We here at Mock Flock are excited to announce our first training DVD title: iRise Basics available now at our online store for $99.99. This is a savings of over $50 versus purchasing each of our video tutorials separately.
Our DVD includes 30 video tutorials to start to understand basic concepts of how to visualize with the iRise software. Topics included in this DVD include: Design, Scenarios, Widgets, Datasheets, Views, Templates, Masters, Decisions and much much more! The videos have been created using iRise 7 which is to date the most recent version of iRise.
An intriguing feature of this DVD is that we take a website concept from scratch and with each video tutorial build on your skills until we have a working prototype with good design, interactivity, data actions, and more. Also with each video tutorial all iRise iDocs and graphical assets are included from start to finish. Not only do you get video instruction but you also receive the assets for you to work and learn right along with us.
Here is a listing of the videos available on the DVD:
| 1. |
iRise User Interface |
16. |
Contact Form Functionality and Applying data to Form Elements |
| 2. |
Creating Scenarios |
17. |
Contact Form Submission |
| 3. |
Pages Part 1 |
18. |
Decisions |
| 4. |
Pages Part 2 |
19. |
Using Decisions for Navigation |
| 5. |
Creating , Applying, and Editing Styles |
20. |
Views |
| 6. |
Importing CSS to an iRise Project |
21. |
Applying Data Submitted to use the correct view |
| 7. |
Creating a Homepage Template From an Existing Page |
22. |
Search Form Master |
| 8. |
Embedding a Flash Object |
23. |
Using Data Tables |
| 9. |
iRise User Interface |
24. |
Dynamic Search Results |
| 10. |
iRise User Interface |
25. |
Creating and Using a News Story Page |
| 11. |
Creating a Sub Page Template |
26. |
Adding and Mapping Requirements to Page Elements |
| 12. |
Creating a Master Menu |
27. |
Exporting Requirement Documentation |
| 13. |
Datasheets |
28. |
iRise User Interface |
| 14. |
Newsletter Form , Clipboard Values, and validation |
29. |
Adding/Reviewing/Completing/Prioritizing Comments |
| 15. |
Saving Newsletter Form Data |
30. |
Conclusion |
Order your iRise Basics DVD today!
Popularity: 54% [?]
We are excited to be headed to the iRise User Group Meeting in Chicago to see and hear case studies and what’s in store for the next version of iRise. Make sure to check out the site tomorrow as I’m sure we’ll be doing tweets and blog updates from all presentations.
A quick look at the agenda:
Agenda
7:00 am Continental Breakfast/Registration
8:30 am iRise Welcome
Keynote: Doug Hubbard , Author of How to Measure Anything
Haworth, Inc Customer Case Study
Northwestern Mutual Customer Case Study
GMAC/Ally Bank Customer Case Study
12:00 pm Buffet Lunch
1:30 pm iRise Road Map Presentation
iRise Q & A
Taking iRise to the Next Level
Birds of a Feather Sessions
4:45pm iRise Cocktail Reception
5:15 Special Group Tour to the Skydeck Ledge
7:30pm End
See you in Chicago!
Popularity: 30% [?]
A great post from id8 discussing the importance of being flexible when simulating applications. How do you know what tools to use when simulating an application? What is too much or too little in terms of prototyping? The final answer in their minds is every situation is different, but the full visualization team needs to be a part of the answer from the beginning.
http://id8.typepad.com/id8_blog/2009/08/how-much-to-simulate.html
Popularity: 20% [?]
Just a quick post this morning to give you a head’s up that you can keep up with our latest posts and tutorials by following us on Twitter or becoming fans of ours on Facebook. See you there, and again, thanks for flying in to mockflock.com!
Popularity: 10% [?]
As I become more and more familiar with iRise, I find that I have an ever growing list of improvements that I would like to see. Some items that I come across are those that I accept as the current reality and live with. Other items get me a little frustrated and feel that they really need to address them soon. So here is my short list of things that need improved. Maybe they are coming in the next version, maybe not. Maybe some of you can debunk my suggestions and let me know how to get around them. In any regards, I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR COMMENTS about what you would like to see changed in future iRise versions.
1) Email Notifications
From the work that I have done with clients, it seems one of the hardest things that I’ve had to spend extra time on is to detail out everything that has been changed or updated within my iRise simulations and email them to clients. I think it would be great if the iRise Definition Center had an email notification process where select clients/participants could be notified or authors could choose when to notify clients based on when pages were updated or when comments within visualizations had been updated or completed. Each client is different in regards to this, but I think it would be a huge advantage for them to be able to know when something needed to be reviewed automatically.
2) A Review and Approval Process
Going through projects with iRise, I’ve found that no matter how closely to a client’s vision you make your simulation, things are always going to change. There has to be some sort of time limit that you need to establish or an agreement you need to make with the client regarding when a specific functionality is complete. A review and approval workflow would be a great addition again to the iRise Definition Center. That way you could see who is reviewing and approving the functionality and/or pages and use this as a sign off that this is what will be developed.
3) Drag and Drop
I bring drag and drop up because it was something that was a major functionality needed in a previous project. I found that although the ability was there in iRise 7, the execution of the functionality was more frustrating than helpful. Moving something one pixel at a time to it’s location was just not something that would work for me. I have been told by iRise support that this is something that will be largely improved in the next version. Let’s hope so…
4) Expanded Sections
This is a pretty minor one but something I need to bring up. Whenever I have made a view for expanded sections it seems as if no matter if I have the closed view setup as the intial view, if I had gone in an edited the open view it would always show as the open section when executed. This possibly could have been due to having the section set up incorrectly, however it cost me a lot of re-work and re-editing. Thoughts?
5) Design Elements
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that the purpose of iRise is to simulate how an application is supposed to work and not show exactly how something should work. However, as a designer/programmer I came across a few misnomers in regards to how the design looked in the editor and then when executed in the web browser added unwanted padding or my design didn’t look quite right. One example was using a table in a form in a fixed height section that added extra padding and threw off my design. This was combatted by just using a section instead of a section/table combo. Still it caused me some frustration. All I’m really asking is to tighten up your design elements iRise and get some bugs out of here. We all know you are working hard on this, so keep it up. 
Again, these are just a few things I’d like to see improved in upcoming versions of iRise. I would love to see and hear your comments on the things that you’ve ran into and would also like improved. If nothing else it helps me for future development and maneuvering around potholes.
Popularity: 100% [?]
I came across this blog post from the actual iRise blog. It addresses a topic that I have been asked a few times by clients which is, “If iRise is so great at visualization, why can’t it produce the code I need to create the backend programming as well?”. It was refreshing to see a way to address this question better. I love the analogy of a flight simulator button that creates a Boeing 787.
http://www.irise.com/blog/index.php/2008/04/26/why-doesnt-irise-generate-code
Popularity: 58% [?]