I have been using iRise application simulator for 2 years now, and it is
getting better and better. Otherwise I would also put in a vote for Axure.
I will say - each time I convince myself to use Axure for a project
(easier to use on the surface), somewhere along the way I switch back to
iRise(which I had decided was too complex/buggy/the business owners will
demand more functionality than there's time for etc..).
Anyway - the newest version 6 has spell check and lets you hook up events
like on load, mouse down, etc.. so it's great for quickly simulating drop
downs, layer behaviors etc.. Personally I use it for hi-fi sims since we
already have an established rigorous styleguide. I paste in images of the
hi-fi visio, photoshop, fireworks etc.. pages, hot spot the navigation,
add any interactive widgets like buttons, hovers, text boxes on top of the
base image, then link the pages together and it test with users...
anything else has been beyond me for an easy hi-fi sim. Low fi I build the
pages directly in iRise.
I would recommend it for large companies who can afford it (it's costly;
esp. if you only want to use a fraction of the functionality.. kind of
like photoshop..)
Official site - http://www.irise.com/
Community blog - http://www.iriseonline.com/
Community blog w/examples - http://www.mycatalyze.org/ (you have to email
them and say you want access to the iRise group, but it's worth it because
they have a section of available iDocs with all the things you would want
to do in a sim - so there's less reinventing the wheel.. )
An example if you don't want to hunt for one:
http://www.id8.com/web20/ipodmenu/index.html
..that all said - it's a sim product; so like all of 'em out there - it's
got it's share of rough edges..
S.
[email protected]
Sent by: [email protected]
11/29/2007 12:00 PM
Please respond to
[email protected]
To
[email protected]
cc
Subject
Discussions digest, Vol 1 #351 - 8 msgs
Send Discussions mailing list submissions to
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When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Discussions digest, Vol 1 #350 - 3 msgs (Brian Friesen)
2. Best Methodology for Search Usability Testing?
([email protected])
3. Re: Best Methodology for Search Usability
Testing? (Raoul Duke)
4. Re: Best Methodology for Search Usability
Testing? (Meghan Ede)
5. Re: Best Methodology for Search Usability
Testing? (Yasser A Sowb, PhD)
--__--__--
Message: 1
From: Brian Friesen <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:37:47 -0600
To: [email protected]
Subject: [BayCHI Discussions] Re: Discussions digest, Vol 1 #350 - 3 msgs
If you're testing is not reliant on the visual design aspect,
Omnigraffle (Mac only) is great for testing at the wireframe stage.
You can create wireframes, then add hotspots for click through to
other screen views. Makes a great interactive prototype at the
wireframe stage and exports great HTML with clickable hotspots for
demo or testing.
Another Visio-like application which also allows interaction between
wireframes is Conceptdraw and it's cross platform.
Testing at the wireframe stage can save you a lot of time by working
out usability issues BEFORE you get into the visual design.
Cheers,
Brian
Brian L. Friesen
[email protected]
www.visual-image.com
Mobile: 512-567-4037
AIM: blf26
On Nov 28, 2007, at 2:00 PM, [email protected] wrote:
> Send Discussions mailing list submissions to
> [email protected]
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://baychi.org/mailman/listinfo/discussions
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> [email protected]
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> [email protected]
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Discussions digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Looking For Rapid Prototyping Tools (Jeff Lowe)
> 2. Re: Looking For Rapid Prototyping Tools (Mitchell Gass)
> 3. Re: Looking For Rapid Prototyping Tools (Chris Hawkins)
>
> -- __--__--
>
> Message: 1
> To: [email protected]
> From: Jeff Lowe <[email protected]>
> Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:13:43 -0800
> Subject: [BayCHI Discussions] Looking For Rapid Prototyping Tools
>
> I'm looking for advice/recommendations on rapid prototyping tools for
> mocking up web interfaces that I could use in a usability test.
> Ideally, this tool would allow me to lay out my design and configure
> interactive elements without coding, and then export to HTML for
> testing.
>
> I've looked at DENIM but it seems to be too simplistic to achieve
> anything beyond a 'cocktail napkin sketch'. My brief experience with
> Flash leads me to believe that it might require too much effort since
> my goal is not to build the final app in Flash. Visio (which I
> already have) seems to provide easy manipulation of elements and easy
> HTML export, but the interactivity is limited to linked elements. It
> would be nice to allow a user to type something into a text box or
> open a select menu even if that data is not actually processed by the
> mockup. I've found some other tools in a Google search, but none jump
> out as a can't miss. Any ideas?
>
> Thanks
>
> Jeff
>
> -- __--__--
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:53:28 -0800
> To: Jeff Lowe <[email protected]>, [email protected]
> From: Mitchell Gass <[email protected]>
> Subject: [BayCHI Discussions] Re: Looking For Rapid Prototyping Tools
>
> At 03:13 PM 11/27/2007, Jeff Lowe wrote:
>> I'm looking for advice/recommendations on rapid prototyping tools
>> for mocking up web interfaces that I could use in a usability test.
>> Ideally, this tool would allow me to lay out my design and configure
>> interactive elements without coding, and then export to HTML for
>> testing.
>
> Hi Jeff,
>
> After trying a few of the available tools, I'm using Axure RP
>
> http://www.axure.com/
>
> It's far from perfect - I'm dealing with a tricky bug right now - but
> it can do quite a lot. There's a free trial.
>
> Another tool that I'd like to try that is now free is Serena
> Prototype Composer
>
> http://www.serena.com/products/prototype-composer/home.html
>
> It looks like it would take longer to learn than Axure, but it has
> some interesting capabilities.
>
> Finally, Jonathan Arnowitz, Michael Arent, Nevin Berger, and Fred
> Sampson are making a case for prototyping in Excel
>
> http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=18648
>
> and I was impressed by the demonstration Jonathan and Michael gave at
> a recent ACM SF Bay Chapter meeting
>
> http://www.sfbayacm.org/events/2007-09-19.php
>
> Best,
>
> Mitchell Gass
> uLab | PDA: Learning from Users | Designing with Users
> Berkeley, CA 94707 USA
> +1 510 525-6864 office
> +1 415 637-6552 mobile
> +1 510 525-4246 fax
> http://www.participatorydesign.com/
>
> -- __--__--
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:23:24 -0800 (PST)
> From: Chris Hawkins <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [BayCHI Discussions] Looking For Rapid Prototyping Tools
> To: Jeff Lowe <[email protected]>
> Cc: [email protected]
>
> Have you checked out the Flex IDE? It's great and what I encourage
> for prototyping. You need to develop some skill in the MXML, but
> generally you can do a lot once ramped up.
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Jeff Lowe <[email protected]>
> To: [email protected]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 3:13:43 PM
> Subject: [BayCHI Discussions] Looking For Rapid Prototyping Tools
>
> I'm looking for advice/recommendations on rapid prototyping tools for
> mocking up web interfaces that I could use in a usability test.
> Ideally, this tool would allow me to lay out my design and configure
> interactive elements without coding, and then export to HTML for
> testing.
>
> I've looked at DENIM but it seems to be too simplistic to achieve
> anything beyond a 'cocktail napkin sketch'. My brief experience with
> Flash leads me to believe that it might require too much effort since
> my goal is not to build the final app in Flash. Visio (which I
> already have) seems to provide easy manipulation of elements and easy
> HTML export, but the interactivity is limited to linked elements. It
> would be nice to allow a user to type something into a text box or
> open a select menu even if that data is not actually processed by the
> mockup. I've found some other tools in a Google search, but none jump
> out as a can't miss. Any ideas?
>
> Thanks
>
> Jeff
> _______________________________________________
> This is the BayCHI Discussions mailing list, [email protected]
> To change your subscription options, or to unsubscribe, visit
> http://baychi.org/mailman/listinfo/discussions
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> ______________
> Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page.
> http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
>
>
> -- __--__--
>
> _______________________________________________
> This is the BayCHI Discussions mailing list digest,
> [email protected]
> To change your subscription options, or to unsubscribe, visit
> http://baychi.org/mailman/listinfo/discussions
>
>
> End of Discussions Digest
--__--__--
Message: 2
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:35:37 +0000
Subject: [BayCHI Discussions] Best Methodology for Search Usability
Testing?
Hi,
I'm interested in conducting a usability test for a new search strategy.
We're trying to incorporate some of the newer type-ahead and
pre-catergorization technologies you see in google toolbar or ask.com. I
have a talk-aloud and screen record method that I've used for most
usability test, but I'm not sure this is the best way for testing
something like search.
Nielsen maintains that you must observe "how people search" to get
accurate findings, but I'm worried about creating an artificial,
experimenter-biased situation.
It's hard to say "Search for anything" or "Do what you would normally do"
because the user isn't in a normal situation if in a test environment
Any thoughts?
Doug
--__--__--
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:17:01 -0800
From: "Raoul Duke" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [BayCHI Discussions] Best Methodology for Search Usability
Testing?
Cc: [email protected]
> It's hard to say "Search for anything" or "Do what you would normally
do" because the user isn't in a normal situation if in a test environment
>
> Any thoughts?
Not a perfect scenario (is there ever such a thing?) but how about:
In this day and age, I think there are e.g. community college or adult
education classes which purport to teach people how to use tech like
the Web. If you aren't looking for advanced computer users, but more
of your regular person, maybe those kinds of classes would be useful
to contact? Maybe you could work with the instructors and students to
try things out (in class or immediately afterwards or something).
sincerely.
--__--__--
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:29:23 -0800 (PST)
From: Meghan Ede <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [BayCHI Discussions] Best Methodology for Search Usability
Testing?
To: [email protected], [email protected]
Hi Doug,
I did quite a bit of testing of search some years ago.
It's best if the person truly needs the information, so try to build a
situation where they need specific answers. This may mean that they do
several
searches as they refine the answers they get -- and that's good.
You didn't mention the type of search. For example, if it's related to
commerce
/ shopping, this is a great time of year. You could ask the participant to
list
2-5 people they need to buy gifts for and the kinds of things they might
like.
Then ask them to use the interface to find actual objects they would like
to
buy. This leaves the categories / words pretty natural to each
participant. You
can add an incentive in the sense that if they find something they truly
want,
you will buy it for them. If you have a prototype, you might want to limit
your
recruiting to people who only want to buy certain things, like shirts or
books
-- that you have in your prototype.
If it's something else, like a book topic -- then you can build your
questions
around certain answers. Like, locate the most recent virus, or discover
the
string to use to accomplish X.
If you look through Jakob Nielsen's site, there may still be a reference
to a
study we ran on search. At that time, we were looking at how people looked
up
technical information in Sun's AnswerBook.
Meghan
--- [email protected] wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm interested in conducting a usability test for a new search strategy.
> We're trying to incorporate some of the newer type-ahead and
> pre-catergorization technologies you see in google toolbar or ask.com. I
> have a talk-aloud and screen record method that I've used for most
usability
> test, but I'm not sure this is the best way for testing something like
> search.
>
> Nielsen maintains that you must observe "how people search" to get
accurate
> findings, but I'm worried about creating an artificial,
experimenter-biased
> situation.
>
> It's hard to say "Search for anything" or "Do what you would normally
do"
> because the user isn't in a normal situation if in a test environment
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Doug
> _______________________________________________
> This is the BayCHI Discussions mailing list, [email protected]
> To change your subscription options, or to unsubscribe, visit
> http://baychi.org/mailman/listinfo/discussions
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
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--__--__--
Message: 5
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:53:54 -0800 (PST)
From: "Yasser A Sowb, PhD" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [BayCHI Discussions] Best Methodology for Search Usability
Testing?
To: [email protected]
You can identify realistic scenarios by asking the users (study
participants) to recall search situations they have experienced which were
unsuccessful, difficult, or took a relatively long time. You could ask
them to walk through the same search and explain some of the difficulties
they identified. Such situations can be incorporated into a scenario for
usability testing.
- Yasser
Meghan Ede <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Doug,
I did quite a bit of testing of search some years ago.
It's best if the person truly needs the information, so try to build a
situation where they need specific answers. This may mean that they do
several
searches as they refine the answers they get -- and that's good.
You didn't mention the type of search. For example, if it's related to
commerce
/ shopping, this is a great time of year. You could ask the participant to
list
2-5 people they need to buy gifts for and the kinds of things they might
like.
Then ask them to use the interface to find actual objects they would like
to
buy. This leaves the categories / words pretty natural to each
participant. You
can add an incentive in the sense that if they find something they truly
want,
you will buy it for them. If you have a prototype, you might want to limit
your
recruiting to people who only want to buy certain things, like shirts or
books
-- that you have in your prototype.
If it's something else, like a book topic -- then you can build your
questions
around certain answers. Like, locate the most recent virus, or discover
the
string to use to accomplish X.
If you look through Jakob Nielsen's site, there may still be a reference
to a
study we ran on search. At that time, we were looking at how people looked
up
technical information in Sun's AnswerBook.
Meghan
--- [email protected] wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm interested in conducting a usability test for a new search strategy.
> We're trying to incorporate some of the newer type-ahead and
> pre-catergorization technologies you see in google toolbar or ask.com. I
> have a talk-aloud and screen record method that I've used for most
usability
> test, but I'm not sure this is the best way for testing something like
> search.
>
> Nielsen maintains that you must observe "how people search" to get
accurate
> findings, but I'm worried about creating an artificial,
experimenter-biased
> situation.
>
> It's hard to say "Search for anything" or "Do what you would normally
do"
> because the user isn't in a normal situation if in a test environment
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Doug
> _______________________________________________
> This is the BayCHI Discussions mailing list, [email protected]
> To change your subscription options, or to unsubscribe, visit
> http://baychi.org/mailman/listinfo/discussions
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
Get easy, one-click access to your favorites.
Make Yahoo! your homepage.
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
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