What is RSF and why should we care

What is RSF? (and why should we care? )

Good things… • Gives (UI) designers near-total control over the look of the tool • Is quick to work with • Is great for rapid prototyping and user-testing • The same tool can have more than one interface (wow!) • And developers like it too!

More good things… • Very realistic prototypes allow help files to be written in advance • HTML prototypes can include things it’s hard to put into graphic mockups, e. g. large amounts of text

• BUT it relies on UI designers knowing HTML to get all the benefits.

What happens? • Make the HTML prototypes for your tool • Test the prototype with users • Improve them, test them again, etc. • Hand the HTML pages to the developer • Wow! The developer hands backs a tool just like the one you designed.

• That’s it!

Original HTML template: <h 3>Mail Archives for Chem 101</h 3>

Label the text that changes: <h 3>Mail Archives for <span rsf: id=“site-name”>Chem 101</span> </h 3> (NB: This should be internationalisable in real life…)

Could it be magic? “Chem 101” is replaced by the name of your site!

Good things… • Gives (UI) designers near-total control over the look of the tool • Is quick to work with • Is great for rapid prototyping and user-testing • The same tool can have more than one interface (wow!) • And developers like it too!

Some tips: • don’t use flexibility as an excuse for poor planning or failure to design • manage expectations carefully, as it looks “done” from the start

More tips: • don’t create overly complex templates – they are hard to preview and hard to work with • don’t nest RSF IDs if you don’t have to (what? ) • don’t make the developer design the first round of the tool