This is the blog post for Techsailor Base Session #2 – Web Design Prototyping with Axure, written by Gennie Tan.

What do you think is the preferred software for folks in web development when prototyping or building wireframes? PowerPoint? Visio?

A few days ago, our design team decided to give Axure a try and I had the honor to fiddle around with the software. Through which, I found that Axure enables users to create detailed wireframes, interactive prototypes and it is also able to generate documentations for applications and websites on-the-fly.

Without appearing like I am trying to sell the software, let’s review some of the advantages of Axure:

Rapid Prototypes – Wireframes can be created easily in Axure; simply drag and drop typical web components from the widgets and library to build your wireframes. You would also be able to define layout hierarchies for design templating.

Functional Wireframes – One of the nifty features with Axure is the ability to generate functional HTML, CSS and JavaScript code allowing the wireframes to navigate and even function almost like a real website – A painkiller for all your demonstrations to clients, designers and developers.

Automated Documentation – A few clicks is all you need to generate a structured documentation which includes all your detailed wireframes, screenshots, notes, links, cases, etc. Well… what can be more pleasing for the development team than a properly documented prototype?

Screens from Axure:

You can also insert your actual design elements and images into the wireframes as your prototyping moves along.

Check it out!

http://www.axure.com/Samples/AxureQuickStart.pdf