We are working as product managers, and prototyping to express product design is an inextricable section of G work. Many product managers spend more than half of their working time drawing prototypes.

1. Why is the prototype specification so important?

Forming a team or your own prototype specification can help reduce your own prototyping time and avoid requirements that are lax or even wrong.

Because the prototype is actually equal to the specific page of our online product, the product design of the prototype is to draw out the pages involved in the system functions such as App web page one by one.

As the work time of the accumulation of experience, product manager, contact the business case is increasing, the page draw more and more complex, we will find a satisfy the function design of the core node, and then further precipitation summary can have their own a set of prototype design specification, formation of specification after the prototype of the design and development, design, testing and other communication efficiency are improved.

With the extra time, product managers can focus on demand research, business development, and even marketing and commerce.

2. An efficient prototype specification that I personally like

Is there a prototype specification that covers the products covered by the product manager? What about c-side product, back-end product manager, and data product manager? Also can support including App, PC, small programs and other software forms that can be seen in the market?

Today I share a prototype specification that I summarized in my work. If it is put into use by the team, the team will become more and more efficient after completing more than one version of development with this specification.

This prototype specification is easy to read for development and is also a form that designers, testers, and others can easily understand.

Motherboard specification for prototype design

Masters are called different names by different prototyping software tools, some are called templates, some are called masters. But as the name suggests, it is a prototype component that can be used in this prototype file.

▲ Axure master

I suggest that the prototype model should contain product page navigation menu, page, notice, account information and other global function, this kind of functional components have a characteristic, namely product each page or each page under a certain function will have such a button, copy, and even interaction, so this kind of function collection into female version will reduce the time of the prototype drawing.

▲ Master version under function menu

Interactive specification of the prototype

The differences between an interaction designer and a product manager are:

  • Interaction design focuses on the best path in the human-computer interaction process, not on what function.

  • The product manager is focused on what functionality is provided to the user, not the path of action.

With the progress of science and technology, different terminal devices are equipped with different software and product forms, and require different interactions. For example, website interactions rely on mouse and keyboard, mobile phone interactions rely on fingers, and VR devices rely on eyes.

Most product managers are responsible for the design of a single product form. Only a small number of senior product managers will be responsible for the line of business. A business line may contain multiple products. For example, WHEN I was in charge of offline business in Ximalaya, I was in charge of the store’s revenue system, and its product forms (PC terminal, APP and small program) are all available.

But when we prototype, whether it’s a line of business or a product line, we often have a prototype document that is specific to one product form and matches a set of interaction instructions.

The following describes the PC and mobile specifications under the efficient prototyping specification

PC interaction description

1. Interaction description of input boxes

Contains input box content verification, operation tips, and copywriting tips

2. Interaction description of buttons or functional areas on the page

Users can click, hover, or double click and other operations to give corresponding interactive prompts

3. Perform popup interaction

Text description of pop-ups, function options of pop-ups pairing (single, multiple, confirm or not), and give hints of operation results

4. Upload and submit instructions

Including default picture, upload picture preview, and upload failure prompt, if there is a requirement for the cover, can also provide cutting function, convenient information flow effect display

5. Description of button operation interaction

The display of selected, unselected and default selection status of the button is usually based on the feedback of the preconditions.

6. Interaction description of option boxes

Options are divided into multiple options and single options. The default options, number of options, and number limit prompt are provided. You can edit and add options

7. Account and password interaction description

Because the account password is not limited to THE PC website, each product has an account, so the interaction is universal, including the sorting of various scenarios of password verification error, the default prompt, error prompt, and the interaction display of empty content.

App Interaction Description (small program /H5 general)

1. Navigation bar interaction description

The function of App is that the way to jump to the navigation bar of each page is fixed, and even a set of apps is the same in many cases. Distinguish hierarchy among functional areas, TAB navigation, and page titles.

2. Description of in-page pop-up interaction

Popup options and default options, while providing a matching button copy, convenient for users to quickly select and confirm.

Description of the preconditions for pop-up selection, and pop-up content prompt in abnormal cases.

2. Toast prompts interactive instructions

The prompt includes user operation feedback and system status feedback, such as the data interaction with the server, and certain conditions triggered by the front-end operation of the user. It needs to be expressed by toast interaction and match the text.

3. Operation area interaction description

The operation of App varies with the area of mobile phone. It is necessary to explain which areas can be clicked and which areas can not. This is often closely related to front-end development.

4. Interaction description of the input box

Like the PC web site interaction instructions, the input box contains default text, input prompts, and input exception prompts.

Logical specification of the prototype

A prototype is not only a page. When we do product design, we often put ourselves in the perspective of the user to simulate the operation of the user in the prototype in the same scene. In fact, there is page sequence, and there are also pre and post conditions between functions, so it constitutes the logic of the prototype.

Just relying on a prototype design page is not able to get a complete picture of the requirements, so that the developers involved, designers know the whole context of the requirements.

For example, the prototype tool you see can actually complete the writing of brain maps, flow charts and other functional modules. The prototype tool is not only used to draw product pages, but also a drawing software in some aspects.

▲ Logical diagram of the prototype

In other words: Prototyping tools are a universal tool in the hands of product managers.

It is also a bad habit for product managers to start every requirement review by explaining a page of the prototype. It is important to let the team know what the work is going to accomplish and what the problem is to be solved, in fact the logic of the prototype is very important.

Documentation of the prototype

An effective prototype specification must be accompanied by text, otherwise it will be difficult to increase the understanding of the prototype. With text instructions, we can skip the design time for complex prototype effects and replace them with a single line of text.

For example, if the following permission operations are drawn according to different accounts, the following reports need to be drawn repeatedly, and the reports need to be drawn as many as there are roles.

But we can use a sentence instead: ** “according to the user account permissions, different permissions can see the content of the section is XX…. “** can be done quickly.

There are prototypes need animation loading effect, prototype authority description, function interaction effect, can be explained with text.

Functional architecture of the prototype

In an effective prototyping specification, we focus not only on the design of a page, but also on the product framework and functional architecture behind the prototype, so we use the prototype to lay out the architecture diagram of the prototype in advance to help us see the overall complexity of requirements.

For example, the figure above shows the framework structure of content management backend, the required operations of functional modules involved in new materials, and the logical sequence of functional modules. From this structure diagram, it can be found that this requirement design is redundant and complex, and it should be able to be prioritized to smaller requirements.

And that’s it.

If you need this prototype specification, you can reply in this public number: “prototype specification”, reply to you within 24 hours.

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