Here is why: for building interactive mobile wireframes certain interactions we didn’t support in the past will become vital. Interactions like select/unselect, disable/enable, just to name two. Over all setting up interactions, editing interactions and keeping all interactions happening under control needs to become much easier in the future. That’s why we rethought the whole interactions process, built some prototypes and took them for a spin.

Introducing the all new interactions

Interactions, the core functionality of HotGloo, finally receive the level of attention they deserve. We are not only introducing new types of interactions e.g. select/unselect, set state value, disable/enable, delay, fade in/out, move, we are also rethinking and redesigning the whole interaction process.

Interactions in HotGloo will provide you with …

• Less clicks: no need to switch from easy to expert interactions anymore.
• Better overview: all interactions are listed in one place.
• More flexibility: set up easy and expert interactions at the same time, sort interactions by order of appearance.
• Intuitive set-up: linking to other elements will be way easier by selecting elements through clicks.

The interaction test panels

1. Two column list: The disadvantage here is that you’ll find too much information in the action window. To set up an interaction the following steps are needed: select the element you want to link, select the event in the left column, select an action in the dialogue box, specify your action in the right column.
2. The second version features an accordion. Probably on first sight the best overview but the biggest drawback here is that you don’t see all active interactions on first sight. You have to click through the whole list to edit or delete an interaction.
3. The winner. Similar to No.1 except that the applied interaction is added to the left column. This provides a great overview on all active interactions. Easy to edit/delete.

We will implement the new features during the next weeks. Before we need to do some intensive testing and debugging.
Hope you like what’s about to come.

Please save the date especially if you are living in Australia and New Zealand because this might affect your Monday morning workflow.

Our apologies upfront. We will make sure to hurry up!

Sorry for any inconveniences this might cause – we promise to hurry up!

Today it’s time to celebrate: HotGloo is turning 2 years young and Hannes has just become father of a baby boy : )

There’s a lot we have achieved in 2011 and there is still a lot to come. Last year we have introduced a major update (whole new backend, speed improvements, bulletproof autosaving) along with a complete redesign of the account panel and the website.


So, what’s next?

We have already scheduled a lot of improvements along with an editor redesign and major feature updates including:

• iPhone / iPad Elements: Elements are already in the making and will be released within the next weeks.
• Template Library: A template library will help you craft reusable templates, available across projects – a super time saver.

Simply select the elements you want to group by hovering the cursor over the elements. Either use the group button in the upper toolbar or use the shortcut CTRL/CMD+G for grouping and CTRL/CMD+Shift+G for ungrouping elements.

Rename a custom group
Rename any custom group just like you can rename any element. Select the group and the properties panel appears. Within properties type in a new name and hit return.

Edit grouped elements
You can edit the whole group or double click an element within the group to edit it separately. After you are finished editing just hit ESC to deselect the single element and to set the focus on the custom group again.

Create and edit subgroups
Create as many subgroups as needed. Editing single elements or subgroups is being indicated by the breadcrumb visualization in the upper left section of the canvas.

Duplicate a custom group
To duplicate a custom group, click the duplicate button in upper toolbar or use the shortcut CMD/Ctrl+D.

Delete a custom group
To delete a custom group, select it and hit the backspace key.

The new custom groups feature will support you to wireframe even faster and more convenient. The really great thing about it is that you are not losing group interactions anymore, because you don’t have to ungroup elements to apply changes.

Hope you enjoy this new feature. Stay tuned for more updates to be released soon.

We just wanted to thank you for your tremendous support, the great feedback and your effort of spreading the word about HotGloo in 2011. That’s why we wanted to give you something special.

We know it’s a hard to pick something for a couple of thousands of people, but we think we found something really great and inspiring:
The ‘UX Storytellers – Connecting the Dots’ ebook where 42 UX masterminds tell personal stories of their exciting lives as User Experience professionals.

Download Your Gift: UX Storytellers ebook

The book brings together authors from around the world who paint a very entertaining picture of our multifaceted community.

Many thanks to Jan Jursa (@IATV) for making this happen.

Enjoy your reading, happy holiday season and a great new year!

WebExpo 2011 Prague – Czech Republic

So first off was WebExpo 2011 in Prague, where I was giving a talk on business principles for web applications. Apart from that I was spending most of the time in Design/UX hall and listening to an enlightening Luke Wroblewski and his talk “Mobile First”, also for the second time this year Nick Finck with the “Cross Channel Experience”, Smashing Mags finest Vitaly Friedman on the “Invisible Side of Design” and finally Peter Boersmahs talk “Your influence on non-design deliverables”.

Václav Stoupa and the organizing committee have achieved a great leap forward, compared to last year: overall higher-quality talks, more simultaneous translator, a more central located and bigger venue and all of this by keeping the pricing on a reasonable level.

Frontend Conference 2011 Oslo – Norway

Next I headed north to revisit Frontend conference, I had already attended a year ago and that has sticked in my mind every since. In 2010, organizing their first major conference, the guys and gals from IXD Oslo have put together something really amazing. A conference that would be considered small by size, regarding the 250 attendees, but with a unique atmosphere and an excellent choice of international speakers.

“Am I ready for this?” I asked myself when Hjortur contacted me in May this year, asking if I wanted to speak at Frontend2011. To be honest at first, I wasn’t really sure about that. I love sharing experiences but I was mainly speaking about business principles for web apps or sharing my lessons learned with running a web start-up before. I always wanted to share ideas and provide a valuable input on a User Experience topic, since this is what we do here at HotGloo every single day. So it just happened that I was wireframing the concept for HotGloo 3.0, when Hjortur contacted me again and since I had already documented parts of the process on this blog, I felt ready to jump in at the deep end.

I was putting a lot of effort and night-shifts into this talk and I was really happy with the outcome. I received a lot of positive feedback and even had the chance to discuss certain topics of my talk with people who are in the same situation we were before the redesign process – looking for ideas, user research approaches and a strategy from start to finish.

The IXD crew was putting together a really nice mix of talks for this years conference, covering web-related topics from design to UX and development. I met so many inspiring people: Eva-Lotta (@evalottchen), the Standardtistas (@standardistas), Simon ( @colly), Andy ( @andybudd), Russ (@russu), Joseph (@josephthinking), Sarah (@SaraJChipps), Jessica (@jessicahische), Rich (@richquick), Ivo (@gabrowitsch) and of course Bruce (@brucel).

Geek talking beer lovers at Frontend Conf: Wolf, Eric, Teodor and Joseph.

A big shout out to the whole Frontend Team, first and foremost Hjortur (@thewebhero), Eric (@stratosferik), Roger (@rogerguttormsen), Thomas (@trgrondahl) and Teodor (@teodor).

Be sure to follow the Frontend Team (@FRONTEND_CONF) on Twitter, because rumors say they have something really great and unique coming up for next year. Although I’m not really sure how they are going about to top this years Frontend church-party, including a norwegian calypso band.

Picture No.3 as well as more pics from Frontend 2011 by IXD Oslo can be found here.

Unfortunately I had to cancel my talk at Geekend2011 in Savannah next week. So the last conference I’m attending in 2011 is going to be an unconference – UXcamp Vienna. And I’m already looking forward to some interesting discussions.

The heat is really on and we are eager to leave the pitch as winners this year – but we need all of your help!

How YOU can help us

It’s really simple and just takes 10 seconds. Please click on the following link, select hotgloo, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click submit (of course you can vote in all other categories too if you want)

Vote Here >> www.thenetawards.com

You can vote once on any device. So make sure to vote on your smartphones, tablets, home computers also.

Please forward the poll link to your friends

If you happen to be on any social platform (Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or what so ever) please copy and paste the following:

Vote for @hotgloo and help them become WebApp of the Year at the #netawards http://www.thenetawards.com

Thanks so much for the support – hope you have a great summer and are enjoying HotGloo 3.0 already.

Please note that HotGloo 3.0 will mark the start of a new HotGloo era. New website, new account panel, new team collaboration and a whole new technology behind all this – the new solid backbone of our app. We got rid of uncomfortable barriers that slowed down the development process. So version 3 can be seen as the starting point for future updates and improvements. You won’t find tons of new features, instead you can expect a solid foundation with necessary improvements and great performance and usability updates and our promise that we will continue working on it every single day to make HotGloo the best experience guaranteed when it comes to web-based, interactive wireframing.

We are really excited about this and looking forward to your feedback. So put on your space suits people – version 3 is ready for take off.

What you need to do on or after August 15th

Not much really. Since HotGloo is web-based the system will be updated automatically. The only thing you need to do once is converting your projects to HotGloo 3.0 (with the ease of clicking a single button).

Preview of HotGloo 3.0

What’s new in 3.0?

Account Panel

• complete new design
• dashboard with activity radar
• improved usability
• easier administration of projects and people

Editor

• all new Team Collaboration (parallel wireframing mode)
• massive speed improvements, especially for large projects
• new notification system delivered right to the activity radar
• usability improvements
• masters sorting

Overall

• complete new website
• new improved help section
• new pricing plans (only for new sign ups)