The iPhone’s Fifth Birthday the Impact on UI Prototyping
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Written by: pidoco1
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Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 |
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Since the launch of the iPhone five years ago, there have been many developments in mobile technology and UI prototyping. People can now use UI prototyping to create wireframes for apps and websites designed for smartphone users. UI prototyping can be especially useful for prototyping smartphone applications, because with UI prototyping usability issues can be discovered early on in a project. Many people discover in the UI prototyping process that more usability issues arise for mobile applications than in UI prototyping for desktop applications.
What is UI prototyping?
UI prototyping is the prototyping of user interface designs. UI prototyping is therefore used to create a mockup, often in the form of a wireframe prototype, to outline and simulate the basic features of a user interface design. UI prototyping can often be done quickly and in some cases without programming.
Why is UI prototyping used?
UI prototyping usually takes place in the initial stages of a project. Because UI prototyping is often a quick process, UI prototyping is often used to show stakeholders what a designer has in mind for a final user interface design. The mockups created from UI prototyping can also be used to get feedback from end users. UI prototyping therefore is often the first step in discovering possible usability issues.
UI prototyping for multi-functional devices
The main selling point of the original iPhone was that it was an iPod, mobile phone and internet browser in one. A usability issue that may be discovered during UI prototyping for a mobile application could arise from the user switching between applications. There are some UI prototyping applications available that enable UI prototyping on the smartphones themselves. With this type of UI prototyping software, designers can experiment with the layout of their UI prototypes on different devices and simulate the app in the real context of the user.
UI prototyping for touch screens
Over the past five years, more and more mobile devices have been created with touch screens. This aspect of usability must be incorporated into UI prototyping. In UI prototyping it is important to remember that people use instinctive movements to control their touch-enabled mobile devices. Many of these movements emulate those of the iPhone, which you should bear in mind with UI prototyping. With UI prototyping for mobile devices, it is good to ask users how they would navigate around your UI design and what methods of interaction they would use. In UI prototyping you can show your users a partial implementation of your application to get feedback. UI prototyping therefore helps you discover usability issues early on, which you can then fix before implementation.
App UI prototyping
UI prototyping software is also used to create mobile app prototypes. With the launch of the iPhone came the introduction of the very first apps. UI prototyping software is available for both iPhone and Android apps. UI prototyping is important for creating apps, because the more usable they are the more people will want to download them and the more profitable they will be. With the introduction of a possible Android style guide, more people will start to use UI prototyping software to help them create usable and popular apps.
What is the future of UI prototyping?
With the introduction of Siri in the iPhone, we will see an increase in the number of mobile devices that offer this type of software. UI prototyping will have to deal with the challenges of voice-activation software, which will change the way we control our mobile devices. What is certain is that wherever mobile technology advances, UI prototyping will be used to help users get the most out of new features.
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Source: The iPhone’s Fifth Birthday the Impact on UI Prototyping
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