Hello friends!

Here’s a quick post about something that just crossed my mind. I felt like blogging, so I said why not write it down here.

I’ve seen a bunch of prototypes built with FlairBuilder lately. And some of them were pretty large. I guess that sometimes you need to prototype a lot of user interface elements, specially if the UI is pretty complex.

But I just feel like you don’t really have to. At least not most of the times. Here’s why:

Prototyping software is not like actually you are going to implement it right there. Prototyping is for exploring, is for those things that you can’t really communicate verbally. If you’re going into every tiny detail, you’re loosing precious time.

Wireframes are not supposed to replace you and your expertise and your ideas. You are still the one, and creative mind, and person that knows exactly how the software should be done. You will not be able to pass all that knowledge though a detailed wireframe, no matter what.

Wireframes are impersonal and their effect is not necessarily predictable. Chances are that you’ll get misunderstood. Wireframes surely help a lot in visually communicating complex interactions, but if there’s a misunderstanding, they should get back to you. Be ready and prepared.

Start low, and iterate to the top. Don’t overwhelm your clients with a huge pile of wireframe designs up front. Let them participate sooner rather than later. They’ll thank you for that and you’ll get valuable insight when you need it most. There’s a lot to talk here, and I’ll try to get back to this some other time!

You have a nice week, now. I’ll get back to work, I have an awesome release in the woven!

Cristian