Prototyping book & resources

Todd Warfel's book - Prototyping: A Practitioner's Guide - is excellent. The first half covers the whys and hows, and the second half looks at 5 of the most common tools. Highly recommended.

Todd canvassed a large group of prototypers to find out what they used, and has covered a range of tools to suit everyone - techie and non-techie, beginner and expert. There's a chapter on each of these:

• Paper and analogue
• Powerpoint and Keynote (presentation tools)
• Visio (Microsoft diagramming tool)
• Fireworks (graphics package)
• Axure (specialist prototyping package)
• HTML

The book summarises the strengths and weaknesses of each tool, and contains links to free resources.

So what's the best tool? The best tool for you is something you know how to use, something you can get prototypes produced and refined quickly with, and something that allows you to test or communicate the concept you're interested in.

Prototyping book website
Free chapter from publisher site - The What and Why of a Prototype
Free chapter as an article for uie.com - Picking the right tool
Resources mentioned in the book