InfoFoundry

• Published:August 29th, 2008
• Comments:No Comment
• Category:Information Architecture, tools

There are many different tools for prototyping that an Information Architect can use to author sitemaps and wireframes. I’ve never personally found a tool that I’ve been 100% happy with. The most common prototyping tool would have to be Microsoft Visio (which is what I use mostly) which allows for extremely rapid prototyping with a moderate amount of customization for doing live user testing. There often seems to be tension between a full GUI (Graphical User Interface) and dynamic code producing tools for testing purposes. Some of the most well known tools among others are Axure, IRise, Omnigraffle, Flash, Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator, InDesign, Freehand, Powerpoint and even Ruby on Rails. Below are screen views of Visio, Axure and Omingraffle. For the most part Axure is the only product focused to application and site design. But it falls down in the limited number of template elements that it has, and the inability a user has to create their own template elements. The screenshot from Visio is from a contact form page that I recently authored as part of an Information Architecture.

Omnigraffle

Omnigraffle Interface

Visio

Visio Interface

Axure

Axure Interface