Wireframing, Prototyping Editor fosters productive collaboration.
Press Release Summary:
Used for website and Web application design/development, Web-based ProtoShare v6 leverages collaboration engine with workflows that support team communication and decision-making throughout idea lifecycle. Visual communication tools, brought into business collaboration, enable all involved in design process to engage, brainstorm ideas, document decisions, resolve conflicts, and track progress. Features include WYSIWYG drag-and-drop interface as well as user-customizable components.
Original Press Release:
ProtoShare 6 Enables More Effective Cross-Team Collaboration in Website and Web App Development
Portland, OR - Site9, Inc., developer of ProtoShare, the first tool to wed collaboration with wireframing and prototyping, today announced the release of ProtoShare 6. The new version includes updates to ProtoShare's popular wireframing and prototyping editor along with a significantly enhanced collaboration engine with new workflows that support team communication and better decision-making throughout the idea lifecycle. Wireframing and prototyping are crucial to the design and development of websites and web applications, but projects too often get bogged down because communication among design, business and development stakeholders takes place in email or other written documents that are not directly linked to the visual design process. ProtoShare 6 brings the power of visual communication tools into the world of business collaboration, enabling all stakeholders in the design process to engage, brainstorm ideas, document decisions, resolve conflicts and track progress. The decisions made during the prototyping phase are automatically carried forward to the design and build phases of the development process with new tools that enable smooth hand-offs between teams and keep projects efficiently moving forward.
ProtoShare 6 enables even large design, development and business teams to streamline the creative collaboration process. New decision tracking features in ProtoShare 6 allow project team members to quickly and easily tag design elements, assign topic ownership, document decisions and track project status within a discussion thread. The new inbox-like interface enables users to filter and view the discussion threads that are most relevant to them, helping everyone on the team to stay in the loop while managing information flow.
"ProtoShare makes it really easy for us to collaborate as a team and with our clients, so we can devote less budget to project management and more hours to creating great work," said Tim Haskins, principal at COPIUS. "The enhancements in ProtoShare 6 elevate an already stand-out offering compared to other prototyping and wireframing tools on the market. Our goal when creating wireframes is to generate discussion while keeping our team and the client on the same page. The new workflows, assignment, and decision tracking features in ProtoShare 6 give us an edge on the competition by helping us further streamline what for other agencies can be a cumbersome process," Haskins added.
The dashboard in ProtoShare 6 helps project managers and other stakeholders see at a glance which projects have active discussions relevant to them and which discussions have been resolved. Messages display a "read" and "not read" status and enable topic subscriptions so that project members can view only the discussion threads that are most relevant to their areas of expertise or concern - a feature that is very useful for specialized teams.
In the Editor where prototypes are created, users can now drag-and-drop images from anywhere on their computer directly onto the canvas or into the page tree. This speeds up the building process when using images or comps before adding functionality and makes it fast and easy to share design comps and request feedback on designs.
Users can also drag-and-drop URLs onto the canvas or into the page tree to add live website views. This is particularly useful when the user wants to reference an outside source for inspiration, to use a current website as a starting point for a project or to see a website's progress after the requirements have moved into the development stage.
In Review mode, IE9 is now fully supported. IE9 Edit mode is currently in beta.
"Collaborative prototyping enables UX, design, development and business teams to better focus on priorities and support the true purpose of prototyping: getting your work done," said Andrew Mottaz, founder, president and CTO of Site9/ProtoShare. "Getting it done on time, on budget and with the fewest possible headaches requires clear communication and effective decision-making. We've designed ProtoShare 6 to support that process through the entire idea-to-design lifecycle."
For more information about ProtoShare and the new ProtoShare 6, please visit: www.protoshare.com or contact the Sales Department at sales@protoshare.com
About ProtoShare
ProtoShare is a web-based, collaborative wireframing and prototyping tool. It hosts a WYSIWYG drag-and-drop interface, as well as advanced components users can customize. ProtoShare is not a Flash tool; it uses HTML, CSS, and Javascript. For more information about ProtoShare, visit protoshare.com.
About Site9, Inc.
Founded in 1999, Site9, Inc. is the developer of ProtoShare, recognized in 2009 by O'Reilly Media as a "Top 50 Usable RIA." Fortune 500 companies, leading interactive agencies, and web developers in over 84 countries around the world use ProtoShare wireframe software to deliver better digital experiences while cutting time and costs.
