Fred Beecher and Lori Baker
Abstract
Axure RP Pro is a rapid prototyping tool that allows user experience practitioners to wireframe, document, prototype, and test a wide range of interactions. But with this flexibility comes complexity. Rich interactivity in Axure is accomplished through just a few features, but the options these features make possible are vast. This workshop will introduce attendees to these features and, more importantly, teach them how to manipulate and combine these features to prototype nearly any interaction they can think of.
To accomplish this, the workshop is structured around a series of exercises in which attendees use the skills they just learned to prototype a rich Internet application (RIA). As the workshop goes on, attendees will return to this prototype a number of times, using new skills to modify it and add additional interactions. Because it’s difficult to use all of Axure’s interactive features in a single prototype, the main exercises are supplemented by a series of “follow-the-instructor” exercises. These exercises are quick, short examples that are intended to give attendees experience working with a wider range of advanced interactions than the main exercises cover.
Workshop Details
The specific features the instructor will cover are:
- Form element interactions
- Dynamic panels (switching states, hiding & showing, moving)
- Setting widget properties
- Variables & conditional logic
Learning Objectives
This workshop is designed for current Axure users who want to build upon their Axure prototyping skills. Attendees that come into the workshop with the skills required to build simple Axure prototypes will leave it with the skills required for prototyping RIAs as well as desktop and embedded user interfaces.
Justification for a Pre-Conference Workshop
This workshop is based upon the principle of learning by doing, and exercises take time. Additionally, there is a great deal of material to cover, which also takes time.
The workshop will be conducted by alternating between lecture and exercise. The instructor will lecture for a short amount of time and then present students with an exercise in which they apply the skills the instructor was just lecturing about. This pattern will continue throughout the workshop.
There are two types of exercises. In the main set of exercises, attendees will progressively prototype an RIA (Remember the Milk). The “follow-the-instructor” exercises are simple, quick exercises in which attendees walk through the creation of particular interactions with the instructor.
Exercises
Main Exercises:
- Prototype an AJAX-style tabbed interface
- Make the prototype display a particular tab when the page loads
- Show & hide error messages
- Show & hide error messages based on the user’s selections
Follow-The-Instructor Exercises
- Adding form-based interactions
- Moving dynamic panels
- Manipulating text on widgets
- Creating simple selection-dependent navigation
Audiences
The audience for this workshop is intermediate to advanced user experience practitioners who have a basic competency in Axure. This competency is demonstrated by having taken the corresponding Basic workshop or class, or by having completed at least three simple prototypes in Axure.
Note: Attendees who do not have this basic competency will be lost and will get nothing out of this workshop. If this workshop is accepted, this prerequisite must be made absolutely clear up front. Additionally, the instructor may request to verify this competency for registered attendees.
Attendees must bring their laptops with mice to the workshop. The laptops must run Windows (either natively or under a virtual machine) and have the most recent version of Axure installed. A 30-day free trial can be downloaded from http:\\www.axure.com\
Speaker Details
Fred Beecher is currently a Senior User Experience Consultant and Business Analyst at Evantage Consulting. He has worked in the User Experience industry since 1998 and has been using Axure since 2005. In 2007, Fred developed two Axure training courses, Basic & Advanced Prototyping in Axure RP, making Evantage Consulting the official training partner of Axure Inc.
Lori Baker, Senior User Experience Consultant at Evantage Consulting has worked in the User Experience industry since 2002 and is passionate about the benefits of prototyping and testing throughout the design phase. Lori has been using Axure avidly since 2006 to prototype a diverse array of systems, from simple content sites to complex embedded.