Keep prototyping simple

I find those "powerful prototyping tools" so pointless.

Before I became a web developer, I was a website editor. I learnt how to design user interface when my superior required all the people in our department to participate in the building work of  our company website. That year a software Auxure was imported to Taiwan and was recommended by many "experts" in the industry. I tried it, not bad. Using it you can actually generate javascript files demonstrating a bench of beautiful effects.

Auxure has so many amazing features allowing UI designers to show how this interface is working. But to be able to do that, you need to spend time studying it, and there is definitely a learning curve. Auxure can be one of the hardest "wireframing tool" I've ever known. One of my partners (after I became a freelancer) was so excited when she firstly experienced this. She kept asking me questions about how to manipulate the layers to make the effects exactly the same as jQuery UI could do. Finally I said to her, "Well, after you spend so much time to make it work like a functioning website, it's still not a website. I still have to write all the codes. Though you don't need to explain what results do you want but instead I have to explain why we'd better not to do that on a real website.  No mater how fancy your prototype is, the result makes no difference. I believe you can save the time you spend on building these effects by talking to me."

I just found it too complex and unnecessary. A prototype is a prototype. If the tool enables people to communicate effectively, I would love to embrace it. But if the advantage is merely seen?