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Hyperspace
A web application prototyping facilitator
A business analyst tool for creating standalone HTML prototypes illustrating requirements.
You are a business analyst tinkering with HTML because it appears to be the most
cost effective way to create a prototype of a web application. You tried using word
processors and other office software, but you chose to create the prototype in HTML
because:
- The prototype can include style choices (programmers know what "look and feel" the
business wants).
- The style choices of the business can be rendered feasible before application development
starts.
- Various HTML editors offer quick and easy style choices (including supporting graphics).
- The prototype style can easily be copied from an existing web site (eg. if the prototype
must illustrate a change request with new functionality).
- The prototype must be viewable without concerns about deployment on a server (eg.
the prototype can be emailed to colleagues).
You understand enough of HTML, or merely enough of an HTML editor like Frontpage,
to create an appealing web page and this caveat demonstrates your brilliance as
a keystone in the organisation. Once you have one page constructed you quickly clone
the HTML page and amend the contents to illustrate further functionality. Soon you
have many pages to illustrate the web-based functionality while reinforcing the
"look and feel" you put you heart and soul into. You demonstrate your prototype
to the business and they congratulate you in your prowess, however they soon proclaim
their rightful place in the pecking order by expressing their commanding omniscience
of the business' needs and they leave you with a list of changes to apply. And since
the business has little understanding of the level of difficulty in creating the
original prototype, they now expect the changes to be done by tomorrow.
HTML editing is an effective method of prototyping a web application, but it does
lead to disparate HTML file maintenance. After a few cycles of prototyping you will
increasingly spend your time with repetitive task such as changing the text of a
menu item in every HTML file. Of course, a properly developed application will not
have this shortcoming because all modern programming languages offer code reuse.
So how can you incorporate a modular structure into your prototype but still keep
the simplicity of HTML? The answer lies in a product called Hyperspace.
Hyperspace provides a modular structure enabling you to edit one portion of the
HTML at a time and then conclude by sewing the portions together to publish a prototype.
This means your common page areas only need to be edited once yet magically affect
all the relevant pages. Also the specific functional area of each illustration page
can be reduced to an uncluttered HTML snippet.
Example of usage
Here is an example of how you can create a prototype using Hyperspace.
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(1)
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Open Hyperspace and create a new project. |
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(2)
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In the project node add the content that defines the HTML body and styling. |
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(3)
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Add a layout node and add to this node the content that determines the placement
of the main page area and what appears around it. |
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(4)
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Now add a use case node and under that a scenario node and under that an illustration
node. |
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(5)
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Each node defines additional content and a placeholder tag to determine the relative
placement of inner content. |
Download
The 30-day trial version of Hyperspace is available as a download. Take advantage
of this trial version to see if your web application prototyping can be leapfrogged
into the next millennium. With the trial version you can produce working prototypes
which can be emailed, installed anywhere and does not require any web management
software like IIS or Apache because it is in HTML format.
Click
here
to download Hyperspace.
If you would like more information about Hyperspace, click
here
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