RAPID PROTOTYPING
with jQuery

PROTOTYPING

WHAT IS A PROTOTYPE?
A prototype is an original type, form,
or instance of something serving as a
typical example, basis, or standard for
other things of the same category.

“An Experience Prototype is any kind of representation,
in any medium, that is designed to understand, explore
or communicate what it might be like to engage with
the product, space or system we are designing.”
Jane Fulton Suri

WHAT IS RAPID
PROTOTYPING?
• Implementing some product functionality as soon as possible
• Not worrying about any details or production issues
• Keeping up an illusion!

Rapid prototypers are the
illusionists and magicians of the
web

WHY?

WHY?
• Engineering the final design can take a long time
• Slow feedback loop for each design interaction
• Communication problems between design and
engineering

WHY?
• Exploration
• Validating it works
• Communication

DIFFERENT PROTOTYPES
• Wireframes = Walk through prototypes
• Interactive prototypes

WHAT IS A PROTOTYPE FOR
US?
• Interactive click dummy
• Modelled after wireframes and/or concept layouts
• Usually targeted at one audience, on one platform

A Prototype doesn’t need to validate!

NO CROSS-
BROWSER
MESS!

Semantics?
Who needs semantics!
SEO?
Who cares, damn it?
Structure, logic...!
LOL!

REQUIREMENTS OF A
PROTOTYPE

REQUIREMENTS OF A
PROTOTYPE
Layout
Behavior
Data

LAYOUT
• Use CSS Frameworks!
• Copy and Paste!
• Use WYSIWYG Editors!
Just get the damn job done!

CSS FRAMEWORKS?
• Hides complexity, like any other framework
• Provides templates for grids, columns and more
• Normalizes across browsers

SOME TECHNIQUES
• If the floats don’t work, simply position everything
• Use a CSS Framework that comes with columns or a grid
• Utilize all kinds of specific browser technology

BEHAVIOR
• Brings life into the prototype
• Describe interactions a user can perform
• Clicks
• Hover
• Drags
• ..etc

CSS
• Use CSS whenever possible
• Use it to simulate hover events: a:hover {}
• Use content injection through CSS
• Switch class names in JavaScript, not styles

DATA
• Use jQuery’s ajax functions to quickly inject content
• JSONP is your friend!
• $(‘div’).load(‘some.url#content’)

USE PUBLIC API’S
• YQL
• Google API’s (Maps, Search, Docs, etc)
• Flickr

THE ILLUSION OF SPEED

A PROTOTYPE DOESN’T HAVE
TO BE FAST.

IT ONLY HAS TO FEEL FAST.

PERCEIVED RESPONSIVENESS
• Slow down your interactions
• Use animations and effects to hide a loading process
• Slow interaction makes people understand your prototype!
• Shows the state change
• Shows relationships between elements
• Focusses attention

TOOLS

THEMEROLLER

THEMEROLLER
• Design custom themes
• 100%jQuery UI CSS
Framework compatible
• Funand intuitive UI (No
coding!)
• png8 with alpha
transparency
• Theme Gallery

JQUERY UI

JQUERY UI CSS FRAMEWORK

THE CSS FRAMEWORK
• Semantic + generic
classes instead of per-
plugin
• Seperation of design and
layout
• Support
for CSS Sprites
+ CSS3 corner radius
• Modular and extensible

PRETTY NEAT BUT I NEED MY
OWN STYLES ANYWAY

More power!

IT‘S NOT EXCLUSIVE.
• Uses em‘s for all units
• Scales background images
• All documented
• Comes with testing &
debugging tools

WEBKIT

CSS TRANSFORMS
• Webkit/Gecko (Safari 3+,
iPhone, Android, Air, FF 3.5+)
• 2D transformations on HTML
elements
• Yes, all
kinds of 2d
transformations: Rotating, Scaling,
Skewing

3D CSS TRANSFORMS!

...MUCH MORE
• CSS Gradients • box shadow
• CSS Reflections • CSS Animations
• text shadow • CSS Transitions

FIREBUG

FIREBUG
• Quickly edit markup
• Edit CSS
• Manipulate JavaScript
The save button is missing!

GREASEMONKEY

META
• paul.bakaus@gmail.com • http://jqueryui.com
• http://paulbakaus.com • http://wiki.jqueryui.com
• http://twitter.com/pbakaus • http://dev.jqueryui.com

THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION.
http://paulbakaus.com