Sketching and Prototyping
Step 1: Sketch a New Webpage Design
Read the personas and the website linked above. Sketch three different low-fidelity wireframe designs for a new webpage that could better serve needs of the target users. Include labels in your wireframe (like section headers) that indicate what types of content will go where. For each sketch, you will also write a brief (200-300 word) summary of the design and how it addresses one or more of the personas’ frustrations or needs.
Your sketches do not need to be polished, but they should be clear enough that we can understand what you are showing. We encourage you to sketch on paper. However, you will submit electronically. Please scan or take a decent photograph of your sketch and put it in your document. You will submit an electronic document that includes your three sketches with summaries (preferably PDF, otherwise Microsoft Word).
Step 2: Develop an Interactive Prototype in Axure
Next, choose one of your designs and convert it into a low-to-medium fidelity interactive prototype in Axure. This means your prototype does not need to have the final copy (that is, body text) or look and feel (that is, colors and fonts and graphics) completely worked out. The YouTube channel called Axure RP Prototyping: Noob to Master (Links to an external site.) is a very useful resource in learning the basics of the Axure tool. If you watch the first ~5-10 videos you will have a decent enough grasp of the interface to complete this assignment.
Your Axure prototype can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. It can have multiple pages, or just one page. It can simulate interaction on either a mobile or desktop platform. To make your prototype interactive, consider the features for buttons, links, slideshows and sliding content, dynamic panels, forms and other inputs, etc. The purpose of this part of the assignment is simply to give you exposure to the tool. Those of you who would like to build your portfolio may want to put more effort into this part of the assignment than others. However, anyone who meets the basic requirements will receive full credit.
