Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Kyle Soucy

Kyle Soucy — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:34:09 GMT

I would make sure to include a level of caution when thinking about taking the leap to going out on your own… Just because you love what you do (I hope) and are good at it, doesn’t mean you should open up your own shop. People need to understand that, especially when you’re first starting out, you will also have to be able to handle sales, client/project mgmt, accounting, etc. and hopefully love all that just as much (and be just as good at it).

From my experience, I went out on my own because I love being a usability/interface design consultant and I wanted to be my own boss, but I didn’t account for all the other responsibilities that go with it. I love the work that I do, but I *hate* having to handle all the sales calls, proposal writing and negotiation that has to take place before a project even begins. Unless you have the capital to hire a client relations mgr or a sales mgr this is a hat that most entrepreneurs have to wear.

Like some of the other people that have commented, I’ve never had a loan to start or maintain my biz. I think this is wise, but I constantly question whether it holds me back from growing.

Either way, I hope this article gets written and published. I would definitely be interested in reading it!

Kyle Soucy — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:52:06 GMT

I would definitely provide links to the live PDF prototypes within the article.

A video demo of a usability test on a PDF prototype is possible.

I envision this article to just be on PDF prototyping (not ppt or other alternatives).

Kyle Soucy — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 22:08:51 GMT

Thanks for the tip! Visio is my wireframe tool of choice, so this will definitely come in handy.

It’d be good to have an article on Visio macros, but I’m not sure if you have more to share. If not, it’d be nice if there was a place to post this where more people would read it… some kind of “Quick Tips” section.

Kyle Soucy — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 13:06:19 GMT

This is interesting. Is a persona really a persona if it’s only based on web analytic data? I would think it doesn’t truly become a persona until you bring in the other data you collected from interviews, surveys and testing. I’d be curious to read more about your thoughts on this.

In the past, I’ve created what I call an “Assumptions-Based Persona”. I like to do this with clients that have a hard time understanding the value of user research. After I get the buy-in we put together personas based off of their assumptions and other “data” they may have. After conducting the research we create new/real personas and compare them with the ones based on the assumptions. It’s usually pretty interesting for the client to see the difference and realize what they did/didn’t know about their users.

Kyle Soucy — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:34:25 GMT

IEEE Spectrum just posted a new article on this topic: Becoming Your Own Boss (https://origin.www.spectrum.ieee.org/apr07/5001)

The article covers what you should consider before going out on your own and the questions you should ask yourself before giving up your day job.

Kyle Soucy — Wed, 30 May 2007 14:41:49 GMT

I’d be interested in seeing examples of wireframes that present the concept/rationale behind the IA. I’d like to see how it’s incorporated into the wireframes without getting mixed up in other interface notes, comments, etc.

Kyle Soucy — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 09:37:19 GMT

Henrik, you asked a great question, why should you use Acrobat or other tools to do low-fidelity prototyping if you have a developer available to code? Here are a few reasons:

1) You’re able to get feedback early in the development process—before you’ve invested more time and money into the development effort. You may have access to a developer that can code anything quickly, but is it worth their time to code a design before you even know if it’s usable?

Everyone has their favorite prototyping tool, just like everyone has their favorite wireframing tool and I think it’s a personal choice and depends on what you’re comfortable and proficient using. I know people who can code a CSS prototype much faster than they can whip up a Powerpoint, PDF, or Flash prototype.

2) A team tends to get married to their design once it’s been coded. Again, this depends on the environment you work in, but it’s common that developers and other team members are reluctant to make changes to a design once they’ve spent time coding it. Also, in my experience, once a higher-up sees it “live” they start wanting it done yesterday.

3) Users tend to feel inhibited to give feedback on a design that looks too “polished”. If you’re testing your prototypes (which I hope you are), you’ll find that users are more comfortable being critical of a prototype that doesn’t look finished.

4) Since it doesn’t require technical skills you’re not reliant on your developer. What if that resource was no longer available?

Carolyn Snyder described the benefit of paper prototyping in her book as, “maximum feedback for minimum effort”. I’d say that’s the goal of low-fidelity prototyping. It doesn’t matter what tool you use to prototype as long as you are getting the most out of it without having to put forth a lot of effort.

UIE also has a great article on 5 Prototyping Techniques (http://www.uie.com/articles/prototyping_tips/) that covers the debate of coded prototypes vs. paper prototypes.

I hope this helps to answer your question.

Kyle Soucy — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:56:14 GMT

Hi Fred,

I’m happy you liked the article and the examples. Unfortunately, you can’t create layers in Acrobat. The layers that appear in the PDF document are based on the layers created in the original application (Visio, InDesign, or AutoCAD); however, Acrobat does give you the ability to show or hide each layer in response to a user’s actions.

I’ve heard nothing but great things about Axure. I’ve only briefly played around with it, but I plan on really getting my hands dirty with it soon!

Kyle Soucy — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:59:52 GMT

Henrik,

It sounds like coded prototypes are the way to go in your environment since you can get them done quicker and cheaper. In my experience, I’ve found that is not typically the case. Like I mentioned in my previous post, it’s all about what you are comfortable with and proficient using. There is no perfect prototyping tool or method that fits everyone’s needs perfectly. Depending on your skills, environment, or needs of the project, different tools may be more effective at achieving the level of fidelity you need in a prototype.

Kyle Soucy — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:18:32 GMT

Hi John,

I’m glad you liked the article. When I create wireframes in Visio, I’ll make the links active after I convert the document to a PDF. Acrobat will keep the integrity of links to web pages, but I don’t think you can create links to other pages until after the document is converted to a PDF.

My practice varies depending on the project needs. I find that I use PDF prototypes typically when I need to conduct remote testing early in the development process.

Kyle Soucy — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:40:12 GMT

Hi Alexa,

Sorry for the late response. There is a way to change graphics in a PDF without having to go back to the original file. Go to Tools > Advanced Editing > Touchup Object Tool. Once you have the Touchup object Tool selected, right click on the image you want to edit and choose Edit Object. This will open up your preferred image editor with the image you selected opened. Make your changes to the image and click save. You will be prompted to go back to Acrobat where your edited image will be there already embedded.

Unfortunately, if you want to make major changes to a page layout then you have to edit the page in the original program that you used to make the PDF.

Hope this helps you,

Kyle

Kyle Soucy — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:17:06 GMT

Love it! This gets me even more excited to see everyone at the Summit tomorrow. Great job Jorge!