i have made a prototype in SketchFlow which is found in Expression Blend 3. As my designer can not use the published .exe version (Due to being on a Mac) I have to export the application to Word. This works great apart from the order being somewhat odd.
What determines the order in which objects get exported into the Word document and more importantly how can i change this order to what i want it to be?
Thanks,
Kohan.
Yes, the order of pages in the word document is indeed: Map, Navigation screens in alphaetical order, component screens in alphabetical order. Currently, the only way to force a particular order is to prefix the screen names appropriately.
Adam is also right that a good way to give anybody access to a prototype is to make the prototype in Silverlight rather than WPF. This lets you post the prototype on the web, and lets users on a Mac review them too.
It appears that the Word export is set to output the Sketchflow Map first, the initially generated screen second and the custom-made screens alphabetically. I'll ask around and see if there is a way to modify that.
As an alternative, you could create the Sketchflow prototype as a Silverlight app and then your designer could view the ouput as a .xap hosted on an html page.
Related
The "File >New >Other..." command of the IDE environment, shows the following image:
In the image, two areas (A) and (B) are observed. I am interested in using area control (B).
I assumed it was a TListView control, but I haven't been able to achieve similar view options as above. Other people have suggested that each of the displayed items (icon, title, and descriptive text) can be inserted inside a common container (TPanel, TFrame) and "stacked" inside a TScrollBox, a possible solution, but I think the Delphi folks may have used something more optimized.
Does anyone know which component has been used to generate that view? Or, does anyone know how to generate such a view?
It is a component called TControlList: https://docwiki.embarcadero.com/Libraries/Alexandria/en/Vcl.ControlList.TControlList
For this question, I don't require a full explanation of all code, but helping me get insight into the process for achieving this result would be very helpful! Some information sources that will lead me to where I want to be.
Don't hesitate to give your opinion or make suggestions on how you would make it better in case you have better ideas - We just want to jump off the regular photo album system.
In the added screenshot I have added a painted image that makes the purpose clear.
Albums are created by tapping the "+" sign. (This shows a popup window in which the user can tag a bar/event to which the picture applies; the bar/event profile picture will appear on the album cover).
Newly taken pictures should appear in a separate band on the screen. They will float there until the user drags and drops them into an album. Note that the picture is also taken from within the app (using the native camera of the smartphone).
When the user added them to an album that was tagged, they will also be displayed automatically in the gallery of the tagged bar/event profile. (Of course in the app, personal profiles will be available as well).
Which technologies / workflow would you advise me?
What I need to create now is just an empty shell for the app that demonstrates the visual workflow (the data flows are not important at this point).
I have read about some libraries such as three20 or UIImagePicker, I don't know if they are easy to customize towards our needs.
Thanks!
I cannot comment on the likes of Three20 as I have never actually used them.
One method I can suggest, is using a number of scrollviews. Based on your example, you would require 2 individual scrollviews. (For ease lets call them AlbumsSV and PicturesSV).
The AlbumsSV would dynamically load content, based on your backing store. One approach I have used in the past, is to load custom views into a scroll view, as this allows for maximum control, you can specify any requirements as properties of the view (i.e Primary key etc), also you can load a 'preview image' based on the data held in your data store.
Assuming you always want the ability to add new items to be last element added to the AlbumsSV, then you can simply add another custom view to the AlbumsSV after all other items have processed.
PicturesSV would simply load content based upon what is in the users camera roll. Again I would recommend using a custom view, as you can set properties such as FileURL etc on the custom view, this will aid when it comes to dragging items into a specific album.
Hope this helps :)
I would like to design a GUI dashboard for a document management application. The dashboard contains only documents thumbnails. Each document may belong to a few hierarchies (e.g. "topic" hierarchy, "language" hierarchy, "genre" hierarchy, etc.) A user may want to select math texts in English, or lyrics in all Roman languages, etc.
How would you design a GUI for this ? What if the dashboard runs in a multi-touch tablet device ? What are examples of such GUI ?
I sketched these examples that would work with mouse or touch:
1) Dropdown Tags: You can use a approach similar to what Delicious do with tags, but put tags under hierarchies which you can chose on dropdown menus right on the top. The documents are filtered on real time while you choose the filters. It would be interesting to save an old filters for quickly navigation.
2) CheckBox: If you have few filter and options you can keep a bunch of checkbox on the side and filter the documents on real time:
However, it is hard to come with a UI like that, I think you should prototype and ask for the user to test what is better.
When you design a UI interface, remember that the user has to know where they are in a system. They need to know what they can do next; and what will happen when they do it and get there.
The most intuitive GUI for any user will be one whose interface they're already familiar with.
This way, they won't have to spend time thinking about what would happen when they perform a certain action.
Browser UI's and File explorer UI's are some such examples.
Hovering on a file to see a semi-transparent pop-up which lists options of what to do with the file is another way to enhance usability without cluttering the screen with navigation aids. (this works even for multitouch screens)
I'm rebuilding a language selection interface for a multi-national website, and I'm beginning to think it might be better for usability to use a simple form drop down rather than the custom JavaScript drop down menu that they're currently using. Am I way off base here, or should I go with my instinct? What do you think?
Simple drop down has its advantages. When you let the browser decide what to do, instead of forcing it to do what you want via JS, then browsers for unique circumstances (such as mobile devices) will format the drop down as its native selector.
If the custom js menu provides no additional functionality then definitely go with the basic select menu. However, if there's a good reason to use the custom menu, consider implementing it in a way that uses progressive enhancement so you can be sure it provides the basic functionality for everyone and adds features for browsers that can support it.
Any user who reaches the page for setting languages, comes with a specific aim in mind. He already knows what language he wants to set here (just as in most forms people know what they want to fill in for their birth date).
For this reason, I would recommend a text box with autocomplete functionality. Here are the advantages:
a text-box with a type-ahead works much better than a dropdown in most cases when the user knows what his options are
a dropdown with searching for "R" functionality doesn't always work the same way for all browsers, and not all browsers implement searching for "RUS...." and beyond.
from a purely is-this-usable standpoint, the type-ahead will prove to be far more useful over time.
I wouldn't use a drop down for countries - they are cumbersome to use when the number of items are large (https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/31738/what-is-the-maximum-recommended-number-of-item-to-put-in-a-drop-down-list).
The "start typing a letter" to jump directly to say Russia when pressing R is a great feature in drop down lists - although I suspect that this is a power user feature - one that a lot of users will be unaware of (basically because it's a hidden feature).
Check out this solution instead -
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/11/10/redesigning-the-country-selector/
Cheers
I am designing an installer interface for a already written program. It is my first windows.form. I see three approaches to solving my "problem" of needing multiple "screens". I can add all the labels/buttons/interface, and then hide/show them at events. Or I can close and open a new windows? Or do I somehow load my next form into the window frame (sortv like an iFrame approach)? Can somehow help explain how to do this?
Thanks!
Though there is nothing stopping you from using any of the approaches that you mentioned,
using separate windows and opening/closing them would be cleaner. If the code for individual windows gets complicated it would be clearer if they were separate.
Since you said you are doing installer's particulary take a look at Wix. It was meant to be used for creating installer's. It has it's own approach of building UI from XML's.
I would design my "screens" as unique frames with each frame having the controls it needed. Then I would just swap them in and out of the main window.
Its sort of like an IFrame (visually at least).
I agree that WiX is worth a look. An alternative to WiX that some people like more (it's just different, some people like one approach, some like the other) is NSIS.
When I have a requirement that calls for swapping out the controls in a single window, I tend to create a user control for each "page".
Have you considered using The Panel control? You can group certain controls together and have them placed inside one or more Panels.
You could Hide/Show each panel when required.