Effective Prototyping with Excel: A practical handbook for developers and designers (Interactive Technologies)

230 Pages·2009·28.34 MB·English

by  Nevin Berger

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DEDICATIONS
In memory of Gene Berger and Sam Norman.
-NB
To my loving and supportive wife, Jacqueline, and children, Nick and Vanessa.
-MA
I gratefully acknowledge the love and support of my children, Warren, Willy, Ariel,
and Miranda Sampson, without whom there would be no point; the inspiration of
music by Philip Glass, Frank Zappa, David Byrne, Moby, and Blondie; and the
unyielding persistence of the lovely yet talented Spanky Kushner, my lead critic,
who keeps me honest.
I dedicate this volume to the memory of James Julius Sampson, whose mission in
life was to teach compassion: May the long-time sun shine upon you, all love sur-
round you, and the pure light within you guide you all the way on.
-FS
I dedicate this book for my life-partner and spouse Minne Fekkes.
-JA
xiii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank our reviewers, who contributed so much to this book: John
Armitage, Deborah Mayhew, and Dirk-Jan Hoets. With their thoughtful comments
and attention to detail, we are confident the only errors that remain are our own.
Lastly,wewouldliketomakespecialmentionofanessentialfigureinthecreation
of this book: Diane Cerra. Diane was the guiding force behind this book, and the
seriesofwhichitisapart.Shehelpedtoguidethisworktoitspresentshapemore
than anyone else. We are especially grateful, and thank Diane from the bottom of
our hearts. Diane, the next Timpano is in your honor.
xv
ABOUT THE
AUTHORS
NevinBergeristheSeniorDirectorofUserExperienceandDesignforTechWebof
UnitedBusinessMedia.PreviouslyhewastheDirectorofDesignatZiffDavisMedia,
Senior Interaction Designer at Oracle Corporation/Peoplesoft, Inc., and held Online
Creative Director positions at World Savings, Ziff Davis, and OFOTO.
MichaelArentistheVicePresidentofUserExperienceatSAPBusinessObjects,and
haspreviouslyheldpositionsatSAPLabs,PeopleSoft,AdobeSystems,MetaDesign,
Sun Microsystems, and Apple Computer. He is a co-author of the first definitive
book on software prototyping, Effective Prototyping for Software Makers (Morgan
Kaufmann). In addition, Michael is the holder of a number of national and interna-
tional patents.
Jonathan Arnowitz is currently a Senior User Experience Architect at Google.
Jonathanhasover20yearsexperienceindesigninguserexperiences,andrecently
co-authoredthebookEffectivePrototypingforSoftwareMakers.Jonathanstartedout
designinginteractivemultimediasoftware.In1991JonathanmovedtotheNether-
lands where he was an Interaction Design Consultant for over 10 years. Most
recently,JonathanworkedasaSeniorInteractionDesignerforPeopleSoftandthen
asUserExperienceArchitectforSAPLabswhereheworkedondesigning,training,
andimplementingUserExperiencePatternsforthenextgenerationofSAPApplica-
tions. Jonathan is also a volunteer for ACM/SIGCHI where among other things he
wastheco-founderoftheDUXconference(DesigningforUserExperiences),former
co-editor in chief of Interactions Magazine, and most recently the Design
xvii
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Community co-chair for CHI2008. He also loves music, almost any kind but has a
particular place in his heart for Gustav Mahler–as well as things fin-de-siecle in
general.
Fred Sampson is an Information Developer for the Content Management and
Discovery team at the IBM Silicon Valley Lab, where he helps user experience
designers create self-documenting user interfaces. He plans to be an information
architect when he grows up. Fred has been a committee member for the DUX
(DesigningforUserExperience)andCHI(Computer-HumanInteraction)conferences,
and contributes regularly to ACM Interactions magazine. Fred is Vice-President for
FinanceofACMSIGCHI,aseniormemberoftheSocietyforTechnicalCommunication,
andamemberoftheInformationArchitectureInstituteandtheUsabilityProfessionals
Association.HelivesonMontereyBayinCalifornia.
xviii
1
CHAPTER
A DEVELOPER’S DILEMMA
In this chapter you will learn
n A case study
W
n The benefits of using Excel for prototyping
n The productivity and collaboration opportunities
n Our goal in creating this book
Note
IfyouareeagertodiveimmediatelyintoExcelprototyping,skipaheadtothe“Howto
createyourfirstExcelprototype”sectionofChapter2,onpage16.
A Case Study
Inanunnamedsoftwarecompany,longagoandfaraway,adeveloperlearnedthathis
product was going to have little access to the company's user interface design
resources. This meant that he received no help with the design—only random,
adhocadvicefromproductstakeholders.Thedeveloperwasconcernedabouthispro-
duct'susability.Hedidnotwanttoseehisefficientcodingwastedonalessthanoptimal
userinterfacedesign.Heheardthatsomeuserinterfacedesignershadsetupastealth
prototypingservicetoassistdeveloperswhoneededsomeunscheduledandunbud-
getedhelp.Howsuchathingwaspossiblehedidn'tknoworcare;heneededtheirhelp.
Indesperationthedeveloperwenttothedesigners'Fridayofficehours.Hethought
he would need a whole day to mock up a prototype based on the functional
requirements he had received. He was disappointed to hear that he would have
onlyanhourofthedesigners'timeandcouldnotimaginethathemightwalkaway
with anything that resembled a codeable prototype.
Attheprototypingoffice,thetwodesignersexplainedthattheywoulddevelopthe
prototype together; he would get enough direction so that he could do the rest
himself.Hecouldnotbelieveit,butwhatcouldhedo?Hedidnotknowanyproto-
typing tools, nor did he have the skills to use such tools.
5
ACaseStudy
PART 1: TURNING EXCEL INTO A PROTOTYPING TOOL
Muchtohissurprise,thedesignersopenedMicrosoftExcelandusedatemplatefile
to implement his designs. The file looked like nothing he had ever seen in Excel
before. The spreadsheet grid was changed into a layout grid, and the worksheets
resembled software window layouts rather than spreadsheets. He learned in the
sessionhow,byusingonlycopyandpastecommands,thedesignerscouldquickly
create his basic window layout. In fact, within the hour the two designers finished
the work he needed and gave him an Excel file with his designs.
Backathisownoffice,thedeveloperwassatisfiedwiththeresultsuntilherealized
thatthereweresomefunctionsthathadbeenneglected.Atfirsthethoughthehad
towaituntilthenextFridayforanotherappointmentwiththedesigners.Butwhen
heopenedtheExcelfileandrealizedthat,becausehehadusedExcelbeforetocreate
spreadsheets,hewasveryfamiliarwiththesoftware'sfeatures.Withnomoretraining
thanthatshortsessionwiththedesigners,hestartedtoaddthemissingfunctionality.
Within the Excel file he found worksheets with the widgets and buttons he needed
andevenaworksheetofinstructions.Hefounditeasytocopybuttonsandtoaddfields
andtext.Hemadeafewmistakes,butCTRL-Zalwaysundidthem.Infact,helearned,as
withnormalExceluse,thatCTRL-ZundidandCTRL-Yredidmultiplesteps.Thisallowed
himtomakechanges,backup,andgoforwardtocomparehischangesbeforecom-
mittingtothem.Noonetaughthimthisprototypingtechnique;hestumbledonitby
exploringtheskillshehadalreadylearnedwithExcelforcreatingspreadsheets.
Afterwhathethoughtofasplayingaround,herealizedthathehadputthefinish-
ing touches on his prototype and had something to show product management.
Withoutthinkingaboutit,thedeveloperbecameanExcelprototyperandhadpro-
duced a good enough prototype of his application screens within an hour.
This book will share with you this developer's experience with the simplicity and
easeofExcelprototyping. Havingworkedinmanycompaniesandseenhowusing
Excel as a prototyping tool helped designers, developers, and product managers
better express their requirements, we feel that we have the experience with Excel
prototyping to empower you as well.
Introduction
ThisbookisabouthowtoprototypewithExcel(oranotherspreadsheetapplication
with similar functionality).
6
Introduction
CHAPTER 1: A DEVELOPER’S DILEMMA
This book will also touch lightly on the larger topic of prototyping. Although the
bookdoesnotattempttocompletelycoverthetopicofprototyping,itwilldiscuss
prototypingasitrelatestoprototypingwithExcel.Foracomprehensivediscussion
on prototyping, we refer the reader to our first book, Effective Prototyping for
Software Makers.
Excel is an amazing prototyping tool. It is amazing because it is the only tool we
know that combines these advantages into a single tool:
n Prototyping flexibility
n Efficiency and ease of use
n Professional results
n No special skills required
n Readily available
Excel Prototyping
“Using Excel for prototyping? I don't get it!”
This is a common reaction from people when we first try to describe prototyping
with Excel. The concept is far from what you use Excel for in your daily work. For
someitislikeclaimingthattheirwashingmachinecanmowthelawn.Peoplecan-
not visualize how it can be done until they see it.
When you look at Excel, you probably just see a spreadsheet; you just can't think
outside the table cell. To understand Excel as a prototyping tool, you will have to
stepoutofthementalmodelthatsaysExcelisonlyaspreadsheetapplication.This
book will show you how.
Prototyping Flexibility
Asaprototypingtool,Excelisnotonlyeasytouse,itisquiteflexibleforthevarious
methodsofprototyping.Youcancreatestaticscreenwireframes,screenswithclick-
throughinteractionandnavigation,andevenprototypesthatcanbeoptimizedfor
different types of usability testing.
To illustrate what we mean, the following images are prototypes created in Excel.
You can experience these prototypes for yourself by visiting the book's Website
and downloading each of these examples as native Excel files:
www.effectiveprototyping.com/ep_excel/.
7
Introduction