Chapter 3. Prototype Construction Basics

User experience design is part art, part craftsmanship; the fusion of methodology and patterns with creative problem solving. The prototype plays a major role in the success of UX projects because it is simultaneously a concrete interactive preview of both the vision and the actuality of the application being designed. For the UX designer, Axure offers the ability to deliver simulations of rich interactive user experience, quickly, iteratively, and without having to know programming.

A few years ago, the cost of providing timely interactive prototypes was prohibitive for many companies. Most UX designers are not programmers and so have been limited to producing static wireframes in Visio or similar tools. Skilled developers had to be engaged in order to convert the static wireframes into interactive JavaScript, Dynamic HTML, or Flash simulations.