@Graeme Actually, the MyDiabetesMeals app is coming along quite nicely. I had been exploring various alternative flows, revisited some features, and explored many technical iOS topics. However, my prototype is finally starting to make progress significant progress. For example, I have enabled biometric authentication with either Touch ID or Face ID, which includes both local authentication as well as web site access. I have finally resolved how to parse HTML web pages and extract JSON-LD linked data to create recipe objects needed for the app. Also I'm integrating weekly meal plans as well.

@Pedro Has potential, but still has usability issues.

1. Too many steps when adding an image to frame (Upload, Save, Done)
2. iPhone snapshot images too small to view in storyboard, even when you go to full-screen mode.
3. At first, it wasn't clear what "Action"s were. How to create them, and how should they be used. Then I realized that it's just text that accompanies an image for a frame.
4. It does not indicate how voiceovers are created or used. I guess they're just a voice alternative to text action.
5. The Discovery popup can't be hidden, even after completing everything up to PDF (which is only available with an upgrade)
6. Right now, it seems less useful than prototyping features available with Marvel, Sketch, InVision Studio, Figma, Overflow, etc.

Good idea, but needs work. Thanks for sharing, and hope the feedback is helpful.

@Graeme I found this article on Try Design Thinking + Scrum quite helpful for integrating design with the development lifecycle. It highlights the importance of combining design thinking (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test) phases with iterative agile Scrum sprint builds (backlog, plan, review, retrospective). It also mentions user story mapping as a useful technique for establishing a feature backlog.

@Graeme I have tried several prototyping tools, and I'm still trying to determine what's most appropriate iOS design on my app. Marvel definitely has its place since it's simple and easy to use, especially early on; however, it's design palette is rather limited, and it's hard to take it much further after initial steps.

I explored JustinMind somewhat, and I think I like it quite a bit. It has much more versatility, and offers many widget libraries for its design palette. Also it's prototyping tool is fairly easy to use, similar to Marvel.

Since I'm still a Sketch novice, I spent some time trying to get more familiar with its capabilities for wireframes and prototyping. It actually looks fairly straight forward, but I needed to dive into more Sketch design itself along with various libraries and plugins. Finally I started to get a feel for how to use Sketch, and it really looks very promising. Also because of all the integrations with other tools like Marvel, JustinMind, Framer, etc, it appears I could use them together quite nicely once I get the proper workflow established.

One thing I discovered right away was how important it is to get structure, organization, and naming conventions setup. For example, it wad helpful create pages for separate groups of artboards (like recipes, etc), as well as finding the best iOS libraries to leverage components to help simplify and standardize my app design.

Of course, I will then have to figure out how to translate such designs into iOS Xcode storyboards and/or NIBs as well as Swift code. I know tools like Marvel, Zeplin, and Avocode focus on such developer handoff, CSS styles, and Swift code. Of course, in my case as a solo developer/designer, I'm handing it off to myself. Actually, I would like to move back and further between AppCode/Xcode and my design tools as My app evolves. Also, I need to understand the best way to export assets for use in my iOS projects, asset catalog, colors, icons, and images.

I welcome any ideas to help accelerate my learning.

@Graeme After some preliminary sketches with pen, pencil, and fine marker, I realized that I need to visit my local office supply store to get proper paper prototyping gear. So apparently, I need a clip-on sketch board, roll-on correction tape, and multiple very fine pens/markers like 0.7mm and 0.5mm very-fine pens, as well as Ultra-Fine Sharpies. This seems better than mechanical pencils since it would be more clear and easier to capture as photos for early prototyping with Marvel, Sketch, Figma, Invision, Framer, Justinmind, etc.

It looks like it would be very useful to get a bunch of Post-It notes (small & larger), as well as index cards, since it appears that "card sorting" is very helpful technique. I realize that I can do some of this with RealtimeBoard, but that's still more limited by screen real estate (unless I use a larger HDMI display or AirPlay for Apple TV).

I have seen some stencils, sketchpads, iPhone sticky pads, and sketchbooks. However, they seem somewhat restricted and probably not necessary at this point. Let me know any other suggestions before I go shopping later this week.

@Graeme Paper prototyping seems appropriate for a first pass to explore your ideas. I found both the Konigi graph paper (8-up-cyan-thumb) and SneakPeekIt iPhone (4-up Mobiles + Grid) useful for sketching initial iOS wireframes; there were others for web and tablet sketches, but that's not my interest right now.

Of course, once I get my iOS app working, then I will investigate other forms like desktop apps (macOS or Windows) , web apps (HTML5/CSS/JavaScript, Vue, Angular, etc.), tablets (iPad), Apple Watch (watchOS), and/or Apple TV (tvOS), and/or Android phones/tablets.

@Graeme Showing your example user story map for Imposter Cat was very helpful. It helped to see practical uses of story mapping to understand how I might use this technique, and this dtarted to help some se se a out this approach.

@Graeme These seem slightly useful for me, but user story mapping is far more important. Perhaps these might supplement for some perspective regarding benefits and value vs effort, but probably only after user story mapping. I'm trying to determine what my initial focus for the prototype MVP should be.

@Graeme These were very helpful. They helped me focus on my potential users, and what they need from my app. Then I was a bit stuck trying to figure out hoe to move forward. What are the next steps to take to transition from this to features and roadmap for my project. However your subsequent article about user story mapping was the key for me. Your own personal example for Imposter Cat helped a little, but I needed to research more about user story mapping on my own beyond the links you provided.

@Graeme Thanks for checking my initial attempt to create these design documents. This was the first I tried to do this, and it was quite a struggle. However it was a very helpful exercise, and I am learning a lot that will help me create better prototypes of my app.

In my User Person document, I identified the following possible user personas to represent different types of users for my app.

• Doug: iOS developer with Type 2 diabetes using One Drop and Diabetes Meal Plans

• One Drop Mobile users

• Diabetes Meal Plans users

• All persons with diabetes

• Any healthy cooking enthusiast

Initially I worked on a user persona for Doug (me), and will now expand to additional generic types as personas for various market segments as design and development proceeds to address with the new tools you suggested.