Prototypes and templates

We shine at design!

If you need to set a standard for meaningful interactivity in your course, decide how to integrate your Website and customer database, or pioneer a new style of documentation, we can help.

We can build a prototype. Then, we can work with your development team to extend the prototype and create templates. And, if you desire, we can assemble and manage a team of specialists who can quickly turn that prototype into a finished product.

How do prototypes and templates work?

Prototype is a broad term that covers a lot of territory. For us, a prototype is a proof-of-concept design. A prototype might be a Visual Basic program, a Web site, a game, one training module out of a whole curriculum, even a style guide.

Templates are usually derived from prototypes. They help your staff develop the finished product, ensuring consistency and efficiency. Whether our clients are developing an e-learning curriculum, a product support strategy, a knowledge management system, or a series of games, we can help streamline the production process by creating models and templates that simplify development, maintain quality, and ensure a consistent look and feel to their product.

How much do prototypes and templates cost?

Costs for prototyping projects can vary widely depending on factors such as the scope of the project, how much of the work you do yourself, and how much we can reuse earlier work. Such projects range in cost from $10,000 USD to $300,000 USD. But, hey, we do not charge for discussing your project.

How do we get started?

The first step is to give us a call and tell us about your project. Send us some documents or a URL so we can learn more. From that we can outline a preliminary approach and provide you with a quote. If the project is extensive, we pull together a team of programmers, visual designers, writers, and others. Where practical, we use your team members. Finally, we train and brief your staff to ensure that you can make full use of what we have developed.

Call Kit Horton at +1.303.545.6964 or e-mail kit@horton.com.

What tools can we use?

We are very versatile. We have built projects in:

• HTML and JavaScript
• Active-Server Pages and .Net
• Visual Basic
• Flash
• Director
• Authorware
• Visio
• Captivate (formerly known as RoboDemo)
• RoboHelp
• PowerPoint with Breeze, articulate, Impatica, and PowerPresenter

Examples of prototypes and templates we have developed

Often we develop an essential part of a knowledge product to establish how to overcome specific obstacles or to set a standard for components to be created by others. Here are some examples of projects we have done:

• Prototyped a Web-based knowledge management system that maintained a database of knowledge resources in a corporation.
• Created a library of test-questions templates for use in Web-based training.
• Developed a series of interactive forms for managing multimedia learning projects.
• Developed and marketed a template for creating interactive learning games without any programming.
• Created a system for publishing multiple 1000+ page Websites and online courses from a common database.
• Programmed a database to publish separate subsets of its content as HTML pages, as Microsoft Word documents, as PowerPoint slides, and as e-mail messages.
• Prototyped innovative user-interfaces for a desktop scanner and a personal information manager.

To see some live examples, take a look at our portfolio.