you to mock up interactions, navigation, behaviour and the like. Resulting prototypes are viewable/usable from any web browser, and it'll let you annotate them and generate static documentation (Word docs, etc.) directly from the prototype.
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As a little side project, I am starting to build a new website for a certain organization I am affiliated to, which current site is simply outdated.
I am regularly a Java developer, and last time I really did some web development was back in the late 90s, when <p> was still more popular than <div> and Javascript was cutting-edge technology (JQuery is for lazy bums these days :) ).
Anyway, I feel really outdated. The website basically is going to be:
Django based
mostly serve static information pages
it will have a dynamic news and updates page (based on Django admin capabilites)
and some basic apps I'll develop myself (polls, small registration app, etc...)
My problem is designing the whole thing. I found some nice web-based CSS layout generators that got me going, but I still feel I'm wasting my time smoothing out the CSS files and aligning <div>s.
Are there any tools - the simpler and faster, the better - that you recommend I can use to speed up the design part of the site so I can concentrate on the real work?
I don't need anything fancy, just a nice looking layout and design that I can tweak a bit so the site will look presentable.
I second Brandon's suggestion to use a CSS framework. It won't give you 100% freedom to design anything you like, but it can speed up your design process greatly and free up your hands to do the coding you really want.
Suggestions Updated July 2013:
Twitter Bootstrap http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/ - complete grid, typo, UI widget prototyping framework
ZURB Foundation http://foundation.zurb.com/ - responsive grid, type, UI widget prototyping framework (similar in scope to Twitter Bootstrap, but feels 'cleaner' in some ways)
960 http://960.gs/ - grid layout system
Tripoli http://devkick.com/lab/tripoli/ - really good typography, but no grid system
YUI Grids http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/grids/ - very customizable (to the point of overkill) grid system
Blueprint http://www.blueprintcss.org/ - grid system and basic typography
BlueTrip http://www.bluetrip.org - a hybrid system, mixing the best of the Blueprint grid with the best of the Tripoli typography
I won't lie to you. This website isn't the best place to go if you're looking for reliable Web Design advice. Stack Overflow is a programming community and programmers rarely know anything about design. If you want to get some real advice then I would strongly recommend the main Web Design/Development forums on the Internet, especially SitePoint.
That being said, as a former freelance Web Designer/Developer I'll offer my input on the issue. Not that you should value it, of course. After all, this is a programming website.
NEVER EVER SAY CSS LAYOUT GENERATOR EVER AGAIN! If you're going to seriously get into designing web pages then you need to learn semantic XHTML and CSS first. Whilst many people tout W3Schools as the definitive resource I see it as a programmers answer (i.e. not very good) and would prefer that you read up on the subject using...Google. There are countless examples of great websites to pick up the basics of Web Design/Development that Google is probably the best website for the job. Also, with a plethora of new websites offering this information you know it's going to be more improved than W3Schools. You'll seriously want to get clued-up on writing your design because it'll be much harder to fix things later on in the project.
If you're going to be designing web pages it would be a good idea to learn what actually makes a good design. Check out CSS Vault for a fantastic resource of some of the best-designed web pages around, of course with all the source code intact so you can have a play around with their code and see how they've managed some of the wonderful effects they've produced. I've learnt more than a thing or two from websites that have been featured on CSS Vault. On top of that you should read up on Web Design from the big Web Design/Development sites. Two of my favourites are SitePoint and A List Apart, two names that you'll near time and time again when you hear people talk about resources. Browse those websites, check their forums, see what REAL Web Designers/Developers are using, not what programmers are using.
On the subject of CSS Frameworks; they do help! The problem with using them is that you'll often spend so much time looking for a worthwhile framework that you could have finished most of the CSS for your website yourself. You'll either love them or hate them, but many people will say that they're not necessary.
Once you've got your mind set on what a good design looks like and you've got the resources you need to make something of value I suggest that you get to work! In reality when you're designing a web page all you really need is a text editor with a save function, an image manipulation program, a browser window and FireBug. An IDE helps a lot of people, but if you do use one then you'll definitely want to work in its text mode. I use NotePad++ or Emacs exclusively but a lot of people like to use Aptana Studio, so it may be worth a look.
When you're getting to actually building the code behind your website you can't really go much worse than your favourite IDE/Text Editor and a source control tool. As a Java programmer you're better suited to talk about programming so I won't lecture you on a subject you already know.
In the end, Web Design is going to take time and many of the tools that we choose to use that we claim will "save time" save very little in reality. If you're not a design guru then it will take you a substantial amount of time to create a great-looking website. It's a fact of life. Call me old-fashioned (a funny word coming from a 21 year old) but I still think that the quickest way is to sketch a design out on a piece of paper (a image program if really necessary) and to just get out there and make the damn thing! Again, I'll have to take this hunting for the silver bullet mentality as a programmers trait, one that really won't help that much when designing, because designing a web page is vastly different to writing a Java program.
In short, ignore everything you read here, read what REAL designers are doing and just make the damn thing!
There's one piece of advice that saves more time than any other when it comes to rapid development of CSS styled sites and that's KEEP IT SIMPLE
Use an attractive simple layout that doesn't require pixel perfection and that can 'gracefully' degrade in less compliant browsers (IE6). Minimise the amount of CSS and fix the basic bugs mentioned by meouw above. Then get on an concentrate on content and functionality...the real work
In my previous employment I created dozens of templates for websites.
The most useful too I ever discovered is the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar.
It has a wealth of small useful tools. My favorite feature is the ability to edit the CSS and see the results in real-time. This saves on the whole edit - upload - refresh cycle. Watch out for ie CSS inconsistencies though!
Off the top of my head, these are the most important gotchas.
double margin bug [google: double margin bug]
incorrect (but more intuitive) box model [google: box model]
incorrect (but more intuitive) float clearing [google: clearfix]
FireBug is another really usefull Firefox plugin for more in depth analysis.
I've always found Open Source Web Design to be a good resource when looking to get started trying to design something.
- http://patterntap.com/
- http://www.dotemplate.com/ (interesting concept of customizing template)
- http://www.templatemonster.com/
- http://www.freelayouts.com/websites/html-templates
- http://www.templateyes.com/
No idea what the site is going to be, but have you thought of using a pre-build CMS like Drupal, Joomla etc etc.? You can then tweak templates etc, rather than worrying about making it from scratch.
This question is pretty old, but since we're in 2012, it's only proper that I answer my own question with the exact thing I was looking for, back in 2009.
Twitter Bootstrap
Have you looked into any CSS frameworks? If you are competent enough with CSS something like a framework could help speed things up.
Don't forget firebug :) if you're worried about tweaking the design it's really great. With the inspect feature allowing you to real-time edit the CSS of your page.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843
I second Jens Roland's list of CSS frameworks.
But I would also suggest you have a look at websites such as Smashing Magazine. You might find this article of interest, amongst a lot of others. They tend to do a lot of nice and long mash-ups for the web developers that will at least give you inspiration if not a direct solution.
A colleague of mine has been trying to convince me all week that Dreamweaver, 5 years after I was last forced to use it at gunpoint, is actually now worthwhile for knocking up a design quickly and painlessly, and is also now competent at producing the HTML for that design.
I refuse to invest the 10 minutes it would take to find out based on my previous experiences of it, but you might like to give the demo a quick run around the block :)
I'd recommend finding a CMS package, since you're using Django, look into django-cms. It has TinyMCE and Markdown Support so updating your pages should be easy. Also django-cms integrates well with the Django admin interface.
A piece of paper to sketch your design
A text editor (preferably set up to save directly to a development server local or otherwise) to write up the initial HTML/CSS
FireBug/IEDeveloperToolbar to inspect each element that looks wrong and edit its CSS directly in the browser until it looks fine, followed by commits with the text editor
If you're doing any JavaScript development, use an advanced editor that highlights errors and warnings as you type. This kind of functionality has until recently been the province of static language editors only, but the free NetBeans 6 achieves this amazing feat. Traditionally, you first discovered JavaScript typos and simple bugs when first loading the parent page into a browser. The speed-up you get from being able to short-cut these iterations is profound.
NetBeans 6 also highlights CSS errors and is a more than capable editor for most all languages a web developer is likely to use these days.
You can also use www.zbugs.com - it will help you speed up a process of compressing and gzipping your CSS and Javascript files
How can I achieve a cool looking photo gallery page? I don't know Flash, but can learn, and thought about a random collage that 'pulls out' a photo that you hover over.
It's for a photographer, so no thumbnails, grids, etc.
If you're looking for a tool that's pretty flexible and will support itself later on as you can just train the user to work with it check out JAlbum.
To work on integrating this yourself you can check out AJAX ASP Photo Gallery or something like this one.
If you're looking for a flash/flex based solution that they can just "plug-in" as a stand-alone product which incorporates some of the features you've described StudioCloud has a nice one that has a monthly fee...
I have had good results using the Galleria plugin for jQuery: http://devkick.com/lab/galleria/.
It will require an html page as a source, but this is relatively easy to produce automatically from a database or directory structure using ASP.NET
If the data does not need to be updated too often you could even produce the HTML by hand in a pinch. It wouldnt be difficult though it isnt easy to maintain.
I agree with Mat - JAlbum is excellent - but I'd also like to add that it's even better with the BananAlbum skin.
There are dozens of off the shelf apps available. Gallery, Wordpress (after configuration), and a few ASP.Net based ones. Flash is certainly not required.
That said, in order to learn a bit about Pylons, I wrote my own basic photo blog. If you can do basic CRUD development, it shouldn't be too hard.
Regarding your collage idea, you can accomplish that with JavaScript as well. See this article for similar effects stuff.
A little random, but the Silverlight deep zoom functionality is pretty cool around this area (although whether it's worth learning for this is another matter):
Example here: http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/