News round-up - Wireframing tools and prototyping

It has been a busy few weeks and months in the world of wireframes and prototypes. Let’s take a look at the latest stories from around the web (and closer to home):

Not one but two updates to Indigo Studio

We start with some recent, and significant updates to our own wireframe and prototype tool - Indigo Studio. The first update added the following features:

 

• Specify background images in Bootstrapped responsive layouts
• Extract usable HTML code from Bootstrapped responsive layouts
• Various usability and UX improvements of our own

 

Version 4 was the first to add support for Bootstrapped responsive layouts, update 1 really expands on these features.

Update 2, which you can find more on here, further enhances the Indigo UI and adds a couple of important features:

 

• Add a real Google Map to the map stencil
• Add a YouTube or Vimeo video t the video stencil
• Create iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus prototypes

 

Stencils are a big part of Indigo Studio, allowing you to quickly and easily get a prototype looking like the final thing. You can find out more about them here. Update 2 allows some stencils to start pulling in real content, making resulting prototypes very much ‘hi-fidelity’.

The support for the iPhone 6, both versions, is an obvious addition, and one we hope you find useful. We’ve also updated the iOS U elements pack so everything works as you would expect.

If you haven’t already you can get both updates via the auto update feature of Indigo. Simply follow the guide when prompted to update. If for some reason you don’t see anything head to ‘HELP AND ABOUT’ and select ‘CHECK FOR UPDATES’

Improve your wireframes with icons

Wireframes and prototypes typically ignore the finer elements of graphic design, instead rightly focusing on god UX design patterns. However hi-fidelity wireframes often need a little something extra to garner the right response. Icons are often the answer, offering enough in terms of design, whilst still being grounded in the principles of UX. Check out this blog post which has 36 free icons to use in your new wireframe or prototype. Read more

Good dashboard design

Late in Jan we held a webinar on good Dashboard design. The turnout was great, and we got lots of very interesting comments and questions, too many to deal with on the day. So we wrote a blog post to develop on a few of themes a little more. Check out the blog post to find out more about the day and get a bit more detail on designing and prototyping dashboards. Read more

Effective A|B testing

A|B won’t be new to those working in the world of web development, wireframes and prototyping. The ability to test different versions of a site, app, or prototype is an important tool for many designers. But making sure you are capturing, and thus acting on, the right data is a common challenge. UXMag has a good article on how to properly utilize this important technique. Read more

Live prototyping

Over at ReadWrite is a really interesting story about getting users involved in designing and testing the latest version of the site. Billed as a ‘handmade marketplace’ Etsy connects huge numbers of buyers and sellers. Changing even small elements of the site can have a big impact on both of these audiences. So Etsy launched ‘Etsy Prototypes’ to allow users to opt into to early testing of new features and functions - a novel way to approach website prototyping. But is it more effective than traditional methods of design and testing? Read more

3D modelling in Excel

And finally the Microsoft Office blog has a fascinating, if a little left field post on building basic 3D models in Excel. Along with a guide of how you can try it, the post shows just how powerful Excel has gotten in recent years. We doubt, well we hope, that people will not be ditching their more traditional wireframe and prototype tools just yet. Building a full prototype in Excel might be a little misjudged, but this is a cool approach and a good read all the same. Read more.