Powerpoint for Prototyping: Part 2 of 2

by Tom Vollaro

In the first part of this blog post I wrote about the advantages and disadvantages of using Microsoft PowerPoint as a prototyping tool. I also provided some low, medium and high fidelity examples. In the second part, I am going to delve into specifics of various techniques for creating these prototypes. Keep in mind, much of this could be done with other presentation tools (Apple Keynote, Open Office, and even Google Docs) but having worked on a Windows-only desktop application for five years, PowerPoint was the most readily available.

Hot Spots

 

Guided Hot Spots

 

Animation

 

Animation with Motion Paths

 

Animation with Video

 

Sharing Your Prototype

With your new prototype freshly minted, you are now ready to share it. For traditional user testing, this is straightforward. As long as you are testing with a dedicated machine (either in a lab or with a laptop in the field) you can just put it in front o the participant and click F5. If you need to share your prototype with remote colleagues or place it online for un-moderated testing, you are in luck. PowerPoint provides a wide range of export and publish formats. Here is a short list of the most useful:

• PPSX: Useful for distributing a fully featured slideshow to someone without PowerPoint. A download of a free viewer is required
•  Save to Web: You can save to Microsoft's SkyDrive, which allows you to edit and view a presentation on the web
• Other web options include exporting to PDF and/or uploading to SlideShare or Google Docs, but these convert the slides to bitmaps, so animations, videos, and hotspots will be lost.

I am curious to hear about other tools and techniques for creating quick and dirty clickable prototypes.

Comments

[Gareth Morgan]

Tom,

Thanks for the interesting post - I've not used PowerPoint for this kind of prototype.

I basically use Fireworks for the same kind of thing, but it has more limited animation options, which can be restrictive, although hotspot creation and html output is quick and easy.

It seems like PowerPoint could be useful for anything where animated feedback is needed to get the point across.

cheers,
Gareth