Designing a Sketching App for iPad Pro, pt 2
[This is part two in a series. Here’s part one if you haven’t read it yet.]
Prototyping is a funny word. Like design itself, it can mean a range of things, so it’s important to get everyone speaking the same language before using it. When I say “prototyping” I just mean “show me how it will feel.”
In a perfect world, you’d be able to bust out a fully functional compiled app, ready for the App Store, every time you wanted to test a design direction. But in the real world, code is hard and takes a long time. So instead we use a variety of ways of testing out how our vision feels. Some are super easy, like making simple tap targets animate slides in Keynote. Some are more involved, like creating something using FramerJS or Pixate.
The key, every time, is making sure your prototype tells the story in the best possible way but takes the shortest amount of time. If using Pixate will take you one day and tells 75% of the story whereas using XCode will take you two weeks while telling 100% of the story, stick with Pixate. If using Keynote tells 65% of the story and it only takes one hour, your choice is clear. In this stage, speed wins.
After yesterday’s post, I kept drawing so I could think through the tools palette. And just like yesterday, I realized I needed to switch into prototyping mode.
But as I began drawing up how I was going to approach the motion study, I realized I didn’t need a prototype yet. Drawing up the first storyboard for “Prototype #1” was enough to prove out my preferred direction, without placing anything on the After Effects stage or writing code. Total time: about 10 minutes to come to a decision I felt good about, at least for now. Yes!
Maybe this is a bad direction. Maybe I’ll end up revisiting it. But one of the joys of doing this kind of work for two decades is I’ve learned to trust my experience and intuition. When I was starting out, I may have agonized over making an executive decision so quickly, but what’s the worst that can happen? Maybe I’ll have to change my mind. Big whoop! Move on, see where it gets you, push until it breaks. As Steve Jobs told me, “Go!”
Next I tried to figure out what would go in our little undo/redo tool palette:
There I go, changing my mind when presented with more information. All part of the process. So how am I going to deal with this extra UI? Where can it go? Here’s where my sketching took me:
And that’s where my sketching has brought me so far. Next up: thinking though document management. After all, a sketching app can’t just be a single page. I’ve made the decision to drop a new user straight onto a blank canvas, but that means I need to help them find their way “up” in the navigation to the document browser. There be dragons. I have the burns and scars to prove it. But my trusty sketching process will keep us moving forward.
See you next time!
[update: here’s part three]
