Scott McDowell hat auf boxesandarrows.com eine Übersicht zu aktuellen Software-Werkzeugen fürs Prototyping bzw. die Simulation von Bedienoberflächen veröffentlicht. Er stellt folgende Werkzeuge vor:
* Axure: RP4
* Elegance Tech: LucidSpec
* iRise: Studio, Shared Server, Manager, iDoc Express
* Serena: Composer
* Simunication: Enterprise Simulator
* Sofea: Profesy
Every decade, there’s a new technology that fundamentally transforms the way people do business, enhancing productivity and profitability along the way. In just the past few years, the user experience community has become captivated by the power of simulation software—the next-generation tool for requirements definition needed to build any online application. Think of it as the “flight simulator” for the IT industry.
In yesterday’s world, the typical deliverable would consist of a Visio diagram (composed of static wireframes) or a costly HTML prototype (still very static in nature)—the equivalent of drafting a car or a skyscraper in 2D. In today’s world, UX professionals can produce simulations—high-fidelity visual representations of what’s going to be built.
In the same way that the Internet took us to the next level of interaction, complete with rich visuals, simulations are doing the same for application definition. The advantage that simulations offer over traditional deliverables is that they provide interactivity without requiring the IA to know scripting or a programming language. Plus, with some packages, changes can even be propagated to all related documents.
Simulations can be used for ideation, definition, validation, development, and pre-development usability testing. Once a simulation has been modeled, its usefulness far exceeds that of any static wireframe primarily because of the simulation’s ability to look and act like the final product.
Siehe auch:
Michael Hatscher, Auf der Suche nach dem optimalen Prototyping-Tool
Scott McDowell, Visio Replacement? You Be the Judge – An Introduction to the Newest Simulation Tools
