Axure RP

Axure RP

Axure RP Pro is a wireframing, rapid prototyping, and specification software tool aimed at web and desktop applications. It offers capabilities typically found in diagramming tools like drag and drop placement, resizing, and formatting of widgets. In addition, it has features for annotating widgets and defining interactions such as linking, conditional linking, simulating tab controls, show/hide element etc. There is support for medium-fidelity simulation of Rich Internet Applications. Axure RP can then generate HTML prototypes and Microsoft Word specifications from the diagrams.

The Axure RP Pro application window is divided into 6 main areas:

• sitemap - a hierarchical list of pages
• widgets
• masters (templates, or reusable collections of widgets)
• page area - the main design area
• page notes and interactions
• widget annotations and interactions

Widgets available include:

• wireframe: image, text panel, hyperlink, rectangle, table, line (horizontal/vertical), menu (horizontal/vertical), tree
• form controls: button (various shapes, including tab buttons), text field, text area, drop-down list, list box, checkbox, radio button, image map region
• placeholder, inline frame, dynamic panel (used to achieve interactivity)

Other widgets can be simulated by combining existing widgets and assigning specific actions to events such as OnClick, OnMouseOver and OnMouseOut. For example, dynamic panels can have a number of states, each state being activated by clicking on an element such as a tab button, list-box item, or action button. For tabs, this allows constructing a tab control.