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Prototyping Essentials with Axure

Starting

Ezra Schwartz, Elizabeth Srail
May 2014

A comprehensive strategy and planning guide for the production of world-class UX artifacts such as annotated wireframes, immersive prototypes, and detailed documentation

$32.99

$54.99

RRP $32.99

RRP $54.99

eBook

Print + eBook

Book Details

ISBN 139781849698320

Paperback522 pages

About This Book

Learn in a progressive and structured way to plan and construct highly compelling interactive, responsive prototypes that will impress and excite decision makers, stakeholders, and users
Discover how, without any programming knowledge, you can quickly simulate complex interactions for applications such as e-commence and global enterprise systems
Acquire effectivetime-saving methods for constructing and annotating wireframes, interactive prototypes, and UX specifications
A hands-on guide that walks you through the iterative process of UX prototyping as an individual designer or member of a team, including planning collaboration, wireframe construction, interaction design, annotations, and specifications
Comprehensive coverage of Axure 7, the leading UX tool used by tens of thousands of user experience professionals, business analysts, and product managers in global corporations, governments, large institutions, leading interactive agencies, and thousands of small and medium businesses worldwide

Who This Book Is For

If you are a UX practitioner, a business analyst involved UX projects, or a product manager involved in UX projects, this book is for you. Consultants or in-house staff who work for agencies or individual practitioners will also benefit from this book. Familiarity with Axure will help but is not mandatory.

Chapter 1: Prototyping Fundamentals

The Times They Are A-Changin'

The Axure Option

UX Prototyping by UX Designers

Project-level Forecasting

Axure Construction Strategy Checklist

Practical Axure

Tips for Using Axure on Large-design Projects

UX and Stakeholders' Perspectives

The Axure Perspective

Summary

Chapter 2: Axure Basics – the User Interface

Getting Started

Environment

The Design Area

The Page Properties Pane

The Widget Interactions and Notes Pane

Grid and Guides

The Masters Pane

The Widget Manager Pane

The Toolbars and the Menu Bar

The Generated Prototype

Summary

Chapter 3: Prototype Construction Basics

Aligning UX with Prototyping Principles

Getting Started with Prototyping in Axure

Task Flow Diagram Pages

Linking Use Cases to Flow Diagrams while Keeping Your Naming Conventions Intact

Generating an HTML Prototype

The Sitemap Diagram

A Device/OS-agnostic UI Framework

Getting Started with Masters and Dynamic Panels

Adding Visual Effects

Adding Sketch Effects

Summary

Chapter 4: Creating Basic Interactions

Axure Interactions

Axure Events

Axure Cases

Axure Actions

Things to Keep in Mind

Example 1 – Controlling Styles

Example 2 – Hide and Show

Example 3 – Utility Actions

Summary

Chapter 5: Advanced Interactions

Conditions

Raised Events

Variables

Variable Types

Naming Variables

Pros and Cons of Using Variables

Summary

Chapter 6: Widget Libraries

When to Use a Widget Library

Library Types

Managing Widget Libraries

Masters or External Widget Libraries?

When to Begin Creating Patterns

Summary

Chapter 7: Managing Prototype Change

From a Vision to Reality

Expectations, Paradigms, and Change

Estimating Axure Work

Construction for Change

Summary

Chapter 8: UI Specifications

Importance of Collaboration

The UI Specifications

Generating Specifications

Quick Tips to Improve the Layout

Summary

Chapter 9: Collaboration

Team Projects (Pro Version Only)

Best Practices for the UX Axure Teamwork

axureShare – Axure's Cloud Solution for Sharing

Feedback from Stakeholders – the Discussion Tab

Summary

What You Will Learn

Plan and construct compelling interactive prototypes that impress and excite decision-makers, stakeholders, and users
Quickly simulate complex interactions for Web and mobile without programming knowledge. If you can program, the sky is the limit
Acquire effective time-saving methods to construct annotated wireframes, interactive prototypes, and UX specifi cations
Follow the iterative, collaborative process of UX prototyping as an individual designer or member of a team
Keep UX on schedule and budget through planning, effort estimation and risk assessment
Maximize your investment in Axure 7, the leading UX tool, with this comprehensive coverage of workflow and features

In Detail

Designing the user experience has never been more exciting, while prototyping it has never been more challenging. Whether you are an individual practitioner or a member of a UX team, a consultant, or an in-houseUX resource, this book will teach you how to plan, construct, and document top-quality, device/OS-agnostic artifacts and deliverables such as task and user flows, persona briefs, wireframes, prototypes, and specifi cations with Axure 7, the leading UX industry design tool.

Axure 7 is used worldwide by tens of thousands of UX professionals, business analysts, and product managers in global corporations, governments, large institutions, leading interactive agencies, and consultancies.

Prototyping Essentials with Axure Second Edition is a detailed, practical primer on Axure 7.0 and is a complete rewrite of the previous edition due to the numerous new features in Axure 7.0. Demand for skilled Axure professionals is high and familiarity with Axure is an expected prerequisite skill for UX designers worldwide.

Authors

Ezra Schwartz

Ezra Schwartz helps organizations realize their strategic vision for a world-class user experience. As a principal experience architect, he holds lead positions in mission-critical projects for global corporations. An advisor to management and stakeholders, Ezra is an expert in transforming large-scale, data-driven systems into mobile-first, device/OS-agnostic UX frameworks. Ezra enjoys solving the numerous challenges involved in complex systems, the organizations that build them, and the people who use them. He draws on his wealth of experience from projects in the financial, education, aviation, healthcare, telecom, publishing, research, manufacturing, and software industries. Ezra feels very fortunate to be practicing in a domain that affords him the opportunities to travel and associate with the exceptional cast of international experts he gets to collaborate with. He values mentoring and giving back to his professional and social communities.

Elizabeth Srail

Elizabeth Srail has been creating and leading designs since 2001, and throughout that time, she has learned that employing the lesson her parents taught her at a young age, which is to "put yourself in that person's shoes", is the key to a successful design. In an age where everyone is talking, mostly through social media, Elizabeth has been listening. She takes what she hears from the users and stakeholders, and removes or diminishes the problems these people face with designs that are thoughtful, easy-to-use, fun, and pretty. She employs that same lesson when managing others as well and believes that kindness is the greatest illustration of strength. In addition, Elizabeth has guided large organizations by educating leaders on the nuances of the UX process and advising them on how best to implement this practice into their current delivery methodology.