Sketchflow – Combo Box with header

 

When you add a Sketch style combo box with multiple items, the header is emtpy by default.  After you select an item, that item it is populated in the header.

I wanted to be able  to mock up a combo box that has a title ex: “Choose Port” that is not visible when you select an item  ex: “Seattle”.

If you use the first combobox item as the header, and set the selected index of the combobox to 0, like this:

<ComboBox x:Name=”Choose_Port” Style=”{StaticResource ComboBox-Sketch}” IsDropDownOpen=”False” SelectedIndex=”0″>
   <ComboBoxItem Content=” – Choose Port – ” Style=”{StaticResource ComboBoxItem-Sketch}”/>
   <ComboBoxItem Content=”    Shanghai” Style=”{StaticResource ComboBoxItem-Sketch}”/>
   <ComboBoxItem Content=”    Hong Kong” Style=”{StaticResource ComboBoxItem-Sketch}”/>
   <ComboBoxItem Content=”    Rotterdam” Style=”{StaticResource ComboBoxItem-Sketch}”/>
   <ComboBoxItem Content=”    Miami” Style=”{StaticResource ComboBoxItem-Sketch}”/>
   <ComboBoxItem Content=”    Sydney” Style=”{StaticResource ComboBoxItem-Sketch}”/>
   <ComboBoxItem Content=”    Seattle” Style=”{StaticResource ComboBoxItem-Sketch}”/>
   <ComboBoxItem Content=”    New York” Style=”{StaticResource ComboBoxItem-Sketch}”/>
  </ComboBox>

Problem solved!

Collapsing Sketchflow Feedback window at launch

Sometime I’d like the ability to send a prototype to a client and not have to confuse/burden  him with the feedback window.  So I was hoping that there was a way to collapsed it at launch.  After some research I found out you can hide it so it can’t be opened by going to the project -> SketchFlow Project Settings item in the menu, but then the user can’t open it at all.  There is no way to default to collapsed currently at runtime unfortunately.  Hey Sketchflow this would be cool to add  ;-)

The importance of multiple prototypes

“A single prototype might be adequate for mature UI technologies that have limited flexibility. User interface stacks with more flexibility require a different approach. One technique that does a better job of exploring the possible interaction patterns available is the creation of multiple, parallel prototypes”

Great post by Billy Hollis on DevPro

Where are all the UX Designers for Silverlight/WPF?

Last night I went to the SLUG (Silverlight Users Group) meeting at Microsoft for the first in a summer series on Windows Phone 7.  I was already familiar with some of the content from MIX but there was some great information I hadn’t heard. 

What was missing?  UX Designers

The room had about 30+ people and other than my friend Adam Kinney (rock star dev/designer) I believe I was the only UX Designer in the room.  It’s frustrating to see the potential for building amazing WP7 apps with little support / interest from the design community. Toolbox is a wonderful step in the right direction for learning but why aren’t I seeing any designers at these events?

 Is it time to start a SLUX (Silverlight User Experience Group)? Focus on animation, behaviors, interactivity, ease of import of .psd’s and .ai’s, SketchFlow, ect?  SLUG might be too “developy” for my design focused friends.  Someone needs to lead the charge of embracing designers like we embrace developers.  I hear a lot of talk from Redmond but last night’s meeting was proof of the work that needs to be done.

Thoughts?

“Close All But This” – Visual Studio versus Blend

I work in some very large solutions in Blend and often have many many pages open.  I’ve been spoiled in Visual Studio with the ability to right-click on one of the open tab items and “Close All But This” like this screen shot shows:

Blend currently (3 or 4)  doesn’t support this feature like it does in Visual Studio.  Fortunately there is still a way to accomplish this by accessing a menu item pick under the File menu.  In this screen shot we see the tab item you want to remain open while closing everything else:

 

Selecting Close All Documents now will close everything but MainPage.xaml. If you had 20 pages open currently this would save you a fair amount of time ;-)

Although many of you might have already known this, it was a pleasant surprise to me and thought I’d pass it on.