This is part five in my series about the Human-Computer Interaction course I took through Coursera. Read all my posts for the full story.
Assignment 4 Start Building
In Assignment 4 we began the process of creating a high fidelity prototype based on one of the wireframes we made in Assignment 3. I selected CarBuddy prototype 2.
But first we needed a plan--a development plan. To practice the development plan building skills needed for on-the-job projects the plan needed to contain discrete components and thoughtfully structured deadlines, while taking into account outside constraints.
Then we began building a more polished prototype, starting with the home screen and links to major screens. A variety of methods exist for creating prototypes, such as html mockups or using programs like as Justinmind or Keynote. I choose to develop my prototype in Axure. UXMastery.com has an extensive list of UX tools if you want to see more.
Templates of things like buttons, menus, an iPhone, etc can be found and used in many of these applications to save time. Remember, a prototype is not the actual working product; it's just another level of test. So saving time and money developing these nicely polished prototypes is a great idea!
At this juncture I felt a name change from Car Buddy to Car Saver was in order as well, as the app should not be your "buddy" but is really all about saving your car's long term mechanical service life.
Here is Car Saver prototype 3 built using Axure:
