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.
Swissmiss is an online garden Tina Roth Eisenberg started in 2005 and has lovingly tended to ever since.
Besides swissmiss, Tina founded and runs TeuxDeux, CreativeMornings and her Brooklyn based co-working community Friends Work Here. (She also started Tattly which was recently adopted by BIC)
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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