PhIxDA Automagically

I know I have been doing things the hard way. I’ve been caught up in the DIY movement of my generation. Doing It Yourself is cool, but where do you draw the line? Would I be going too far if I set out to hand-code a CMS using only notepad? As I search and research ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of my design and development process I am hoping to elicit some feedback from Phixda.

Until recently, when designing, I started out using fireworks or Photoshop or something like that or I began with doodles in a sketchbook. Lots of brainstorming and such. By the time I am ready for prototypes I am working in Dreamweaver. The transition from designing to developing has been a little blurry. Communication and presentation of requirements and documentation has suffered under the guise of an agile development environment.

Here are the options I have found so far:

1. paper and pencil - Sometimes I still prefer this above all and everything.
2. free software - Still looking for a good one.
3. software that was made to do something else -flash, photoshop, powerpoiont, and I’ll include html here.
4. something that costs money - visio, indesign & illustrator, axure and iRise.

Here is a quick and closer look at axsure RP Pro which combines the best from Visio and web design tools. Currently this is the one that is setting the bar

• +highly recomended by a respected professional - which is the reason I decided to start researching this topic in the first place.
• +version control - promotes collaboration.
• +it’s possible to add custom widgets to Axure. I wonder how easy it is to do this?
• -you can’t navigate pages by clicking the links and buttons within Axure. The only way to evaluate the interaction design is to generate the prototype and navigate the HTML output.
• -you can’t exclude the sitemap if you want a clean prototype without any fluff. To get rid of the sitemap, you have to click the Close Frames link in the generated prototype.
• +some is better than none “AJAX” Dynamic Panels, which are layers that can be hidden and revealed in response to users’ actions.
• +Axure keeps your prototype and paper work in sync and generates Word docs for your printing pleasure