prototyping, are we there yet?

ASK is a [microsite] for [friends of young adults, ages 12–24, with Asperger’s Syndrome] so that they may (a) learn to [empathetically communicate] with the target demographic and (b) [do not feel alone] in their struggles to do so.

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This week as we prepare for faculty reviews, I set out on the adventure of prototyping. That is, starting to take my very much imperfect (but getting there) wireframes into prototyping software (After Effects? XD? InVision? who knows..) to help faculty reviewers better understand the concepts that I am presenting to them. I specifically want them to be able to identify with my vision of the interactive elements of the site, such as (but not yet limited to):

• the single, home page scroll
• a rotational ‘pebble’ movement, with mouse (this makes more sense in context)
• a ‘scribble on’ with vertical scroll
• individual color fills– includes pebbles, number fade-in’s and underline call-outs
• letter tracking with horizontal scrolling
• vertical scroll, grey background ‘box’ movement (indicating current ‘section’/ position on the page)
• horizontal, scrolling text

I would additionally like them to be able to comment on the home page visuals (colors, visual identity, text layout, content management, design elements, etc.). I will explain the concept behind ASK itself, as well as the paramount design elements to them to help ground them in their understanding of the site and my decisions (all of which will be housed on the ‘about’ page, not yet created). I hope to get a lot from the reviews!

As I am now, I have ventured through InVision, XD and Sketch– ruling them each out for their simplicity; they will not work for the complex animations I aim to created on my site. Therefore, I will be (and have begun) prototyping in Adobe After Effects. Hopefully this will allow users to better understand the interactions of the site, even if they cannot perform the interactions themselves (something I am unhappy with, but will have to settle for).

I additionally went back through my wireframes and made minor changes in regards to the ‘scribble,’ rounding the edges to mimic the current lines involved in the pebbles, as well as massaged the type rags. I feel that the home page wireframe(s) are in a good place for prototyping.