Abstract

Although recognized as a key to the design process, prototyping often falls victim to budget cuts, deadlines, or lack of access to sophisticated tools. This can lead to sloppy and ineffective prototypes or the abandonment of them altogether. Rather than lose this important step, people are turning to Microsoft Excel® to create effective, simple, and inexpensive prototypes. Conveniently, the software is available to nearly everyone, and most are proficient in its basic functionality.

Effective Prototyping with Excel offers how-to guidance on how everyone can use basic Excel skills to create prototypes – ranging from narrative wire frames to hi-fidelity prototypes. A wide array of software design problems and business demands are solved via practical step-by-step examples and illustrations.

• Step-by-step guide to prototyping with a simple and affordable tool nearly everyone already has on their desktop
• Quickly and easily allows web and software designers to explore usability, design alternatives, and test theories prior to starting production
• Perfect companion to Effective Prototyping for Software Makers – with the same author team and full-color treatment, useful case studies, and hands-on exercises

“Collaboration across marketing, design, engineering, and QA organizations is key to the successful creation of a new software product. The Excel prototyping method is the only approach I am familiar with that allows all these stakeholders the same platform for communication without having to learn lots of new tools.”
- Daniel Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, SAP User Experience
"It is always a challenge to find good tools for interactive rapid prototyping. The authors have created an excellent methodology that allows both novice and advanced user experience professionals to use their knowledge of common desktop tools to quickly illustrate and test their ideas for interactive products."
- Jeremy Ashley, Vice President, Applications User Experience, Oracle