{"id":324,"date":"2019-01-09T02:32:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T02:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scoobr.com\/niblettes_old\/?p=324"},"modified":"2021-06-04T02:32:26","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T02:32:26","slug":"my-prototyping-toolkit-6-of-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.scoobr.com\/niblettes_old\/2019\/01\/09\/my-prototyping-toolkit-6-of-7\/","title":{"rendered":"My Prototyping Toolkit (6 of 7)"},"content":{"rendered":"

6. Functional Prototypes<\/h2>\n

Functional prototypes actually work. They also blur the lines between prototyping and engineering. But sometimes they are necessary to either fully demonstrate a vision. And sometimes its almost faster to build something real then something fake.<\/p>\n

Tools<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Ruby on Rails<\/li>\n
  2. Xcode<\/li>\n
  3. Atom<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Ruby on Rails
    \nFor the Web<\/h3>\n

    RoR is a venerable web development framework. I still use it to rapidly prototype fully functional, db-driven, web-based application designs. Its fast. Its DRY. Within an hour I can have a very basic commerce site built and deployed.<\/p>\n

    The learning curve is steep. You need to know Ruby and understand the model-view-controller paradigm. You will have to use the CLI a lot. You should understand relational databases. And hand crafting HTML and CSS will often be helpful.<\/p>\n

    There may be better frameworks for prototyping. And working with JS will be more transferable. But, I use RoR because we have a history together, and it does what I need.<\/p>\n

    Benefits<\/h4>\n
      \n
    • Your prototype is real and truly interactive<\/li>\n
    • You can use real data<\/li>\n
    • You can focus on behaviour and workflow and let the framework worry about layout<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Drawbacks<\/h4>\n
        \n
      • Steep learning curve<\/li>\n
      • Code (benefit for some, drawback for others)<\/li>\n
      • Relies on a web of integrated technologies that you will have to learn<\/li>\n
      • Ruby is not a common language so it it not very transferable<\/li>\n
      • It is getting old now, there are newer and more popular frameworks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Price<\/h4>\n
          \n
        • Free<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Alternatives I have Used<\/h4>\n
            \n
          • ColdFusion<\/strong>. Eons ago.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            \"Xcode<\/p>\n

            XCode
            \nIntegrated Development Environment<\/h3>\n

            Apple’s industrial strength development environment. I use it to produce highly realistic iOS prototypes, without relying on hacks or fakes. In many cases I can do it faster and with less frustration than with Axure. Learning Swift is a prerequisite. Checkout Stanford’s free software engineering classes on Swift.<\/p>\n

            To be honest my Swift-fu is weak. I am limited to using standard iOS controls rather than playing with novel navigation methods or clever animated transitions. Still, sometimes testing with a real app, that really works, on a real phone is worth it.<\/p>\n

            If you don’t mind working in Code and thinking like an software engineer, XCode can be an exceptional prototyping tool.<\/p>\n

            Benefits<\/h4>\n
              \n
            • Very powerful<\/li>\n
            • Truly interactive prototypes<\/li>\n
            • Make real app using Apple’s controls<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              Drawbacks<\/h4>\n
                \n
              • Steep learning curve, for the tool, for the language and the APIs<\/li>\n
              • Code (benefit for some, drawback for others)<\/li>\n
              • From a design perspective, InterfaceBuilder behaves in weird and unexpected ways<\/li>\n
              • I haven’t found a CSS-like anything for formatting, which makes it a lot of error-prone manual work to keep all the font styles consistent for example.<\/li>\n
              • Hard to demo to non-Apple users<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                Price<\/h4>\n
                  \n
                • Free<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                  Alternatives I have Used<\/h4>\n
                    \n
                  • None<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                    \"\"<\/p>\n

                    Atom
                    \nCode Editor<\/h3>\n

                    When I need to dig directly into code I use Atom. I used to use TextMate. As a designer the finer points of editor preference that erupts into developer holy wars is lost on me. Atom looks a little nicer to me.<\/p>\n

                    Benefit<\/h4>\n
                      \n
                    • Give my usage I notice little difference with other text editors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                      Drawbacks<\/h4>\n
                        \n
                      • None<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                        Price<\/h4>\n
                          \n
                        • Free<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                          Alternatives I have Used<\/h4>\n
                            \n
                          • Textmate, Brackets<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                             <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                            6. Functional Prototypes Functional prototypes actually work. They also blur the lines between prototyping and engineering. But sometimes they are necessary to either fully demonstrate a vision. And sometimes its almost faster to build something real then something fake. Tools Ruby on Rails Xcode Atom Ruby on Rails For the Web RoR is a venerable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/parCYG-5e","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scoobr.com\/niblettes_old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scoobr.com\/niblettes_old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scoobr.com\/niblettes_old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scoobr.com\/niblettes_old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scoobr.com\/niblettes_old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.scoobr.com\/niblettes_old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331,"href":"http:\/\/www.scoobr.com\/niblettes_old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scoobr.com\/niblettes_old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scoobr.com\/niblettes_old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scoobr.com\/niblettes_old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}