Gui Design Studio Benefits

Physical products from performance cars to electric toothbrushes benefit from the creation of prototypes before final production. They significantly lower risk on a project and produce better results. Software is no different.

When it comes to software prototyping, you’re probably in one of two camps:

  1. You know that prototyping your applications will greatly benefit your projects and you’re looking for the best tools and methods for the job, or
  2. You’re new to the idea of creating a software prototype and need to be convinced of the benefits.

In either case, the information below should help you understand why creating initial mock-ups or prototypes will give you an advantage and how GUI Design Studio lets you get the job done with ease.

Save Time and Money when Gathering Requirements

  • Starting with the right set of requirements is very important. Even agile methodologies with incremental development cycles need a basic set of requirements to work from.
  • A user interface mock-up or prototype will allow everyone to visualise the application and quickly expose missing requirements and unnecessary complexity.
  • Special cases and critical design factors can be identified early in the project lifecycle.
  • GUI Design Studio provides the missing ingredient to complement and augment traditional functional requirements.
  • Because the mockups are very visual and lead to quicker understanding, agreement can be reached sooner and costly misunderstandings can be avoided.

Save Time and Money by Eliminating Development Rework

  • With a clear user interface specification to follow, developers can spend less time thinking about layout and other details at the implementation stage.
  • With a pre-approved design, there’s no second guessing the requirements so developers can focus on getting it done without the worry of having to change it later.
  • By getting it right first time, change requests will be minimised and a high proportion of rework that would otherwise occur will be eliminated.
  • The result is shorter and more predictable timescales, allowing projects to be delivered on time and on budget. Unpredictable overrun costs can be wiped out completely.
  • GUI Design Studio makes the designs available to everyone.

Have Happy Users That Love Your Software

  • Deliver software that actually meets the needs of users and exceeds their expectations.
  • By involving users early in the design process, where possible, you can identify important workflows and test them with a software prototype.
  • Ensure that terminology is consistent throughout the application and find areas of confusion early in the project, before it's too late.
  • GUI Design Studio prototypes are so quick and easy to create that you can test and tweak to streamline the most important tasks and produce far more design iterations than with other techniques.

Reduce Project Risk and Increase Confidence

  • When you don't know the full scope of a project, you risk failing to meet proposed deadlines. A GUI Design Studio helps you to better visualise the whole project.
  • A better understanding of scope will allow for more accurate timescale predictions and reduced risk of costly overrun.
  • Be confident that you can deliver within your specified timescales - on time and on budget.
  • Design within a high-speed, low-risk, throwaway environment that encourages revision until the design is right and keeps the implementation options open.
  • Avoid the risk of a prototype built with development tools where there may be resistance to change due to the effort already spent and pressure to turn it into the final system when the underlying code has been produced for speedy availability rather than robustness.
  • Discuss implementation issues with developers before the code is written to identify areas that will require further investigation or an alternative approach.
  • Catch design errors and inconsistencies, find critical factors and explore special cases early in the project lifecycle, before it's too late.
  • Build confidence with your clients and users by presenting a clear vision of your project or application.

Improve Understanding Within the Project Team

  • User interface mockups and interactive prototypes you can see and play with provide far superior understanding of a project than words alone within a requirements specification document.
  • GUI Design Studio keeps design notes and annotations where they belong; with the screens they describe.
  • A user interface specification document can be generated automatically where necessary to present the design in a more static form with all of the associated information bound together.
  • Because rapid prototyping of your application without coding is very accessible, everyone in your project team (that you choose to allow) can contribute ideas and annotate designs.

Improve Software Usability and Eliminate Frustration

  • A key advantage of building a user interface prototype is the ability to test workflow with multiple scenarios to ensure that they're usable.
  • Check that the most common scenarios are optimised for minimal effort during use.
  • Check for consistent naming and layout rules throughout the design.
  • Engage with users early in the process and eliminate areas of frustration within the design.

Increase Productivity and Unleash Your Creativity

  • If you’re already creating application mock-ups or prototypes using image editing tools, development tools or paper then you’ll find GUI Design Studio to be a much faster way of working, with features that are designed to help you and not hold you back.
  • Treat the screen like a freeform canvas to place design elements wherever you want – just like on paper but with a practically unlimited canvas size and all the advantages of computer editing.
  • If you want to incorporate paper sketches and whiteboard sessions, you can scan them in and use them too, scaling the images to fit where necessary.
  • Use your creative skills to produce new interface elements if required. Construct them from other elements or draw them in a graphics package or on paper. The development toolbox is no longer a restriction. If you can draw it, you can use it!
  • Since there’s no coding involved, efficient product design becomes accessible to everyone, especially the user interface designers and specialists that need it.
  • Quickly prototype multiple alternatives for evaluation and use the design duplication feature to make this even faster.