Contributed by Simon Bray
We are steaming ahead with a SketchFlow prototype for our new web application; Inview. It will connect the Real Estate agents and agency heads to the most important part of their business: The Sales Process. Deal tracking from Sale Agreement through to Registration is all processed on the system. Where it gets clever is when we integrate with data providers Searchworks and L@W Active to deliver Deeds Office and Conveyancing information direct into Inview. Sales performance stats and forward cash-flow projections are just some of the cool outputs from the system.
By sketching the program before we build it we get to play with the process flows and tweak the user experience, quickly and effectively. It is a fun process, sorting all the good ideas into a clean and simple web app. I am using Expression Blend from Microsoft and specifically their SketchFlow application. It doesn't allow me to add some of the more complex UI (user interface) components that I want to, but often this is a good thing as it is easy to get caught up in the details. The details need to hang off of the key concepts, like muscles attach to the bones of the system.
Another good reason to sketch the system before you build it is what I like to call the 'Pencil Principle': A pencil is a fundamentally simple item, made of wood and graphite but it can be used very effectively in a variety of ways. The same is true in software, if your app has a pencil-like simplicity then it may well have pencil-like effectiveness too. By sketching the system you are forced to think holistically about the handful of important questions that the system needs to answer. Who will use it? Why will they use it? What will they use it for? How is it presently done? The answers to questions like that don't involve things like link colours or button sizes.
Got to get back to it... see you in Beta.