You don’t need a Lamborghini when a Flintstone’s car would suffice.
I started doing some research for this week’s site map submission and figuring out which software to go with is a mini-assignment in itself. The last site map I submitted, for Information Architecture, was done in Google draw, based on my group work and peer suggestion. It was easy to use, no worry of trial expiration or exporting the project fees. Like using the trial of Proto.io instead of relying on my pre-existing experience of InVision, I will most likely experiment with another software that I don’t have a lot of practice in just to get my feet wet.
This go around for site-mapping, the following software were suggested:
Omnigraffle (14-day trial free)
Axure (30-days free for teacher/students)
browser-based UX tool such as Mural.co (30-days free)
Keynote or PowerPoint (have unlimited)
Adobe Illustrator (have unlimited)
Keynote or PowerPoint as well as Illustrator, I have unlimited access and experience in. So there isn’t much challenge or learning there, so I will most likely pass. But software is really about finding the right tool for the right job, sometimes a software that can do too much for the task, is a bit overboard and gives unnecessary functionality. Mural is amazing and so cool. I may just try it in general because it applies to user experience design overall. It has moveable sticky notes, whats not to love? BUT…it seems this software of the collaborative future might be ideal for grander projects.
So that leaves Axure, as I previously used Omnigraffle with less than stellar results and some wonkiness for an Information Technology project. I went to establish a free student account but there was an error so I have contacted the company and they will review my student credentials. I would like to stretch my skills and get more software under my belt to have familiarity, but I will let you know how that goes, when I’m actually in the thick of things, because I may just end up circling back to Google draw, when I’m actually producing my deliverable.
Because for all the bells and whistles in the world, sometimes simplest is best AND easiest, as well. A drawing program by any other name is a drawing program — or is it? Or maybe I’m just overthinking it!