Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Prototyping Fundamentals 5
The Times They Are A-Changin' 6
The Axure Option 9
UX Prototyping by UX Designers 12
Prototyping Interaction 14
Project-level Forecasting 16
A Weighted Risk Checklist for UX Projects 16
The Heuristics 17
The Score 18
Your Employment Type 19
The Client 20
UX Reporting To... 21
Enterprise Grade 22
New Product or a Redesign 23
Transactional 24
Responsive 25
Localization 26
Business Requirements Exist 26
UX Resources 27
Communication and Collaboration Tools 28
UX Documentation and Traceability 29
Axure Construction Strategy Checklist 31
Showcasing Opportunities 32
Considering Risks 33
Practical Axure 33
Small Projects 33
Web Applications and Portals 34
Heuristic Evaluation 36
User Validation 36
Deliverables – Prototypes and Specifications 37
Tips for Using Axure on Large-design Projects 39
UX and Stakeholders' Perspectives 39
Leadership 40
Project Management 41
Engineering 41
Visual Design 42
The UX Perspectives 43
The Axure Perspective 44
Summary 45
Getting Started 48
Axure File Formats 50
The RP File Format (Standalone Files) 50
The RPPRJ File Format (Team Project) 50
Team Projects 51
Environment 52
Customizing the Workspace 53
The Sitemap Pane 54
The Widgets Pane 56
Wireframe Widgets 57
Selecting a Widget Shape – Option 1 57
Selecting a Widget Shape – Option 2 58
Selecting a Widget Shape – Option 3 58
Shapes – Highlights 59
Form Fields – Highlights (New!) 59
Dynamic Panels – Highlights 60
The Repeater Widget (New!) 61
Style 61
Location and Size 63
Base Style 63
Font 67
Fills, Lines, + Borders 68
Alignment + Padding 70
The Design Area 72
Adaptive Views (New!) 73
Adding Adaptive Views 74
Adaptive View Definitions 75
The Page Properties Pane 75
Page Notes 76
Manage Notes 77
Page Interactions 78
Page Formatting 79
Sketch Effects 79
Flow Widgets 80
The Widget Interactions and Notes Pane 81
The Interactions Tab 82
Interactions 82
The Notes Tab 83
Note Sets 85
Grid and Guides 87
Setting Guides 87
The Masters Pane 89
Master Drop Behavior 90
Place Anywhere 91
Lock to Master Location 91
Break Away from Master 91
Usage Report 92
The Widget Manager Pane 92
Widgets Manager Functionality 93
Widgets Manager – Filter 94
Web Fonts Mappings (New!) 95
Step 1 – Assign/Tag the Font 96
Step 2 – The Web Font 96
Step 3 – Copy the Code into Axure 97
The Toolbars and the Menu Bar 99
The Generated Prototype 100
Summary 101
Aligning UX with Prototyping Principles 105
Getting Started with Prototyping in Axure 106
Key Design Activities 106
Assumptions and Disclaimers 108
Objectives and Artifacts 108
Naming Conventions, Labeling, and Unique IDs 110
The Farm2Table Sample Project in a Nutshell 111
Interactive Concept Models 111
The Axure Edge 113
On Capabilities and Requirements 113
Initial, High-level Requirements 114
Axure and Requirement Management 117
Use Cases 117
Use Case Diagram Page 118
Step 1 – Adding a Flow Page to the Sitemap 119
Step 2 – Creating the Use Case Diagram 121
Staying Organized with Sitemap Folders 126
Saving the Project File 127
Task Flow Diagram Pages 128
Task Flow Diagrams (Sans Visio) 129
Flow Diagram – New Subscription 129
Flow Diagram – Assemble My Weekly Box 132
Linking Use Cases to Flow Diagrams while Keeping
Your Naming Conventions Intact 133
Generating an HTML Prototype 137
The Sitemap Diagram 140
A Device/OS-agnostic UI Framework 142
First Wireframe – Produce [Visitor, User Not Logged In] 145
A Quick but Structured Construction Approach 146
Getting Started with Masters and Dynamic Panels 148
Global Elements as Masters 148
Axure Masters and Why to Use Them 149
The Global Navigation Bar 149
Adding Wireframe Pages 150
Creating Your First Master 150
Basic Interactions 152
Dynamic Panels to the Rescue 153
States Construction in a Dynamic Panel 156
Automatically Resizing a Dynamic Panel and Associated States 157
Adding Visual Effects 157
Adding Sketch Effects 159
Summary 160
Axure Interactions 161
Axure Events 163
Page-level Events 163
Widget-level Events 165
Axure Cases 168
Axure Actions 170
Things to Keep in Mind 172
Widgets, Events, and Context 172
Labeling 173
Example 1 – Controlling Styles 174
Step 1 – Navigation Bar Setup 175
Step 2 – Setting the Navigation to Reflect the Current Page 176
Step 3 – Setting the Remaining Tabs 178
Example 2 – Hide and Show 181
Construction Strategy 181
Step 1 – Assigning Styles to the LOG IN Tab 181
Step 2 – Creating the Login Layer 182
Step 3 – Show or Hide the Login Panel 184
Example 3 – Utility Actions 186
Step 1 – the Lightbox Widget 186
Step 2 – Interaction 187
Summary 189
Conditions 192
IF-THEN-ELSE 194
A Basic Set 194
How Statements Relate to Each Other 196
AND and OR 196
Sandbox Files for Learning and Experimenting 198
Guided Example – Conditions 198
Step 1 – Defining the Interaction 199
Step 2 – Wireframe Construction 199
Step 3 – Setting the First Condition 200
Step 4 – Adding an Interaction to the Condition 202
Step 5 – Testing the Interaction 205
Step 6 – Tweak and Iterate 206
The Condition Builder in Detail 206
Guided Example – Higher Fidelity with Multiple Conditions 208
Troubleshooting Conditions 223
Raised Events 223
Guided Example 224
Step 1 – Creating a Raised Event on the Master 225
Step 2 – Applying an Interaction to Raised Events on a Page 227
Amplifying Raised Events in Nested Masters 229
Variables 234
Guided Example – Tracking Items in a Shopping Cart 235
Step 1 – Defining the Interaction 235
Step 2 – Constructing the Interaction 235
Step 3 – Introducing Variables 240
Variable Types 249
Global Variables 249
Axure's Built-in Variable 249
Create Your Own Variables 249
Special Variables 250
Usage Examples 251
Local Variables and Functions 251
Naming Variables 252
Pros and Cons of Using Variables 252
Summary 253
When to Use a Widget Library 257
Library Types 258
Axure's Built-in Libraries 258
Axure and Community Libraries 258
Submitting a Widget Library 259
Create Your Own Widget Library 260
How to Create a Widget Library 260
Step 1 – Creating the Library File 260
Step 2 – Creating a Custom Widget 262
Step 3 – Refreshing a Library in the Project File 264
Managing Widget Libraries 264
Masters or External Widget Libraries? 265
Using RPLIB 266
Pros 266
Cons 266
Using Masters in an RP or RPPRJ file 266
Pros 267
Cons 267
When to Begin Creating Patterns 267
Wireframe Global Patterns 269
Summary 269
From a Vision to Reality 272
The Change-readiness Checklist 273
Expectations, Paradigms, and Change 273
UX and Software Development Models 275
Traditional (Waterfall) 276
Agile 277
Estimating Axure Work 278
Where Does Time Go? 280
Account for Responsive Web Design (RWD) 282
Account for Refactoring an Axure File 282
More on Expectation Alignment 284
Construction for Change 285
Cascade Change and Rollback Change 286
Rollback Change with Team Project 286
Cascade Change with Masters and Libraries 288
Cascade Change with Custom Styles 288
Widget Properties' Cheat Sheets 288
Default Widget Styles 291
Local Changes with Style Painter 292
Alignment with the Project Style Guide and CSS 294
Have a Style Guide? 295
Axure Custom Styles 295
Impact of Alignment of the Prototype with Visual Design 301
Alignment with Existing Visual Design 302
The Page Style Editor 304
Guides 304
Global Guides 305
Page Guides 306
Grid 307
Summary 308
Importance of Collaboration 310
Aligning Expectations 311
The UI Specifications 312
Global Specifications 312
Generators and Outputs – Specifications and Prototypes 314
Customizing the Word Specifications Generator 317
Page Notes 318
One Note Section Versus Many 320
Annotation Fields 321
Annotation Views 322
Generating Specifications 323
The General Section 323
The Pages Section 324
The Masters Section 326
The Page Properties Section 329
The Screenshot Section 331
Adaptive Views 334
The Widget Tables Section 335
The Layout Section 337
The Word Template Section 338
Formatting-applied Word Styles 339
Quick Tips to Improve the Layout 341
Setting up the Wireframe with OnPageLoad 343
Summary 343
Team Projects (Pro Version Only) 347
Understanding the Team Projects Environment 347
Understanding the Check Out/In Status 348
Setting Up a Shared Repository 349
Loading from a Shared Repository 358
The Team Menu 361
Creating and Loading 361
Updating the Entire File 361
Updating Single Page or Master 362
Managing Team Projects 363
Browse Team Projects History… 366
Repoint to Moved Shared Directory… 370
Clean Up Local Copy... and Dealing with a Working Copy Locked Alert 371
Best Practices for the UX Axure Teamwork 372
Attributes of the UX Team 372
axureShare – Axure's Cloud Solution for Sharing 374
Creating an axureShare Account 376
Feedback from Stakeholders – the Discussion Tab 376
Discussions Hosted on axureShare 377
Prototype ID and Other Features 378
Discussions Not Hosted on axureShare 385
Publishing to Axure Share 386
Summary 389
Appendix: Practitioners' Corner 391
Survey of Axure Users 391
Troubleshooting Interactions Checklists 393
The General Approach 394
Questions to Ask when Debugging 395
Common Hurdles 396
Construction Tutorials 397
Shira Luk-Zilberman – Simulating a Type-ahead Search Experience 398
Practitioner Profile 398
The Tutorial 398
1. Creating a Google-like Type-ahead Search Interface 400
2. Creating a Facebook-like Type-ahead Search Interface 415
3. Creating a LinkedIn-like Type-ahead Search Interface 418
Summary 428
Svetlin Denkov – Building a Form-factor Viewer/Emulator to
Support Effective RWD Demos on the Desktop 428
Practitioner Profile 428
The Tutorial 428
1. Setup and Assumptions 430
2. Constructing the Representation 432
3. Possible Limitations 439
Takeaways 440
Reusing Cases Across Different Widgets and Events 440
Practitioner Profile 440
The Tutorial 441
The Problem 444
The Solution 445
Discussion, Takeaways, and Next Steps 446
Marc-Oliver Gern – Using the Axure UI Kit, a Widget Library 448
Practitioner Profile 448
1. Ideate and Define 448
2. Build 449
3. Contextualize 451
4. Test 452
5. Iterate 452
Collaboration 452
Ildikó Balla – Collaboration in Small Teams 453
Practitioner Profile 453
Reflections on Team Projects 453
Susan Grossman – Enterprise Team Sharing 454
Practitioner Profile 455
Reflections on Team Projects 455
Why Have an Existing Online Product Outside the Firewall? 456
Process and Convention 456
Always Get the Latest 456
Size 457
Enterprise Naming Conventions 458
Names and Dynamics 458
Team Skillsets 459
Publishing and Prototyping Pages and Settings Updates 459
Setting Expectations 460
So What Are You Boarding/Framing/Prototyping? 460
Look And Feel (L&F) in Wires 461
Orbitz Worldwide – Axure As a Document Base 463
Practitioner Profiles 463
Background 465
Why Axure 466
Investigation and Implementation of Axure as a Document Base 467
Proof of Concept 467
Project Document Improvements with Axure 468
Lean-down Documentation 469
Effort/Estimation 469
Internal Documentation Process 470
Storing/Sharing Files 474
Demo to UX Team and Management 474
Training/Change Management 474
Axure Migration 475
Afterword 477
Index 479
Preface
Designing the user experience has never been more exciting and prototyping it has never been more challenging. Prototyping is the single most cost-effective means to track usability problems before you begin investing in visual design or coding, and Axure RP 7 is the industry's foremost prototyping tool. This detailed, practical primer on Axure 7.0 is a complete rewrite of the previous edition due to the numerous new features in Axure 7.0. The demand for skilled Axure professionals is high, and familiarity with Axure is an expected prerequisite for UX designers worldwide. Short on jargon and high on methods and best practices, packed with real-life scenarios and step-by-step guidance through hands-on examples, this book will help you integrate Axure into your UX workflow.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Prototyping Fundamentals, covers the Axure option, project-level forecasting, a weighted checklist for UX projects, Axure construction strategy checklist, its usage in various project types, and tips for using Axure on large projects.
Chapter 2, Axure Basics – the User Interface, explains file formats and workspace. It also covers the wireframe, Sitemap, Masters, Widgets, Widget Interactions and Notes, Page Properties, and Widget Manager panes. It further explains adaptive views, repeater, Web Fonts, toolbar, and menu bar.
Chapter 3, Prototype Construction Basics, covers device/OS-agnostic frameworks, objectives and artifacts, naming and labeling conventions, requirements, use cases, flow diagrams, navigation, masters, dynamic panels, and visual effects.
Chapter 4, Creating Basic Interactions, covers Axure interactions, events, cases, and actions.
Chapter 5, Advanced Interactions, covers conditions, raised events, and variables.
Chapter 6, Widget Libraries, covers masters and widget libraries, built-in libraries, community libraries, creating your own widget library, managing libraries, and managing visual design patterns.
Chapter 7, Managing Prototype Change, covers change readiness checklist, estimating your work, rollbacks with Team Projects, custom styles, style painter, alignment with visual design, guides, and grids.
Chapter 8, UI Specifications, covers configuring page notes and annotation fields, annotation strategy, and configuring specifications generators.
Chapter 9, Collaboration, covers team projects, best practices for teams, and AxShare.
Appendix, Practitioners' Corner, discusses a survey that was conducted among Axure users, troubleshooting guidelines, and construction tutorials.
What you need for this book
To follow the demo project in this book and to experiment on your own, you will need the following:
• Axure 7 is available for Windows and Mac. To experiment with Axure's Team Project feature and with generating Word specifications, Axure 7 Pro is required. You can download a free, 30-day evaluation copy from Axure.com, and the company is very generous in extending the trial period. For latest list of system requirements to run Axure on either platform, check out Axure's website.
• For specifications, MS Word 2000 or newer for Windows and MS Word 2004 or newer for Mac.
• Chrome, in both platforms, is the recommended browser. Firefox is fine as well.
Who this book is for
This book is intended for:
• UX practitioners, business analysts, product managers, and others involved in UX projects
• Consultants or in-house staff who work for agencies and corporations
• Individual practitioners or UX team members
• UX practitioners who seek to deliver a higher value in a fraction of the time involved in wireframing and annotating with traditional techniques based on drawing tools
• UX practitioners who want to dramatically improve their productivity and skills with expertise in delivering rich, interactive prototypes and extensive specifications instead of static documents The book assumes that the user has either little or no familiarity with Axure. Perhaps you are evaluating the tool for an upcoming project or are required to quickly get up to speed in a project you just joined.
The book assumes familiarity with the principles of the user-centered design methodology.
