Fireworks does have some functionality that can help with that, but showing the nav states can be a pain. I’ve done things where I built a rapid prototype of nav in flash and then wired it up to use screenshots of the content (from photoshop). So the thing sort of works for demo and approval purposes. I also use xml and flash for some similar functionality, even if flash isn’t the ultimate final technology. It’s just easier to have a workable, editable prototype sometimes.
Axure [www.axure.com] tends to be better than Fireworks in this regard. It has a library you can create to store major components and then use them in the wireframes/mockups. When you change the object in the library it then updates all other instances.
The only drawback for me is that it’s not as nice a design tool as Fireworks or Photoshop, but you can at least create PNGs / JPGs / etc and import them so you can produce quite high fidelity prototypes.
No jokes… we have just completed 2 large websites (about 60 custom pages each) which all require HTML text changes if the moment arises.
Jul 28th, 2009 / 11:11 am
Last month I worked on a site with similar situation. Photoshop mock-ups for each page with text and nav being changed all the time.
Is there a better way to have dynamic text in a layout? Does Fireworks do that? Maybe we should all be doing layouts in InDesign.
Jul 28th, 2009 / 12:01 pm
Fireworks does have some functionality that can help with that, but showing the nav states can be a pain. I’ve done things where I built a rapid prototype of nav in flash and then wired it up to use screenshots of the content (from photoshop). So the thing sort of works for demo and approval purposes. I also use xml and flash for some similar functionality, even if flash isn’t the ultimate final technology. It’s just easier to have a workable, editable prototype sometimes.
Jul 28th, 2009 / 2:28 pm
Oh my. I just now stopped laughing enough to be able to type. This is so true it hurts — I truly think I messed in my pants.
Jul 28th, 2009 / 4:24 pm
Great way to charge the customer, if he doesn’t want to learn ;-). Had such a situation several times …
Jul 30th, 2009 / 8:05 am
Axure [www.axure.com] tends to be better than Fireworks in this regard. It has a library you can create to store major components and then use them in the wireframes/mockups. When you change the object in the library it then updates all other instances.
The only drawback for me is that it’s not as nice a design tool as Fireworks or Photoshop, but you can at least create PNGs / JPGs / etc and import them so you can produce quite high fidelity prototypes.
Aug 1st, 2009 / 8:08 pm
what about a CMS? like Drupal (http://drupal.org/)
Oct 19th, 2009 / 12:08 pm