Friday, October 24, 2008

Axure Tech Talk (Ann Arbor, MI)

The following came through on the SI and SOCHI mailing lists. It is on campus in Ann Arbor. It is intended for students, so if you are not one, and attend this talk, please be aware and appropriate.
Hi everyone,

One thing that SOCHI is trying to do this year is help students teach other students the software and technologies that they know. We want you to be able to pick up new skills from this that can help you with class projects and finding jobs. Our first official Tech Talk of the semester will be on Axure, a prototyping tool that is great for making interactive prototypes for websites.

WHAT: Axure Tech Talk
WHEN: Next Wednesday, October 29th, 12-1 pm
WHERE: 412 West Hall
WHO: Presented by me, Debra Lauterbach

WHY you should come:
I learned how to use Axure this summer at my internship and found it surprisingly easy for making prototypes that can look and feel like they actually are real websites. This is great for user testing. To see some examples of what Axure can do, check out the sample prototypes and also the design patterns here and here. As you can see, pretty much every AJAX-y interactive website component can be mimicked using these patterns.

Even better news - Axure is available free to HCI students in good standing through their Good Student Program. Just email them your transcript and you get a free license, which is normally $589. (I checked with them, and first-year HCI students are eligible as well). Otherwise, you can download a 30-day free trial.

So, if you're going to come on Wednesday, I'd advise applying for your student license now, and getting the free trial set up on your computer until then. Caveat: it's Windows only, but if you have a Mac with Parallels or VMWare that'll work too.

On Wednesday, I'll explain the features of the software and demo how to actually build a simple prototype in only a few minutes. Then, I'll get into the advanced features of the software and how to use the design patterns. If you've got a project to use Axure for now, come with your questions and I'll do my best to answer them. And if anyone else is also a resident expert on Axure, please come too!

See you Wednesday!

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