HTML Prototype Viewer Done! - What's Next?

Publishing Complete, indeed! :) What you see above is maybe a subtle change when it comes to the Indigo UI; however, it is a humongous change when it comes to what it represents.

Last week we shipped the official (i.e., non-beta) release of our HTML-based prototype viewer. The reason this is significant is that you can run prototypes on any modern device. That means you can get a lot better feel for prototypes that are targeted at modern mobile devices. You can literally go from zero to evaluating on a device in just a couple hours (depending on the complexity of your prototype that could be less or more), iterate, evaluate again. Rinse. Repeat. Do it RITE.

The change in the Indigo UI is that now it when you share, whether to our servers or your own, you will no longer have the "beta" HTML option as well as a Silverlight option--it's just HTML now, plain and simple.

We did a lot of testing, and it's been in beta for almost two months for your feedback, but an interesting thing we have learned is that some of you were relying on falling back to the Silverlight version when/if the HTML share didn't quite work right. Hey! You're supposed to tell us when that happens and you're using beta! :-p That way we can fix it before we ship it to you.

Anyways, it's all good. We had some folks reporting some such issues last week now that the Silverlight option is no longer available, and we've been fixing those issues ASAP--we just released a bug fix update today to address the current known issues. So please, if you have any problems, any case where what you see in the preview/shared version is not matching what is in the designer, please let us know. It is absolutely 100% a priority for us to ensure that it "just works" for you.

BONUS!
As an added bonus with the HTML viewer, the preview is also in HTML and it opens in a separate window. This means you can optionally leave your preview window open, say, on a separate screen, and when you preview again, it just refreshes. This can help make quick tweaking of your designs even faster.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! :)
In addition to the HTML player, we also shipped a TON of bug fixes that on the whole should make Indigo more stable than it has ever been. Of course, if you still run into any issues, please tell us so we can fix it. The easiest way is to click Get Support on the Menu's Help & About pane.

VERSION 2 SNEAK PEEK
While we've been wrapping up testing and dev on the HTML viewer, we also have been hard at work on our upcoming Version 2. One of the nifty things related to running prototypes on any device is the new device selector and viewport:

You can see that we have the applicable device chrome both in the designer and in the preview window (in this case, I picked iPhone 5). When viewing your prototype in a browser, we show this chrome (if you picked it) for added visual context, but of course we hide it when running on the actual device.

Plus, you can set the transparency on the chrome in the designer (all the way to hidden) if it bugs you:

I set it to about 25% above, which aligns with our Clutter Free design principle--so the chrome doesn't get in your way you while you focus on your designs.

There's a lot more coming in V2, but I just wanted to whet your appetite for now..

Enjoy!

P.S. With Version 2, we are rebranding Indigo Studio Version 1 (the free forever edition) as Indigo Lite. Indigo Lite will contain everything you have today in Version 1, and it will remain free even after we ship Indigo Studio V2. V2+ will be available with a free 30-day Trial and licensed using a yearly, perpetual subscription--that is, you get all major and minor updates as well as standard support, and you get to keep whatever you own at the end of your subscription if you choose not to renew.

V1 users who download Indigo before V2 (which is just around the corner!) will also get an exclusive introductory upgrade offer, so don't wait to try Indigo today!

About Indigo Studio

If you haven’t already, why not Go Design Something!? Version 1 is free forever.

If you are using Indigo, we welcome your ideas on how we can better apply and refine these and other good interaction design principles to help you to design awesome UIs. If you have any questions or problems, please don’t hesitate to discuss them with us in our forums. We’re also on Twitter @indigodesigned.

About the Author

Ambrose Little is principal design technologist at Infragistics and has worked on Indigo Studio as interaction designer and product manager along with an awesome team based here in Cranbury, NJ, USA and Montevideo, Uruguay.