Features

We know you like speed. We're not saying you were first in line to see Speed Racer or anything, but we know you like things fast. Snappy. Responsive. Speedy. And how do we know this? Because you've told us! You wanted ProtoShare to be faster.

Well, guess what - we have some good news for you. As the members of Kiss might say: "You Wanted the Speed, You Got the Speed!"

Two nights ago, we put the pedal to the metal and upgraded ProtoShare to the current - blazingly fast - version 1.0.3. As part of an ongoing effort to make the tool as good as possible, we continually make performance enhancements to ProtoShare.

For example, in version 1.0.2, ProtoShare served 94% of data in half a second. In the new release, it serves 99.5% of data in half a second or less. For those counting, that reduces slow responses by a whopping 93%. The end result: a more responsive application that increases your productivity and communication. That translates into less waiting around for pages to load, and more opportunities for you to quickly build and discuss stunning interactive prototypes for your project.
 
So, strap yourself in and log on for a fast ride. And be sure to keep sending us your feedback on how we can make ProtoShare even better. In the meantime, drive safely.

We are pleased to announce the imminent release of ProtoShare version 1.0.1 on Friday, 27 June. Since ProtoShare is a web-based application, all feature upgrades are immediately available to you after the application update. 

The upgrade contains several exciting new features:

Branding: 
Now you can upload your agency or company logo next to the ProtoShare header, helping you create and maintain a more professional presence for your clients or team. Want an Enterprise solution? You can also white-label ProtoShare with your agency or company logo.

Flash comps: 
When you prototype a Flash website, you’ll now have the ability to show the evolution of your prototype. In addition to static images, ProtoShare now supports .swf files in the Comp tabs.

Text editor upgrade: 
Responding to customer’s requests for an easier and more user-friendly text editor, we gave ProtoShare a new and improved text editor. See what you think.

Firefox 3 Compliant: 
ProtoShare now seamlessly works with the Firefox 3 browser. One can’t ignore almost 18 million downloads!

Other features include: performance enhancements, bug fixes, and an updated Help document.

Please Note: Your ProtoShare site will be unavailable from 9 pm Thursday (26 June) to 12 am Friday (27 June) Pacific Time. For 1.0.1 release notes and current maintenance schedules, be sure to check the Support page. And, of course, keep checking back here for more tips and updates. We are very excited about this new version and think you will be, too.

The path to innovation is not always straightforward. There are unforeseen twists and turns along the way that can take you somewhere you hadn't initially imagined. For example, take Site9. We started out in 1999 as a web services firm, and we built plenty of successful dynamic, complex websites.  A few years back, we had the bright idea of taking our internal site building software to the masses. We felt so strongly about our tool that we moved away from services and became a full-on software company.

In 2006, we debuted Launch Platform, our first release. Our design-to-deployment web development software proved popular with users, but we would hear again and again from clients how much they really liked the website prototyping portion of Launch. They shared with us how the initial step of prototyping got their entire team involved early on, which was a challenge with paper wireframes. They told us how their website developers were able to avoid many of the pitfalls that often arise due to poor planning, because the clickable prototype allowed for a clearer understanding of the project's scope and requirements. And the prototypes weren't a dead end – they became building blocks for the next phase of development.

We were somewhat bemused because we were so proud of some of the more involved and complicated parts of Launch; we hadn't given the prototyping step that much attention. We stepped back for a moment, took a closer look at it, and realized that these folks were right - this prototyping thing, with a little work, would be a very exciting and useful web development tool.

Last summer we did some serious market research to find an existing, good website prototyping and collaboration tool. We couldn’t find one. Combined with the advice and suggestions of our clients, we decided to flesh out an interactive prototyping tool that would be accessed through a browser and offered as a service. And then to really take the next big step forward we had to find a way for our clients to share their prototypes in a collaborative wiki-format. And then the integrated collaboration part of the tool suddenly became obvious to us - and we all got very excited about the possibilities. And that's how we got to ProtoShare™. And you better believe we have some new ideas for tomorrow.