Foreword
I was lucky enough to attend a workshop run by Dan and Ben––the authors of this book––about prototyping a few years ago. I remember thinking at the time, “I wish there was a book that talked about the what, how, and why of prototyping”. So when SitePoint asked me to help co-ordinate a series of books on UX, this particular book was top of the list.
Before reading this book I had no idea you could quickly make a shareable, clickable prototype with nothing more than a Sharpie, some paper, and a clever set of easy-to-use tools; from paper to mobile screen in minutes. There are many ways to prototype and this book helps you take your ideas and make them real.
The power of a prototype is the ability to take user needs, prioritise them and present them back to the project in a way that doesn’t require endless documentation. User experience is full of cliches, but it’s true a picture really is worth a thousand words.
Joe Leech, Aspects of UX series editor, Bristol, UK, February 2017
Acknowledgments
Thanks
- Simon, Joe, and Sophie for all their help and guidance
- Laura Nevo for POP and responsive collage work she did with us at fffunction
- Stuart Tayler and Sandra Gonzalez for their prototyping workshops at UXBristol 2016
- James Chudley, Stuart Church, and Dave Ellender for inviting us to run a prototyping workshop at UXBristol 2014 –– the origin of this book, as Joe's foreword highlights!
Permissions (and Thanks!)
- Dorothy House (logos, pictures of: workshop affinity post its, style guide, IA, prototype)
- The team at Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives (logos, pictures of prototype)
- The team at Comma Press and everyone involved in creating MacGuffin (logos, pictures of prototype)
- Fauna & Flora International / Global Trees (for responsive collage)
- Winchester Theatre Arts (logos, pictures of prototypes)
- Chloe Hughes and the team at Theatre Royal Plymouth (pictures of sketching workshop)
- Giles, Richard, James, and the rest of the cxpartners team
Who Should Read This Book
This book is for beginner-level UX professionals, web designers, and developers who want to get a practical introduction to prototyping techniques. No prior experience with prototyping is assumed.
Supplementary Materials
- https://www.sitepoint.com/community/ are SitePoint’s forums, for help on any tricky web problems.
- [email protected] is our email address, should you need to contact us to report a problem, or for any other reason.