Writing a book about software can often feel like attempting to build a skyscraper on quicksand and it certainly feels like it at times. We started writing this book about a year ago when Axure 7 was in its infancy. Back then, we thought that this project would be fast and relatively straightforward—merely an update to the Version 6 book. However, this was when we knew very little about the new stuff Axure was "cooking" such as the Repeater and Adaptive Views features meant to tackle head-on simulating data-driven applications and Responsive Web Design (RWD).
When we started writing, RWD has not been very common yet. Nonetheless, we had already noticed the trend among employers and recruiters to demand, in addition to UX mastery, also HTML/CSS and JavaScript proficiency for prototype coding—a frustrating demand that underscores how deeply UX is misunderstood in the software industry. The introduction of Adaptive Views and Repeater meant a chance to revert the trend and let UX designers regain control over rapid prototyping.
Axure's new capabilities meant that we, the authors, had to rethink the strategies around wireframe and prototype construction as well as the generation of specification documents. We also had to examine the impact of these new capabilities on collaboration. And another thing: when Ezra wrote Axure RP 6 Prototyping Essentials, and Elizabeth was one of his technical reviewers, we both had a wealth of experience with the tool; we were the experts. However, when we started working on this book, our challenge was to synthesize, fuse, and extrapolate the old and the new.
We quickly realized that in addition to Axure's new capabilities, Axure 7 will include numerous enhancements and improvements that also impact the entire process of prototyping with the tool. For example, you no longer need to create a dynamic panel just to control the visibility of a widget because visibility is now part of the style settings of widgets and can be controlled directly. This may look like a trivial tweak, but for any user working with Axure since Version 4, this is a major improvement to wireframing construction efficiency and quality. It also means having to unlearn, adapt, and remaster one's Axure skills.
To make the challenge a little more interesting, new features were formed and matured over many months. Through a succession of Alpha and Beta versions and regular conversations with Victor, Paul, and others at the company, we found ourselves rewriting and tweaking earlier drafts that became obsolete, or because we found better ways to get things done.
With a wealth of video tutorials available on the Internet, we decided to reduce the amount of step-by-step instructions that are so common to software books, including the previous version of this one. Where such detailed walkthrough is used, we tried to describe more of the "why" and less of the "what". As UX designers, we regret, however, that the usability of these instructions is sometimes poor; although, our original drafts had images and text side by side for improved readability, we had to revert to the final layout largely due to the requirements of Amazon's Kindle platform.
When Axure 7 was released in December 2013, the pressure to finish the book intensified for many good reasons. However, we felt that we needed more time to digest the tool before we could finish the writing. Our editors at Packt Publishing were fully supportive despite the loss of revenue.
In conclusion, despite the challenges, and the need to negotiate full-capacity workloads and personal life, we have focused on writing a book that both of us would want to read: a book about the continual process of getting better at controlling communication with stakeholders, managing expectations throughout the design process, and mastering the planning, estimation, and production of world-class artifacts.
We hope you find value in this book. We are looking forward to hear your comments and suggestions for improvement.
Ezra Schwartz and Elizabeth Srail