IxDA - Comments for "Workflows" http://www.ixda.org/node/22625 Comments for "Workflows" en Workflows http://www.ixda.org/node/22625#comment-72803 <p>A little context setting first: I work for Landmark Graphics Corporation, a<br /> software and services provider for the oil and gas industry. Companies<br /> like Shell and Exxon use our software to find and determine the best way to<br /> get oil and gas out of the ground. The various software applications is<br /> very much vertical market and is developed by teams of developers split<br /> across 5 cities (3 US, 1 Canada, 1 Norway). The company is still very,<br /> very new to usability and interaction design which makes it easy for me to<br /> look good *when* I'm able to have an impact. </p> <p>I've worked on a couple of large &quot;from scratch&quot; design projects, but most<br /> of my work involves improving what a developer has &quot;designed&quot; or designing<br /> small UIs (usually dialog level) for some developers who have learned to<br /> trust my design skills over their own.</p> <p>For the most recent large design project, the effort centered around<br /> crafting a product concept for the executive management team to green light<br /> and to provide an initial design sketch for a development team (assuming<br /> the project got green lighted). Our concept team consisted of product<br /> managers, domain experts, and me. My role was to take in what the product<br /> managers and domain experts conceived in mostly vague &quot;wordy&quot; terms and<br /> bring it to life with wireframes and mockups. Deliverables were<br /> wireframes/mockups in GIF/JPEG/PNG format for inclusion in a PowerPoint<br /> presentation (mostly representing sequences in workflows and concepts), a<br /> set of large posters, each showing a workflow illustrated by wireframes and<br /> mockups, and my workbook for the development team (PDF format).</p> <p>I just created a &quot;publication&quot; document in Canvas and started doing my<br /> wireframes. Almost each page consisted of a title, a wireframe or mockup,<br /> and explanatory text. The document was a workbook for me to create the<br /> wireframes and mockups. The early graphics were purely wireframe. As we<br /> went along and felt more comfortable with designs, I created mockups by<br /> taking a wireframe and inserting slightly edited/manipulated bitmap<br /> graphics of seismic sections and the like (also using native Canvas tools).<br /> Throughout the effort, I created PDF versions of my workbook (using the<br /> built in PDF exporter) for distribution to the concept team (about half<br /> weren't local to my office). </p> <p>Once we were satisfied with the initial design concept, I created 6 posters<br /> in a different Canvas document to illustrate different workflows using<br /> wireframes and mockups from the workbook (copy, paste, position, add<br /> explanatory text and graphics). I saved the poster file in PDF format for<br /> distribution and printing.</p> <p>For the PowerPoint presentation, I just exported the wireframes/mockups to<br /> GIF, JPEG, or PNG (select, &quot;Save As&quot;).</p> <p>The executive management team really liked the posters, and the EMT<br /> approved the project.</p> <p>For the smaller efforts, I also create a Canvas workbook and do all of my<br /> wireframes in the document. If there is an existing &quot;design&quot; I usually<br /> include a couple of screen captures and then provide my suggestions. The<br /> suggestions are wireframes (and possibly mockups) along with explanatory<br /> text. The end product for the developer (and the development team, QA, and<br /> the product manager if appropriate) is a PDF version of my workbook. If<br /> appropriate, I'll create a &quot;report&quot; version that just has the final design<br /> and not the intermediate designs. For the non-report versions, I'll<br /> usually move older or intermediate designs to the back of the workbook<br /> (easy to do).</p> <p>I do reuse some wireframes and components either by putting &quot;building<br /> blocks&quot; into a common resource file or just copying and pasting within the<br /> same document. Going through one file would be much easier for me than<br /> opening and closing many files.</p> <p>I also produce a biweekly series of one page design and usability &quot;tip<br /> sheets&quot; for developers. For these sheets, each tip sheet is a separate<br /> document in Canvas exported to PDF. I tried exporting to HTML, but I<br /> didn't like the results as well. The tip sheets include hyperlinks to<br /> selected references and related tip sheets.</p> <p>Ron</p> <p>=====<br /> ============================================================================<br /> Ron Vutpakdi<br /> <A href="http://lists.interactiondesigners.com/listinfo.cgi/discuss-interactiondesigners.com">vutpakdi at acm.org</a></p> <p>__________________________________<br /> Do you Yahoo!?<br /> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it!<br /> <A href="http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/">http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/</a></p> Fri, 30 Jan 2004 14:10:20 +0000 vutpakdi comment 72803 at http://www.ixda.org Workflows http://www.ixda.org/node/22625#comment-72775 <p>Excellent point. Please try and address the relevant questions<br /> highlighted by Andrei when describing the workflow you use (e.g.<br /> purpose, final deliverables, goals).</p> <p>To add these to my previous workflow description - our goal is to<br /> provide documentation to our clients. Typically, this is done<br /> electronically as a final deliverable. Therefore, we typically need to<br /> collect the drawings for output into a final PDF. However, for some<br /> documents, large visual site maps, task flows, we will also print large<br /> banner sized versions with the help of a place like Kinkos. PDF still<br /> works reliably here - makes it easy for the printer. These larger<br /> banners work great for client presentations and really make an<br /> impression. Plus they have something they can take away from the<br /> meeting/project and proudly show to others.</p> <p>Our wireframes typically don't get repurposed in whole, but<br /> occasionally get repurposed in part i the visual design. Additionally,<br /> our wireframes include descriptive text about basic interaction and<br /> cross reference each other. Each wireframe is given an image id (e.g.<br /> 01.1 Home page). And that id is used in cross-referencing.</p> <p>We don't create 80+ individual .ai files as it's a nighmare to try and<br /> have 80 .ai files open at once and navigate through them to change<br /> things. It's pretty rare that you only have to make one change in a<br /> wireframe. If you make one interaction change, that typically has a<br /> waterfall effect that carries over to many other wireframes - another<br /> reason that 80 .ai files in a folder that get imported into ID or<br /> something else (Quark) doesn't work for us.</p> <p>For reports, we're using Quark and ID - bouncing back and forth trying<br /> to make that decision. Word just doesn't give us the flexibility needed<br /> to make our reports the way we want - clean and professional like a<br /> user guide for a product - not the stale old standard report.</p> <p>On Jan 29, 2004, at 10:40 PM, Andrei Herasimchuk wrote:</p> <p>&gt;<i> IOW, are folks just creating drawings with the most basic of<br /> </i>&gt;<i> annotations, or is there more complex descriptions and narrative flow<br /> </i>&gt;<i> from page to page with text? Do the drawings need to be repurposed for<br /> </i>&gt;<i> the web, as single images each or a collection only to be viewed as a<br /> </i>&gt;<i> PDF document? Do images have to be reused individually, or as a<br /> </i>&gt;<i> collection? Etc.<br /> </i><br /> Cheers!</p> <p>Todd R. Warfel<br /> User Experience Architect<br /> MessageFirst | making products easier to use<br /> --------------------------------------<br /> Contact Info<br /> voice: (607) 339-9640<br /> email: <A href="http://lists.interactiondesigners.com/listinfo.cgi/discuss-interactiondesigners.com">twarfel at messagefirst.com</a><br /> web: <a href="http://www.messagefirst.com" title="www.messagefirst.com">www.messagefirst.com</a><br /> aim: <A href="http://lists.interactiondesigners.com/listinfo.cgi/discuss-interactiondesigners.com">twarfel at mac.com</a><br /> --------------------------------------<br /> In theory, theory and practice are the same.<br /> In practice, they are not.<br /> -------------- next part --------------<br /> A non-text attachment was scrubbed...<br /> Name: not available<br /> Type: text/enriched<br /> Size: 2919 bytes<br /> Desc: not available<br /> Url : <A href="http://lists.interactiondesigners.com/private.cgi/discuss-interactiondesigners.com/attachments/20040129/5111ba30/attachment.bin">http://lists.interactiondesigners.com/private.cgi/discuss-interactiondesigners.com/attachments/20040129/5111ba30/attachment.bin</a></p> Fri, 30 Jan 2004 04:00:29 +0000 Todd Warfel comment 72775 at http://www.ixda.org