Interactive Prototypes And Time-Savers

Without context, it would be difficult for your clients to understand the flow of an app or website in the way you originally planned it. The best way to introduce context is by adding interactivity. By providing an interactive prototype (or interactive mockup), your clients can play around with it to their hearts’ content to get an idea of how the app will work and to test the interactions. The tool for creating interactive prototypes that wins hands down is Adobe Fireworks.

Fireworks focuses on designing, prototyping and exporting for the Web, and it has a few hidden features that can easily add interaction to your prototypes and that will speed up your workflow. There are many prototyping techniques, and the one you use will depend on your level of technical skill in coding, the speed at which you need to produce the prototype, and the level of visual fidelity needed. Lately, prototyping in the browser has become a popular trend. So, do you still need visual tools such as Photoshop and Fireworks, or can you start right in the browser? The answer is, it depends! Sometimes prototyping in code is best, and sometimes designing (and prototyping) in the browser is certainly not the answer.