Title: Prototyping GUIs with Powerpoint
Slug: prototyping-guis-with-powerpoint
Date: 2008-07-15 11:58:00
Author: Kartones
Lang: en
Tags: UX, Tools
Description: How to prototype Graphical User Interfaces with Powerpoint.

 <p>In my new job I've started designing a new web module for an existing application. My first task (apart from reading documentation) is to design all the web interface of the module management. </p> <p>As I became tired of Visio (is useful but only if you have the proper templates, and offers no interaction), I've used the "Paper Powerpoint Prototyping Toolkit", a PPT template I found some time ago in my RSS feeds. It provides black&amp;white Vista-like controls and some sample windows to prototype GUIs, and "hot zones" (shapes with 90% transparency) to simulate interactions with the placed controls.</p> <p>The results are quite good and the design is quite fast. I made some changes to speed up Powerpoint's rendering speed (big opaque shapes take long to repaint, so beaing all in black and white I made the windows backgroundless and now repaints quite fast ;)</p> <p>Here is a small sample of the web page prototypes I've built today, complete with interactive buttons and tabs:</p> <p><img src="https://images.kartones.net/posts/screenshots/ppt_prototyping_example.jpg"></p>
