Posts Tagged ‘GUI Design Studio’

GUI Design Studio 4.2 Quick Update

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

We’ve just fixed a couple of bugs that crept into Tuesday’s 4.2 release. So if you’ve already installed version 4.2.110 then please download version 4.2.111 and install that in its place. Thanks.

Bugs Fixed:

  1. Scroll bars on List Boxes, Trees and Multi-Line Edit Boxes were being enabled when they were redundant and should have been disabled. A fairly minor bug but it needed fixing.
  2. The “Conditions” box part of Conditional Content Panels had become inaccessible for selection, moving or making connections. This important fix is the main reason for this immediate update.
  3. The Viewer now correctly accepts a .gdd project distribution file as a command line parameter. Normally, the Viewer opens files through other mechanisms but this can be useful in some cases.

Many thanks to everyone that has reported these bugs!

GUI Design Studio 4.2 Released

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

New Version 4.2GUI Design Studio version 4.2 is now available forĀ immediate download. This is a maintenance release with some fixes and changes based on customer requests. It’s a free upgrade for all registered v4 users. Users of v3 and earlier versions can try this version for 30 days or purchase an upgrade.

For customers using version 4.0 or 4.1 of GUI Design Studio, simply install the new version and your existing licenses will continue to work. Be sure to install the correct Professional or Express edition though!

NEW: Play Sound

A simple “Play Sound” Storyboard element has been added for playing small WAV files in response to user actions. There’s also a corresponding new “Stop Sound” element.

Note that this is intended for short ‘system’ sounds and not for playing long audio tracks in multimedia application designs.

Sound Test Design

NEW: Resize Anchors

Resize Anchors have been added to all elements to automatically re-position and resize contained elements when an element is resized.

Top, Left, Bottom and Right anchors can be set to be Fixed, Proportional or nothing from the “Position” tab of the property editor or by clicking on the new Resize Anchor ‘lollipop’ graphics in the visual editor:
Resize Anchors
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iPhone Contacts Application Prototype Example

Friday, August 13th, 2010

iPhone Contact Info Prototype Screen DesignNow that we’ve posted an updated iPhone Library of GUI design widgets (v1.1), it was time to add a new example to the Gallery that makes use of it.

The iPhone Contacts application prototype example is based on the built-in Contacts application on the Apple iPhone. It was built entirely from elements within the library, very quickly.

Here are some of the key areas this example demonstrates:

  • The typical structure for an iPhone application prototype project in GUI Design Studio.
  • Putting together a Quick Concept flow of the application.
  • The basic elements needed to create the screens.
  • How a typical screen design is put together.
  • How to create a scrolling section on a screen.
  • Flipping between portrait and landscape oriented designs.

The project files can be downloaded from the example gallery page.

I hope this example will help you get your iPhone application prototypes off to a flying start!

GUI Design Studio 4.1 Released

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

New Version 4.1GUI Design Studio version 4.1 is now available forĀ immediate download. This is a maintenance release with some fixes and changes based on customer requests. It’s a free upgrade for all registered v4 users. Users of v3 and earlier versions can try this version for 30 days or purchase an upgrade.

For customers using version 4.0 of GUI Design Studio, simply install the new version and your existing licenses will continue to work. Be sure to install the correct Professional or Express edition though!

New Element Grouping in v4.1

This has been a long-standing request from users so we’re pleased to introduce element grouping into version 4.1. This will become an essential feature for creating more complex custom elements.

Grouped elements form a unit so that selecting and moving one element within the group will move them all together. Elements within a group can still be individually selected to resize them and change their properties and grouping does not affect parent/child relationships.

First select all of the elements you want to group together, then use the new “Group Elements” command on the right-click context menu (Ctrl+G hotkey):
Element Grouping
You can also add elements into an existing group using this command. The “Ungroup Elements” command (Ctrl+Shift+G) will remove all selected elements from their respective groups.
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GUI Design Studio 4.0 Released With New Interaction and Templates

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

New Version 4.0GUI Design Studio version 4.0 is now available and includes some fantastic new features in two editions, both with a 30-day trial.

The new features are grouped around interactivity and element and design sharing. They enable you to build more realistic and interactive prototypes and to share or reuse individual elements or whole design templates with ease.

New editions

GUI Design Studio is now available in two different editions.

GUI Design Studio Express provides the prototyping functionality that was in v3, but focussed on individuals without the need to share projects and generate specification documentation.

GUI Design Studio Professional builds on v3, adding new interactivity and design sharing features, and is better suited to those working on larger projects, in teams, or on multiple designs.

All projects created in one edition will run in the other, or in the free viewer, except that the enhanced interactivity features in the Professional edition (see below) are not available in the Express edition. You can compare the two editions here.

Prototypes get more interactive (Pro edition only)

As your user interface design develops, everyone involved starts to focus on the details of interactivity. What process does the user need to go through to achieve certain tasks, how many button presses, how much navigation, is it clear and obvious, can they make simple mistakes?

All of these questions, and more, need to be considered in developing and refining a good UI and they cannot be addressed easily in a simple mock-up.

GUI Design Studio v4 introduces a range of new features (more…)