The pidoco° interface design software consists of three main components which complement each other perfectly. In combination, they accelerate the interface design process and optimize the general workflow in all stages of collaborative web design.

Animated and interactive interfaces are quickly sketched with the Prototype Creator (just by drag&drop) and can later easily be shared and reviewed by colleagues, test users or clients. If there is need for even more in-depth feedback on individual aspects of the clickable wireframes, just use the digital prototypes to perform a one-on-one remote usability test where moderator and test user are connected remotely by a shared screen and an integrated phone. All modules are aimed to increase productivity of the interface design process and ease communication within the team.

When you are into interface design, Rapid Paper Prototyping is an old hat! But ever considered doing screen prototyping on screen?

With pidoco’s web-based prototyping software, designers and web developers can save valuable time, easily integrate other stakeholders and build better usability for the web.

Rapid Paper Prototyping has already been known to be the solution to get a website started. Rapid Paper Prototyping is about sketching ideas with pen and paper to be tossed around in the team. This concept will then be put through a refinement process by incorporating feedback from other stake holder. This paper-built prototype will at last act as a roadmap for the whole project – from start to finish. Some web designers even use these basic sketches for performing usability tests. Revealing usability issues in the prototyping phase can save a lot of money, since later alterations in the so called ‘finished’ web application are minimized.

However, there are some drawbacks to Rapid Paper Prototyping.  Sketches on paper are difficult to add to the document servers and also difficult to share between team-members. Transforming paper sketches into interactive, digital documents for web testing is also a time consuming task as we all know!

That is why many screen designers create their prototypes directly in MS PowerPoint or MS Visio and have them distributed to the relevant sources. True, that way one can share the screens more effectively but it is not really more dynamic than copying a piece of paper handing it to colleagues. The prototypes still do not show the real capabilities for test user excitement:  links, dynamic menus and work-flows etc. cannot be reproduced effectively and need to be explained individually in long paragraphs. Again, more time and effort has to be invested to get the message across.

A small company from Berlin, Germany has spotted this problem and made it their duty to tackle it by providing a easy web-based interface design software.

What’s in YOUR mind, when designing a new website? Some web or interface designers apparently must think of something completely wicked – but definitely not the customer, as you can see on webpagesthatsuck.com! Although many examples nominated for worst web design awards are not from the professional business world, there are still some rather shocking examples of really bad web design made by so called professionals.

However, also well designed and pretty websites do not necessarily perform well. What’s good and clear to the interface designer sometimes does not match at all with how real users use the website later, when the site has been launched. Users get confused by stylish new design ideas, cryptic wording or just crammed windows with lots and lots of attention grabbing stuff on it.

But an underperforming website jeopardizes your overall website ROI, caused by lower conversion rates. Therefore changes should be implemented rather sooner than later. And exactly here you lose twice: First, your site’s ROI drops through lower conversion rates (opportunity cost) and second the overall ROI plummets again, when necessary changes on your finished site cost you a lot more (and we are speaking of 16-fold here) compared to when the same changes had been made in the stage of prototyping of your interface design or website project.

Looking on the process how most websites are created, you can see that there are many stake holders involved who all want to add their opinion to the new website. But as we know, too many cooks spoil the broth. Of course some websites must serve several, sometimes even contradictory purposes, but the question remains, who decides how to balance this out.

What is a wireframe?
A website or interface wireframe is a first visual outline used in interface design and web development. With a wireframe, you plan and communicate the overall idea and structure of a website and specify it down to its pages. Wireframes have first been used in rapid paper prototyping in which interface concepts are drawn by hand with pen on paper. All elements of the website are just outlined (in the narrower sense of the word) and placeholders for pictures and other content (e.g. text) are used. Typically, wireframes with all link structures are completed before any artwork is developed.

A website or interface wireframe is a first visual outline used in interface design and web development. With a wireframe, you plan and communicate the overall idea and structure of a website and specify it down to its pages. Wireframes have first been used in rapid paper prototyping in which interface concepts are drawn by hand with pen on paper. All elements of the website are just outlined (in the narrower sense of the word) and placeholders for pictures and other content (e.g. text) are used. Typically, wireframes with all link structures are completed before any artwork is developed.