id8

Welcome

Monday June 20, 2011

Welcome to id8’s redesigned website! We want this site to help people learn about who we are and what we do. More importantly, we want share our enthusiasm for digital prototyping.

You may ask, why would we care so deeply about digital prototyping?

Because making digital products — websites, software, mobile apps — is challenging. Our customers’ expectations about digital continue to rise. They demand rich and rewarding digital experiences. Successful digital experiences need to have a perfect balance of visual design, content, interaction, and technology.

Most digital development projects rely upon traditional processes and artifacts. They take too much time, cost too much money, they don’t support the creative process, and the adoption of the product ultimately suffers. id8 asks business stakeholders what they want. We document the requirements, design wireframes, get tech to validate it, and try to design the visual interface.

Most traditional development projects are not ultimately successful.

id8 has happened upon a better way, including digital prototyping in your development process.

What we offer is simple and clear: An avenue for business stakeholders and technologists to be engaged and collaborate, instead of responding to emails and ignoring static requirement spreadsheets. A means for visual designers to work with content strategists and information architects in building immersive experiences, rather than throwing deliverables across the wall. A way for business owners to give feedback and instantly see their ideas come to life and understand what they’re building — instead of waiting to see how the product will fare when it’s finally shipped.

id8 lets you work with a realistic and life-like model before it’s built. Digital prototyping allows you to quickly and cheaply experiment. It allows you to be more flexible and adapt to changing conditions.

As one client told us, “I’d never do another project without digital prototyping.”

Of course, we hope that clients choose us as their partner, but more importantly, we want people to learn how digital prototyping can help them make superior digital products.

We view this site — and ultimately our business — as just one more digital prototype. We hope that you’ll send us any thoughts, comments, and complaints, so that we can continue to iterate and improve.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

iBloc Support-
Liquid Layout

Friday June 10, 2011

The Liquid Layout iBloc is a custom action that enables liquid layout (aka flexible layout) behavior to any iRise page when viewed through any browser or mobile device. It supports dynamic scaling of selected elements, proportional scaling, and floating elements relative to the right edge of the browser.

Current Version: 2.3
Supported iRise Studio Versions: 8.7 – 8.10
Supported Browsers: IE 7.0+, Firefox 3.5+, Safari 4.0+, Chrome 8.0+, iOS Safari, Android (default browser)
Works in iRise iPhone and iPad apps: Yes

Previous Version: 2.2
Supported iRise Studio Versions: 8.5, 8.6
Supported Browsers: IE 7.0+, Firefox 3.5+, Safari 4.0+, Chrome 8.0+, iOS Safari, Android (default browser)
Works in iRise iPhone and iPad apps: Yes

What does it do?

• Dynamically re-sizes one or more widgets to fit the width of the browser.
• Floats selected widgets relative to the right edge of the browser.
• Scale entire table columns proportionally, or individual columns.
• Scales content on iPhones, iPads, and Android devices to fit screen orientation (portrait / landscape), and re-scales content on orientation change.

How do I use it?

You can connect any page widget to this action with any event, but you’ll probably want the liquid layout effect applied on load. To do this, you first have to create an action that is associated with the page’s onLoad event.

1. Make sure your page Align property is set to “Fit to Window”.
2. Right-click on a blank area of the page, and select Add Event > Action…
3. Choose Show/Hide Widgets, and set “Select widgets to:” to Show. Select any widget on your page that is already shown by default. (This gives us a ‘dummy’ action that we can connect to the iBloc)
4. Right click on the blue line that was created and select Move To > onLoad.
5. Drag the Liquid Layout Action iBloc onto the canvas.
6. Drag the Show/Hide action created in step 2 onto the Liquid Layout Action iBloc to connect them.
7. If desired, change the ‘Key string’ value in the Liquid Layout properties panel. (default is ‘Liquid’)
8. Insert the ‘Key string’ value anywhere in the Name property of all page widgets that you want to scale.
9. If desired, change the ‘Float right string’ value in the Liquid Layout properties panel. (default is ‘Float’)
10. Insert the ‘Float right string’ value anywhere in the Name property of all page widgets that you want to float relative to the right edge of the browser.
11. Specify the default browser width in the properties panel to match the width of your page in Studio. (default is 1000)

 

Can I see it work?

 

Can you share some ProTips?

• Create a customized liquid layout effect by selecting different sets of page elements.  (For example, stretch the main content area of a page and keep navigation elements fixed.)
• Set a Minimum browser width value in the properties panel to prevent users from over-compressing elements. (For example, preserve readability of page content areas)
• Set a Maximum browser width value to prevent the layout from stretching beyond a specified limit.

Feel free to download this or any of our free iBlocs on our Workshop page, and please tell us what you think.

 

iBloc Support-
Move to Mouse Location

Wednesday June 8, 2011

The Move to Mouse Location iBloc is a custom action that moves any iRise widget to the current pointer position.

Current Version: 1.2.1
Supported iRise Studio Versions: 8.7 – 8.10
Supported Browsers: IE 7.0+, Firefox 3.5+, Safari 4.0+, Chrome 8.0+, iOS Safari, Android (default browser)
Works in iRise iPhone and iPad apps: Yes

Previous Version: 1.1.1
Supported iRise Studio Versions: 8.5, 8.6
Supported Browsers: IE 7.0+, Firefox 3.5+, Safari 4.0+, Chrome 8.0+, iOS Safari, Android (default browser)
Works in iRise iPhone and iPad apps: Yes

What does it do?

• Moves widgets to the current pointer position.
• Can be combined with other iRise actions for unlimited uses, such as replacing the default context (right-click) menu with your own.

 

How can I use it?

1. Drag it onto a page canvas and connect a page widget to it, like a regular Action.
2. Choose the widget you want to move in the action’s properties panel.

 

Can I see it work?

• iDoc and video demo coming soon!

 

Can you share some ProTips?

• Change the default event to any other event to suit your purpose. (For example, change the event to “on right click (context menu)” to simulate a custom context menu, or use “on mouse move” to have a prompt follow the cursor as it moves over an area of the page.)
• Connect the Move to Cursor Action to other iRise actions to simulate complex behaviors and effects.(For example, create a custom tooltip that fades in by hiding a section by default and connecting the iBloc to a Show Widgets Action with the Fade effect selected.)
• Enter positive or negative values for xoffset and yoffset in the properties panel to adjust the placement of your widgets relative to the pointer. (For example, make an info ‘bubble’ appear above the pointer.)
• Some additional uses include:  context-sensitive help, custom tooltips, user prompts, contextual ads, informational fly-outs, custom context menus

 

Feel free to download any of the free iBlocs on our Workshop page, and please tell us what you think.