Prototypes bring benefits to designers, but introducing them into your process affects everyone else on the team. In this talk, I discussed what it’s been like to trade Photoshop for a text editor, the problems we had in doing so, and how we addressed them.

1. Prototyping Pitfalls
Ross Belmont
@rossbelmont

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Spend less time tweaking Photoshop comps

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We crushed it.

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Walkthrough (a.k.a. Storyboard)

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Building a prototype is not iterating.
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Building a prototype is not iterating.
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Schedule Time to Iterate: Don’t Do This
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3

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Schedule Time to Iterate: Do This Instead
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3

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Prototyping Affects Everyone
Role Unintended Effect Adjustment
Designers
• Added stress of hitting tight
deadline
• Highlighted need to iterate
Smarter planning in future
phases/projects
Clients
• Can’t react quickly enough
• Want to “shop it around”
• Repeated expectation
setting
• May still need deliverables
Project managers
• Increases clarity on what
will be built
• New work to manage
Discussion needed to get
comfortable with new process
(at a minimum)
Developers & testers

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Some Details Prototypes Don’t Include

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Some Details Prototypes Don’t Include
• Error states

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Some Details Prototypes Don’t Include
• Error states
• Field validation rules

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Some Details Prototypes Don’t Include
• Error states
• Field validation rules
• Back end data specs

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Some Details Prototypes Don’t Include
• Error states
• Field validation rules
• Back end data specs
• Status codes and their meanings

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Some Details Prototypes Don’t Include
• Error states
• Field validation rules
• Back end data specs
• Status codes and their meanings
• Back end business logic

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Some Details Prototypes Don’t Include
• Error states
• Field validation rules
• Back end data specs
• Status codes and their meanings
• Back end business logic
• “Nonfunctional” requirements (e.g. page load times)

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• Thing to build
• Related thing to build
• Another thing to build
• Related thing to build
• Another thing to build
• Final thing to build

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Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
• Thing to build
• Related thing to build
• Another thing to build
• Related thing to build
• Another thing to build
• Final thing to build

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Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3

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Prototyping Affects Everyone
Role Unintended Effect Adjustment
Designers
• Added stress of hitting tight
deadline
• Highlighted need to iterate
Smarter planning in future
phases/projects
Clients
• Can’t react quickly enough
• Want to “shop it around”
• Repeated expectation
setting
• May still need deliverables
Project managers
• Increases clarity on what
will be built
• New work to manage
Discussion needed to get
comfortable with new process
(at a minimum)
Developers & testers
• Doesn’t capture all details
needed for build
• Confusing when out of date
Discussion needed to get
comfortable with new process
(at a minimum)

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Thank you! I’m @rossbelmont.