Utilising XHTML Prototypes
Anders Ramsay and Leah Buley have written an article on Boxes and Arrows which discusses the XHTML Prototyping Methodology, a faster and more flexible approach which overcomes some of the inherent weaknesses of the more traditional methodologies being used. One major advantage of XHTML prototyping is that you are working in the environment that your interfaces or application will use in the real world, rather than trying to simulate interaction on a static Photoshop mockup. And it’s generally faster when you take into account your productivity gains when moving from prototype to finished product.
Bill Buxton defines a Designer (with a capital D) as someone who sketches. This is the ideation phase where you’ll have some great ideas which you can treat as hypotheses to be tested. Prototypes, on the other hand, are where you put those ideas into the real world and see how they pan out. It may be your expectation of user behaviour is completely wrong in the sketching phase. You might discover new, previously unthought of, interactions in your prototypes that make the difference between a slightly usable piece of software and an engaging user experience. None of this can be captured if you rely solely on two dimensional wireframes and mockups to complete your design. By iteratively testing your ideas using the actual technology you substantially increase the likelihood of project success.
A key to the XHTML prototyping approach is the best practice of layered development recommended by web standards advocates. Create your XHTML content layer first and let that define your information architecture on the page – rather than writing XHTML to fit your design. Then you can layer on your CSS for presentation and follow it with JavaScript for your behaviour layer. Think of it like stacking pancakes – XHTML pancake, CSS pancake and then JavaScript pancake. Did I mention that I enjoy pancakes?
With some tweaking to meet your own personal needs and preferences you should be able to reap reasonable benefits. If you’re not convinced, give it a go.
