Archive for February, 2009
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Just thought to write up a quick status on the project. The project is still alive and all is moving forward. I am just doing some user research which has taken me away from design and development. Hoping to sketch some project concepts starting in March.
In the meantime I setup a Git repository over at http://github.com/fluidia/ which I believe is more open and social than SVN. This I think fits more with the nature of this project.
So far around 5 designers and 2 developers have expressed interested in the project. I hope to involve those interested more actively in the next few weeks, as right now I am totally aware that there is not much of design happening.
Stay Tuned. Jakub.
Posted in Announcements, by Jakub | No Comments »
Saturday, February 14th, 2009
I’m seeking some more inspiration and I need some volunteers willing to take part in user research. Basically I would like to observe a couple of people while they are designing user interfaces. You have to be in Toronto in March, or in the Netherlands in February. The second option which I am asking for is to video record your best and worst wireframing moments (via Jing).
Here are the details: www.fluidia.org/research
Any willing people, greatly appreciated! :)
Posted in Announcements, by Jakub | No Comments »
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Here is a possible scenario of a scaffolding metaphor applied to a typical workflow. An interaction designer or information architect sketches out an interface using fluidIA. The first time around a generic text label is used for a particular element area – say the header. A day later, as more thoughts emerge about the header, some more states are added and new buttons inside the header are sketched out. This in turn, in certain areas gives enough information for the designers and developers to start thinking about layouts and CSS styles. The designer and front end developer then begin styling certain sections as the information architect continues to move on to refine other areas needing further thought. The emerging CSS attaches to the fluidIA objects and is accessible in the prototype view. This way, the wireframe begins acting as a guiding scaffolding which layers over “real” code. The “real” code emerges underneath and does not have to be limited to CSS, but can also be in the form of database calls, server side code, custom Javascript code and HTML. As more of the “real” code emerges, bits and pieces of fluidIA scaffolding fall off and give way to what will remaing for a release. If uncertain, developers could always look back at the scaffolding or request areas needing further support from the information architect – enabling greater mutlidisciplinary collaboration.
Posted in Sketches & Scenarios, by Jakub | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
The design process has been updated a little bit to give contributors a better idea of how all of this could flow. I made myself responsible for the final visual designs to ensure greater integrity. This does not mean however that I have to be the only one doing detailed visuals. :) What do you think?
Posted in Announcements, by Jakub | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
FluidIA right now allows to view an element in two ways. First, in instance mode, the selected element can use properties as defined by its inheritance rules (for position, size, content and events). These rules allow a more modular way of assigning properties to the element by letting the user to choose which properties are inherited and which not.
Secondly, an element can also be edited in the master edit mode which absolutely uses the master object’s properties and ignores all instance properties and inheritance. This however is a temporary view as in the final prototype view, the various elements will rely on inheritance settings when being displayed. However, the problem right now is that the selection between master edit mode and instance mode becomes remembered. So if someone leaves an element in master edit mode and returns to the saved file after some time, the master object’s properties are used and not the instance’s inheritance.
Perhaps a better solution would be to boomerang from the master edit mode back to the inheritance mode after 10 seconds of inactivity. This would allow the user to understand that inheritance settings are dominant and the most important. While editing the master in it’s pure form is only temporary.
Here are two sketches outlining the problem and possible solution.
Posted in Sketches & Scenarios, with the following tags: ui_editmode, by Jakub | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
Just setup Vanilla Discussions over at http://fluidia.org/discuss. So far the intended use for this is to discuss mainly more general workflow and collaboration strategies. You can register directly from there if you want to contribute.
Posted in Announcements, by Jakub | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
The text tool allows designers to describe interface content areas and interface elements. Styling of text, such as choosing the colour or font is not important at this point and could be done with the help of an external CSS file that could get applied in “prototype view” mode.
Designers however describe content in various ways as seen here. Sometimes they will use exact text as intended, and at other times more generic content descriptions are used in the form of labels. At even other times symbolic data representations are used to denote text formatting.
Controlling text size could be used to denote text priority but also to have the text fit into smaller elements.
Posted in Sketches & Scenarios, with the following tags: ui_text_tool, by Jakub | No Comments »
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
I’ve began thinking how the clipboard could operate. These layouts contain 4 different states of the clipboard depending on what has been copied into it (using CTRL+C). The four states include: multiple instances, contents of an object (form elements, text elements), instance with all states, instance with one state. The clipboard also contains multiple “paste as” options to choose from before a paste. This will have to be revised in the future to accomodate for full page copy paste as well.
Accessing the clipboard: HOLD C
Putting an item into the clipboard: select something with the mouse, press CTRL + C
Pasting: CTRL + V
[nggallery id=1]
Posted in Detailed Design, with the following tags: ui_clipboard, by Jakub | No Comments »
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
The fluidIA project kicks off today. It’s an experiment to see if the UX community can create a superior prototyping tool in an open design and open source style. If the experiment succeeds, then we’ll have another great design tool at our disposal. If it fails, well let’s try so it does not fail. :) I will be leading the project for a minimum of five months and I warmly invite others to join in and contribute with design ideas, source code, and feedback. Woohoo.
Posted in Announcements, by Jakub | 2 Comments »
