Software, Mockups, Requirements

Many users of version 4.22 has complained about a kind of slow-down that occurs after using MockupScreens for some time. Problem is found and fixed, and finally version 4.23 is available for download from the website.

Now, with version 4.22 improving rendering speed by more than 200% and with version 4.23 resolving the slow-down issue, MockupScreens is fastest ever.

What that means for you is much better user experience. Just try it

And what that means for me is that I finally can go on with improving the product. There is not many bugs people are reporting but they are still here waiting to be fixed. Mac version is already running on Mac, but needs some serious “Mac-isation” in order to provide true Mac look & feel. And “Pro” version is just around a corner too, master screens are ready and work fabulously, one thing that’s still under development is the web part - the ability to share and discuss the screens with your users.

And just to avoid being all too serious, I just got back from ESWC 2009 in Berlin, drinking beer there with interesting people and discussing the future of MockupScreens with some old friends. Here is the photo of one such conversation, taking place at Madame Tussauds’ vax figures museum.

Sorry for the lack of updates, I’ve been *very* busy. But main thing is version 4.20 is live, with most of the feedback I got since April implemented.

• FORM improvements: Form’s “minimize” and “maximize” buttons are now optional for Windows and Web skin (Black and White skin doesn’t show them at all). Menus can have submenus that can be displayed as open. Defining the submenus is the same as for the Tree element (indenting with dots) but only one sub-level is available. HTML toolbar for Form element is now optional and available in any skin (not only Web skin). You can change the form’s background color.
• INTERFACE improvements: Most menu items has icons now to distinguish them faster. There is big “New Screen” button above the list of screens in the right. Grid can be turned on or off from the top toolbar. Grid is now shown OVER the form, which makes far more sense. Elements are mouse-dragged from the left toolbar (which is more standard then point and click as was up to now). Zoom in/out commands on “Drawing” menu or F8/F9. Right and bottom panels can be resized now to fit people with different displays and resolution. Showing progress while importing old .story files.
• TREE improvements: Root node is optional now, if the text is left empty root node is not displayed.
• TABLE (and Table Editor) improvements: Header row is now optional. Columns can be button, checkbox or dropdown types. If it’s a button, all empty cells are duplicated from the last non-empty cell. If it’s a checkbox, any text within a cell makes it “checked”. One or more table rows can be displayed as “selected” eg. highlighted. Table editor toolbar commands have icons now. Table headers allow multi-line text captions - split lines with “|” character like this “First line|Second line”. Table editor has undo/redo capability now.
• GEOMETRY: While resizing the element, exact width/height is shown. It also can be directly set under “Geometry” tab (put there not to irritate people who don’t need this). Align and Size commands on the top toolbar: just select multiple elements and align them relative to each other (left, right, center, top, middle, bottom) or make them same height/width.
• USER GUIDE improvements: It’s better than before but I’m still not happy with it. At least it made me wrote the “Introduction” which gives a bit of explanation on how to use MockupScreens, before diving into details.
• EXPORT improvements: Complete project or particular scenario can be exported as number of image files (one image for each screen). Much clearer images in PDF export, see below under “Print improvements”.
• TEXT improvements: Text elements can be populated with dummy (Lorem Ipsum) text of desired length automatically now. Undo command undoes words you typed in text fields, and not individual characters which was annoying. Text element does word-wrapping now and it’s default (can be turned off).
• CHECKBOX improvements: Checkbox can have label on either left or right side now.
• COMMENT improvements: Comments are automatically numbered top to bottom.
• BUTTON improvements: Buttons allow multi-line text captions now. Disabled button looks more realistic in “Windows” skin.
• LINE improvements: Line is resized or manipulated by it’s ends and not by the handles on “bounding box” around it. And you can change line’s color.
• PRINT improvements: Much better images, problem was that previously wide screens’ images were resized to fit the page. Now they are rendered smaller *before* converting them to image so they are much more clear and text is readable no matter what is the original size of the screen. Form’s own comment is shown *above* the screen when printing or exporting to PDF, other comments are shown below the screen.
• FILE Locking: Simple file locking mechanism: application will warn you when you open the file somebody is already working on.
• DROPDOWN improvements: User can specify dropdown’s list items and dropdown can be shown as “opened”.
• TAB improvements: different jump-to-screen for *each* tab.

Well, there you go. Enjoy.

EDIT: I just noticed ” and Many Other Things” in the title. That was my original intention, but above list of new features is too comprehensive to continue with other topics. I will post those other things in few days, in short there is quite a few parallel tracks being worked on now, all with the same goal to improve MockupScreens.

New version is just around a corner, but first I need your help. I’m creating a short MockupScreens video and at the end I plan to show some mock-ups from real users. If you want to help me out and care to share some of your mock-ups please drop me a line. It might even lead to a whole new section on the website with user mock-ups only.

Thanks to flood of great feedback coming in after v4 release, it’s pretty clear what features big or small are needed most urgently. Version 4.1 is approaching final testing and at the moment includes the following:

• Undo command undoes words you typed in text fields, and not individual characters which was annoying
• When turned on, the grid is shown over the whole mock-up
• Buttons and table headers allow multi-line text captions
• Text element does word-wrapping now
• You can change the form’s background color
• Table editor has undo/redo capability now
• Elements are mouse-dragged from the left toolbar (which is more standard then point and click as was up to now)
• Line is resized or manipulated by it’s ends and not by the handles on “bounding box” around it. And you can change line’s color.
• Align commands are put on the top toolbar: just select multiple elements and align them relative to each other (left, right, center, top, middle, bottom)

Also there are numerous tiny improvements. Now comes another batch of improvements of similar type to those mentioned above and then it’s all clear to go for more demanding things like master screens and such. Keep tuned!

Now that version 4 is out, it’s time to turn to the future. There have been many feature requests during beta stage, it’s time to see which of them would really boost YOUR productivity the most (I know my own answer, but you make the majority here )

Why not add them all? Well it’s simple, really. As zillion features make it into any tool it becomes more and more bloated and cumbersome. And that is the exact opossite of the very idea of MockupScreens, which is to remain as slim and productive as possible. As some of you guessed, the most work on version 4 wasn’t implementing new features, but how to add them all but not let them to get in the way.

Frankly, I wanted to do this for quite a long time. I summarized below some ideas (both yours and mine) and I invite YOU to discuss them here, with me and with other MockupScreens’ users!

• Export to Word: would the exporting the project to Word readable file (.doc or .rtf) make it real easy for you?
• The way to make changes on single screen and have all it’s copies updated automatically : when you create several copies of the same screen and then make them slightly different, then when something basic changes you have to make exactly the same change to each copy by hand… Wouldn’t it be great if you just made a change once, on ‘original’ screen (something like ‘Master slides’ in powerpoint) and changes were done automatically on all it’s copies?
• ‘Sizing’ commands for elements: you select group of elements and then just click to make them of same width, height, etc.
• ‘Hand drawn’ look and feel: with skins mechanism now in place in version 4, a new skin could be added, that makes screens look like they are hand drawn by a pencil. Nice, huh?
• Turn on/off web toolbar for individual screens: Currently, when you switch to ‘Web’ skin, all forms are automatically drawn with web toolbar. Several people stated that the way version 3 did it made more sense for their work: you just turned it on or off for any individual form.
• Relying more on the keyboard: it is true that in MockupScreens since it’s very beginnings you didn’t have to use mouse that much. If that is what makes you productive, won’t it be nice to have a keyboard shortcut for every single action in MockupScreens?
• Tables improved: there are many ways how existing Table element and Table Editor ifself could be improved, like ie. highlighting individual rows, switching headers on/off, make alternating rows different color (for table) or ie. undo/redo capability, pasting single rows/columns from Excel etc (for table editor). While we are at it, why not make a Tree editor, too?
• Drag&Drop elements from the left toolbar, instead of clicking on them and then ‘sniping’ at the exact position on the form. It surely is a more standard way to do this.
• More elements: options are limitless here. Calendars, multimedia bars, predefined standard toolbars, you name it. Btw currently you can add them as custom image and use them that way, but would any of the zillion possible additional elements make a difference? Have in mind that adding more than a few elements would require fundamental changes in the interface to avoid the clutter.
• Changing color of elements: some elements could benefit from ability to change their background color ie. form, and others from changing their color alltogether ie. line. How much does it matter for you? (Most of you already know I’m pretty heavily biased towards black & white prototypes, but of course I may be wrong)
• Separate go-to for each tab: Tab element can jump only to single screen at the moment. Sometimes it could be useful if you could set the separate screen to jump to from any tab on Tab element…
• Submenus displayed for some elements: sometimes you want to show to your clients what are exact commands on that menu, or what options that dropdown offers to end-user. It could be implemented like single checkbox (or something) on the Form or Dropdown element, you know…
• Word-wrap for Text: Text element could benefit from word-wrap feature. You wouldn’t have to resize it again and again as you paste some long text. In fact I think I’ll do this anyhow, it’s helpful plus it doesn’t complicates the interface equals ‘go’.
• Predefined ‘Template’ screens: are you missing the ‘Templates’ quazi-scenario from the version 3? Not many people used it so it fell as one of the victims to make the interface simpler. Especially since you can anytime create your own ‘Templates’ group and use it in the same manner.

Well I think that’s quite enough to make you think. And be sure to comment on what would be most important for you!

It took somewhat longer than expected, but thanks to many zealous beta testers version 4 has been additionaly improved and as from today everybody can download it from the main site!

In addition to bug fixes and many small but important improvements, what completely new has been added is:

• Simple file locking mechanism, for people that use MockupScreens in teams often working on the same file
• Ability to resize working panes to accomodate people with different display size and resolution

It’s been almost exactly 16 months now since work begun on MockupScreens 4. Frankly, I expected it to take half as long. But what is important is it’s here. The “only” thing left now is getting the word out.

It’s been whole week since beta is in use and I’m happy to tell you: so far so good.

There were several minor bugs and only issue that made me nervous was that several people had problems with their old .story files. Bugs were found and fixed, new beta2 has been distributed today and if nothing major comes up you can expect public release very VERY soon.

There is lot of feedback coming in, thank you for that. Of course I can’t implement all the great ideas right now and don’t think it would be smartest thing to do at the moment, but probably when beta phase is over I’ll post here some of them so we can discuss them together and decide what batch of features is most needed next etc.

Edit: Beta distributed on Feb 9, and feedback begins to flow in

For those of you interested, beta version is finished. I have packaged it today and sent to final round of testing to some fine folks who do that much better than myself, but I don’t expect they will find much.

So if everything goes as planned, within a week beta testers will get the new version, and I will start getting tons of feedback. If there should be crucial issues they will be included in final release, everything else goes on my to-do list.

And just in case you might be wandering about the final release, I’ll risk to write here in public it will be available in a month or just a bit more. Soon we’ll see how accurate this estimate will prove to be.

More than 50 existing MockupScreens users want to beta test new release. I must tell you folks I’m pleasantly surprised with such interest. And I was very fond to hear from some of them (not they are not all nice folks), cause they are with MockupScreens since it’s beginning back in 2005.

“More the merrier” right? Well, in this particular case I feel 50 is great but more would be an overkill. I intend to improve MockupScreens during beta phase, and not my speed-typing and e-mail communication skills

I got many e-mails asking how new release is going, what will it bring, when will it be available and so on. Well, thanks for your patience we are almost there! Last bugs are being fixed, and those of you who wanted to beta test and contacted me will get the download link in ten days or so. As some of you have already guessed, the hardest part was to add many new features, and at the same time improve productivity, ease of use and robustness. I’m happy to say that I’m confident “new” Mockup Screens is as simple to use now as it was before, even with much stronger functionality built into it.

In short, new release does much better job than the old one. For one it’s much more robust, being completely redesigned and rewritten during past 14 months (wow, it went by so fast!). Other major improvements are the very same you kept requesting:

• Both much nicer and more “standard” interface - single main screen, native windows controls and dialogs, etc
• Ability to switch look and feel at any time among Black and white, Windows and Web look and feel
• Finer control of the mocked screens’ element formatting: font color, font size, bold, italic, underline, etc

Not to keep you waiting any longer, here is the screenshot so you can see by yourself what I’m talking about. You have to click on it to really see the details.

And below is the same mockup displayed in two skins: “Windows” and “Black and white”. Again, click on it to see the details.

Among great many other improvements, below are those that had also been much requested by you:

• Jump to another screen from any element while in slideshow mode or in exported HTML, and not just from “mark” icons
• Comments for any element (instead of having to put “mark” icons to comment something), along with comments being more prominent as important part of the Mockup Screens functionality, and with many small improvements in comments’ exporting, printing, word-wrapping, the way how comments are displayed on screen, etc
• Improved “table editor” so you can draw and populate your tables more easily, and even paste the actual data from Excel
• Printing from MockupScreens directly, instead of exporting project to HTML so it could be printed
• Copying screen snapshots directly to Word (or other programs), with no need to export snapshots to image files first
• Importing and exporting whole scenarios or just copy-pasting them between different projects
• Better performance, especially with large files with many screens crowded with elements
• Export to XML so the mockups can be transformed by xsl-transformations to actual programming code
• Most elements can be shown as “disabled”, to indicate that they are read only for example

Once this major release is “out and running”, there are more improvements to come - and soon, since very rewarding but extremely time consuming part of the work will be done. And of course I hope you’ll again be here helping me decide how to make Mockup Screens better, what to change and what ideas to implement. Thank you, folks!

Well folks, blog is up and running and we are all set. But I feel I must clear some things up for starters. People ask me why would I want to waste time on blogging and what would I write about anyway. First, I don’t see discussing topics of common interest with interesting and active people as a waste of time. And speaking on what would I write about, well, if I can spend endless hours discussing software requirements, software prototyping and MockupScreens itself over a few beers, I don’t see why wouldn’t I get in touch with more people that share my interests. And YOU are either one of those people or you are in the wrong place.

In fact, some of more interesting discussions I had on some issues was via long e-mail thread with MockupScreens user who decided to drop me a line. And of course regarding MockupScreens, discussing what features would be most beneficial for the next release with real-life users outside my colleague and face-to-face customer circle couldn’t hurt.

Oh, and another thing which made the blog possible. I gave my notice recently so I finally have more time to pursue things that I feel really matter.

So, I hope to see you here from time to time, don’t be shy to comment on things and if you feel something is not of interest to readers in general feel free to drop me a line!