As this is a book on prototyping with Axure, it made a lot of sense to approach the company about the vision for the future. There are several considerable challenges that the company has to deal with:
The more Axure can do (logic, variables, functions, and so on), the more complex the tool becomes. In fact, we already find a demand in the market for specialized Axure 'prototypes': people who can take Axure to the max and create really powerful vision prototypes. Ironically, however, freeing ourselves from the dependency on developers, and the ability to quickly and easily create interactive prototypes, is exactly the goal Axure set out to achieve, being a tool for non-developers. So, here's how the company can balance these two extremes:
Prototype versus specifications: The demand for high-fidelity vision prototypes is on the rise and is becoming a norm. The turnaround on such prototypes is fast, and they are extremely influential in getting decision makers to give the green light to ambitious development projects. However, turning a vision prototype into a specification—a deliverable that is often contracted for—is most likely to require refactoring. The refactoring effort can be substantial, and yet—often not planned for—budget or schedule wise. Clearly, there are some challenges around reducing the gap between the prototype construction and specification generation. How would Axure try to address this in the future?
The rapidly changing landscape of UX: Apple, for example, with its iPhones and iPads and its integration of the mobile operating system iOS with the desktop operating system OS-X, has changed the user experience in profound ways. As a result, the syntax of interaction patterns is evolving. New multi-finger gestures are a good example. How will Axure support the creation of prototypes for the next generation of devices?
I have asked Victor Hsu, who, together with Martin Smith, started Axure back in 2002, to share some of his thoughts:
When we started Axure, we set out to build a tool that would reduce project costs and timelines by introducing interactive prototyping into the process. Axure RP 1.0 was built, and it was a flop. It was difficult to use and had a lot of features that overlapped with existing tools that did a better job. Looking back, it just wasn't a tool many people would want to spend their day using. Luckily, the user experience profession was about to take off. And we discovered a new approach to designing Axure RP.
Instead of thinking about the project, we started focusing on you, the people actually using Axure RP. We prioritized features that made it faster and easier to use and gave you the prototyping capabilities other tools did not. We trusted you to take advantage of those capabilities to reach better designs and to communicate with your teams. It worked. You delivered cost savings to the projects and helped build better software. Axure RP is now the standard for software prototyping tools.
Time and time again, we've seen your successes lead to recognition, and recognition lead to more responsibility. This is a great thing. The Axure RP roadmap is evidence of the increasing demands on UX professionals and your increasing influence. Turnaround times need to be faster. The prototypes are getting richer as user testing becomes more prevalent. They need to be presented on the target devices like iPhones and iPads. And your prototypes are replacing requirements lists and documents as the reference for visual design, copywriting, development and testing.
We will continue to help you take advantage of these opportunities and at the same time make Axure RP more enjoyable for you to learn and use. You will find excellent resources from prototyping and Axure RP experts like Ezra to help you along the way. And all we ask of you is to produce great work and accept the credit and influence you've earned.