arv43's dashboard

perfect. simple and functional. and as an added bonus, terminology change to presentation. love mockups even more now!!! – arv43, on April 16, 2009 01:50

haha, this is neat

This is related to Noel's idea of checking at every launch. Instead of the user checking to see if there's something available, it would be a lot better to be informed that something new's available. "A new version is out. Check out what has been added.." and this shows the new things and a 'Upgrade'/'Not Now'.
This is something from my days as a programmer at an antivirus company, as we would have to push signature updates. While those needed to be up-to-date and immediate, it is not necessarily the case here. But the point is, why make the user's keep track of one more thing? Pushing vs Pulling, and while experienced users like to pull, pushing might be a better idea for everyone.

hey peldi,
yeah, i did add a photo when i posted the issue. not sure where it disappeared. will update and check it out.

resurfaced? http://arvindashok.com/pressDel_mocku... – arv43, on February 06, 2009 06:34

am gonna delete this. i am not sure but it does not happen anymore. and i did not update too. what used to happen on the desktop version was i would try and edit the dimensions and press delete and the object would be deleted sometimes. now, i think it was human error aka me and that i did not pay attention if the text was selected. i apologize.

Yep. That is exactly what I meant when I mentioned usability testing with paper prototypes. – arv43, on January 08, 2009 21:19

While all of us love this product and want to make it better, I feel we might be doing a couple of unintentional but bad things, IMHO. Namely, feature bloat and designing too much for each of our own individual selves and our special edge cases. Again, I completely understand your points and would find some of these useful, but again, some of them might not be core to Peldi's idea of keeping it simple and solving the problem he is trying to solve. From the basic research I have done by talking to a few users of Mockups and other designers, I feel that there are two basic things that mockups can solve apart from what it already does and which is in tune with the overall idea.
I have already made this point but want to find some sort of consensus on how many people agree with my analysis of both the bloat-ware and requirements.
With a paper prototype, a designer can do a usability test by mimicking certain events (like inserting a text-box when user pretends to type into it) and fetching the next screen when the user navigates away from the current screen. One can also demonstrate to other stakeholders the design and its rationale. If Mockups is basically something that takes all the plus points of paper prototyping, then its obvious next step is to aid the designer to satisfy his two goals - usability testing and presentation. And restating my earlier comment, it is basically LINKS and ACTIONS. Link will link to another mockup(it is a type of action obviously). Action is simple, and might be a misnomer as it mimics user input. Wouldn't this accomplish most of the goals?
I have used only the desktop version and do not understand all the dynamics of its use in a wiki. And while many of you may disagree with my opinion, I do feel we need to be more empathetic to Peldi's overall design philosophy and values before suggesting a plethora of ideas. It is our duty as designers to do nothing less.

This is a great product, and this feature is one of the missing pieces, at least for me. I just started using this an hour back, in fact still using the demo version.
I think most elements have one or more possible actions associated with it. To reduce complexity and keep in mind the philosophy of the whole prototyping method and the product, the lesser the better, IMO. A text box, text area etc has an action associated with it - fill in some random text. A linkable element (tabs, links, buttons) links to another mockup. This would enhance the presentation of a wireframe. Also, 'Full screen' is not a great name and 'Presentation' might be better (@Michael who I believe initiated that particular feature request called it that).
Will be following this thread closely.

i just used balsamiq for the first time today and this is the first roadblock I hit within 10 mins of using the product. I made one page in under 10 mins and wanted to make another one which would fall under another tab and searching for how to do that brought me here. It is a great great product but like many people have voiced their thoughts, I think a simple link-to another mockup will enhance the full-screen mode (which should be renamed Presentation mode, as thought of by the first person who requested it).
I think the value of this tool is quick and not-so-dirty prototypes and if I can click around and have some actions performed (like the shrugh example someone has done), it will be perfect.