Time. Money. You know that story. But there's an answer: Start with the prototype. Crazy? No. Prototyping at the beginning of a project, feature, or interaction lets you explore new and different ideas that the traditional "requirements > design > develop" process doesn’t always uncover. You and your team will start the project with a better understanding of your users’ needs, you'll lessen the risk of overspending on development and ultimately, you'll end up with a better design much faster. In this workshop, we’ll focus on prototype methodologies all the way from sketches to functional code and how to determine the appropriate fidelity, both visual and functional. You’ll learn how to test your ideas, elicit useful feedback from customers and explore tools that can help you prototype like a boss. *No development skills are required, but you should be able to draw a square. Not even a perfect one, really.

1. Sketch before you Etch:
How to Prototype like a Boss

2. Hello.

3. Let’s get down to
business.

4. Who is prototyping at
their job today?

5. Agenda.
• Part One: Sketching
• Part Two: Feedback
• Part Three: Iterate
• Tools & Frameworks
• Manager Buy In

6. Part One: Sketching.

7. What happened?

8. Part Two: Getting
Feedback.

9. A few tips:
• Don’t give a guided tour
• Shut up
• Ask open ended questions
• Follow up
• Let the user fail
• Observe the user

10. Part Two [ish]: Writing
the questions.

11. Part Not Quite Three:
Asking the questions.

12. What happened?

13. Improvising & the value of
failing fast.

14. Part Three: Iterating.

15. Part [still] Three:
Working together.

16. Some things to remember:
• Don’t forget to include the business!
• Observe as much as you possibly can.
• Some ideas just don’t work [that’s okay!].

17. Paper is great and all,
but...

18. Medium-fidelity
prototypes.

19. Medium-fidelity [web].
• Mockingbird
• Balsamiq
• Power Mockup
• InvisionApp

20. Medium-fidelity [desktop].
• Axure
• Visio
• Omnigraffle

21. High-fidelity prototypes.

22. Frameworks
• Twitter Bootstrap
• DivShot
• JetStrap
• Zurb Foundation
• Unsemantic
• jQueryUI

23. Incorporating prototypes
into your project.

24. When is it appropriate?
• Whenever you have a new feature you
aren’t 100% sure about
• When you’re demonstrating a new
process
• When you have vague requirements
• When the day ends in y

25. Manager buy in.

26. The arguments.
• “It will take too much time away from
development, pushing our deadline
back.”
• “We need documentation!”

27. What else?

28. Thanks.