We are happy to announce the 6.2 release of ProtoShare. With it we have introduced the foundation needed to create mobile wireframes and prototypes for our Business Edition Customers. We’ve also included several updates for all our ProtoShare products. See the Release Notes for details.
Mobile app development is no longer a luxury for companies. Whether it’s having a mobile website congruent with responsive design best practices or building an application to complement service offerings, mobile development has become standard practice in today’s business landscape.
We’ve taken a hard look at what’s required for mobile application development (and even tossed up some beta iPhone features for a while). What we discovered is that it’s not enough to just build a mobile wireframe or prototype and interact with it on a desktop screen. To truly experience how a mobile website or mobile app is intended to act, we must test/experiment/interact with it on the target device. Only from there can we uncover the business or UX requirements.
The latest version of ProtoShare includes screen guides to help users build their mobile apps to the right size, mobile stencils to quickly add standard widgets to wireframes, and a View on Device feature to send a prototype to a target device to experience. Changes to the wireframes then appear instantly with a refresh of the mobile screen and stakeholders can continue to comment in ProtoShare’s Review interface to keep the process moving forward. Check out our new tutorials on mobile prototyping.
Mobile Prototype - View on Device
In addition to the mobile offerings, all ProtoShare users can add animated transitions to their prototypes. According to Rachel Hinman of Nokia Research Center, “animation and transitions can help users form a mental model of how information will ‘unfold.’” They can make an interface feel more natural, intuitive, so have fun playing around with them. For more information on animations, visit our Tutorials page.
We’re excited about this release of ProtoShare and even more excited about what’s to come. (We’re working on building a ProtoShare Community.) Stay tuned over the next several weeks to learn more.