The story between the product manager and the prototype design

As a product manager, I've always thought that prototyping should be more than just the work of designers, but also the work of product managers-especially when they are in the early stages of discussion.

and the skeleton and soul of a product are usually given by the product manager, while blood and meat are given by research and development engineers, and the facial features and limbs are endowed by designers. However, before there is no flesh, how should the team members outline a complete "skeleton", I think this is the product manager compulsory homework. And because the skeleton is sketched, will likely directly affect the team's colleagues on the requirements of the understanding of consistency, effective reduction because of understanding the difference brought about by the meaningless PK, but also can directly affect the early requirements of communication and discussion of the efficiency, so as to help the team as soon as possible to reach a consensus on the needs.

To sum up, then this need to outline the "skeleton" diagram, is the product manager needs to do prototype design.

• text

Einstein said, if I can ' t picture is, I can ' t understand it.

Most of the time, product managers can picture their own product design ideas, but from a certain point of view, the product manager needs to do more work than Einstein, more difficult. After all, the theory of relativity is not everyone can understand, and the prototype design of product managers need to ensure that the team of different positions, responsible for different jobs, knowledge structure of each member is not the same, can fully understand it.

Because the prophase need and each position colleague communication, also decided the product manager to do the prototype design to have the following characteristic:

1. Low-fidelity, high efficiency-do not have to invest too much energy in aesthetics and interactive logic, just to express the core page and function can;

2. Easy to modify, easy to spread-can be easily modified to supplement, at the same time can easily export and share to the project team owner;

Existing common tools:

Whiteboard + pen, windows--really and efficient, but can not easily spread and modify at any time;

Excel, visio--They are more suitable for the requirements of the confirmation, the functional logic in accordance with the specification of standardized text description;

powerpoint,photoshop--They're too inefficient, and they tend to spend a lot of time doing PowerPoint to talk about neither power nor point ...

In summary, the product manager's prototype design must be "highly effective, easy to demonstrate, and fully understood by all members" in the process of communicating with each post, requirements elaboration and confirmation, and rapid iteration (pictured below).

The so-called, 工欲善其事 prerequisite.

Admittedly, I believe Millet can also make a revolutionary victory (I've seen an expert in Excel can make a prototype design), but is it better to choose a prototype that works for you?

Next, we recommend some prototype design tools for the product Manager:

· Web prototype design Tools

1. Axure

http://www.axure.com/

http://www.axure.org/

Axure has been mentioned too many times in so many places that there is no need to say much.

Advantages：

Component/instance resource rich; happen--near-perfect demo of it

Shortcomings：

Learning curve steep, need to devote more time, personally think it is not suitable for Product manager to use, of course, it is recommended that the new students take the time to learn.

2. GUI Design Studio

http://www.carettasoftware.com/guidesignstudio/

If you compare axure to Photoshop in prototyping, GUI design studio is a Windows drawing board.

Advantages：

Simple, compact, easy to learn, easy to use; prototype simulation demo function silk no less inferior to axure

Shortcomings：

More focused on the prototype design of Windows desktop software, the Web, mobile phone-side design help limited;

3. Pencil

Http://www.evolus.vn/Pencil/Screenshots.html

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8487

Pencil is a prototype in the form of FF plug-in, as simple as its name, suitable for Web prototype rapid rendering.

Advantages：

FF plug-in form operation; simple, compact, fast and convenient

Shortcomings：

Small component libraries, limited functionality

4. Mockingbird

http://gomockingbird.com/

Mockbird is an online prototyping tool that is rich in components for web-side, handset-side product design.

Provides a completely browser-based window of product prototype design services, using the Cappuccino JavaScript Open source framework, can be more realistic simulation Axure such desktop software, to the user a great intimacy. No Flash, no IE, all in Canvas, Apple style!

Advantages：

Can be used online, fast loading, rich components, online storage

Shortcomings：

No support for IE, bad for chrome; the output PNG does not support Chinese

5. Mockflow

http://app.mockflow.com/mockflow/

Mockflow is the focus of the recommended tool, as well as the online version of its rich components are friendly and powerful, and support an online share of the component library! Very suitable for the web-side and mobile phone-side product prototype design.

Advantages：

Component library and its rich, interface cool, online version of the smooth, powerful right-click menu; Support Chinese, multiple documents online save

Shortcomings：

There is a space limit on the online version; Demo function is slightly inferior to mockups

• Mobile phone software prototype design section

1. mockups

Http://www.balsamiq.com/demos/mockups/Mockups.html

Mockups is a designer for their work to facilitate the development of personal software, developers do not think of the hand-painted style and simple components to make the software so popular, in fact it is the most attractive place is the perfect demo function.

Advantages：

For mobile phone terminal prototype design and development, simulation demo function is very strong;

Shortcomings：

Based on Adobe AIR, the software performance is general when the file size is large, and the support for Chinese multiple fonts is poor, and inserting pictures is not supported.

2. IPhone mockup

http://iphonemockup.lkmc.ch/

The iphone mockup is a tool designed to focus on the iphone's software prototype, providing all the components that are commonly used on the iphone.

Advantages：

Support for online collaboration, the same design can be modified by different people; iphone design components are rich and offer both freehand and standard style

Shortcomings：

The function is less, does not support the export to the picture file, does not support the demonstration;

3. Lumzy

http://lumzy.com/app/

Lumzy is based on the Flash/flex platform of product prototype design software, its components are also suitable for mobile phone-side prototype design.

Advantages：

Friendly interface, rich function, support picture insertion, preview, export function, support hand-painted, Mac, win three style switch.

Shortcomings：

The components that apply to mobile phones are not as rich as the top two.

4. Iplotz

http://iplotz.com/app/index.php

Like Lumzy, Iplotz is also an online prototype design software based on Flash/flex platform.

Compared to the former, Iplotz provides a library of components specifically for the iphone, with very strong project/time management capabilities.

Advantages：

With Lumzy, contains the iphone specialized component library, which supports HTML preview and export.

Summary & Recommendations:

There are no best tools, only the ones that are best for you. As long as the efficient, accurate expression of the design intent of the tools, is a good tool!

First hand-painted, sketch out the overall structure of the product, and then do prototype design.

You can save a lot of time by first using the tools to make the most commonly used components and group&lock&save them.

· Concluding

Finally, share some of the work of personal feelings, and share with you:

Product managers are not necessarily professionals, but should be as versatile as possible, even the versatile, not God, please fully trust the partners, the team will not have a pig-like teammates, so please do not think of themselves as God ...

To fully trust the professional ability of the designer, always keep in mind that they represent the user, the other members of the team are also users;

Eliminate the inconsistency of the requirements understanding in the prototype design phase of the product manager, liberate the designers, and let them devote themselves to the design work after the requirement confirmation.

Let's take the designers ' guns and Hua Lie the war ·