A New Chapter in My Book—8 Principles of Prototyping
Today marked another milestone in my book. I delivered a new chapter titled “The Eight Guiding Principles. This chapter wasn’t originally planned to be 8 guiding principles, but after my recent presentation for Refresh DC it was obvious this was very valuable to my audience. While you’ll have to wait for the book to read all the details of the 8 guiding principles, you can see what they are right here:
- Understand the Audience and Intent.
- Plan a little. Prototype the rest.
- Set expectations.
- You can draw.
- It’s a prototype—not the Mona Lisa.
- If you can’t make it, fake it.
- Prototype only what you need.
- Reduce risk. Prototype early and often.
Additionally, delivering this chapter broke the 12,000 word mark for my book. I can’t tell you how good it feels to get that out the door.
I’d be curious what the talking points for #3 (Set Expectations) are. The rest I get (and have said often).
It has to do with setting expectations for the audience (e.g. management, product development, technology) for what the prototype will be (e.g. hi-fi, lo-fi, what will be in/out). This helps mitigate any confusion once they see it—those “but I thought that function X would be in there.”
Congratulations Todd. I’ve always been awe struck by those professionals that can balance book writing with the rest of their professional obligations.
Any chance the book will include details from your wireframing series? http://toddwarfel.com/archives/wireframing-part-ii-illustrator-basics/
Well, Matt, come to think of it, it would be perfect to have the final article as part of my book section on using InDesign/Illustrator for prototyping. I’m sure they’ll have a lot in common.
I’m about a month away from getting to that part of my book. So, keep an eye out.