After months of hard work, with lots of iterations and feedback we have now unwrapped a brand new redesign of MockFlow’s dashboard which is the highlight of this big release.

If you are an existing MockFlow user, you might have noticed this big change. From the initial version of MockFlow, the dashboard followed a small and compact design similar to mobile interfaces. However that design did not hold good for power users and managing ton of projects with that interface was clunky.   So we opted for a full-screen dashboard experience with top priorities given for usability.

The design philosophy used in the dashboard with the yellow stripe and title follows that of the MockFlow’s website. It emphasis the same branding, so users will find the application as part of the website user experience. Also with this new design,users can find the number of members and comments left in each wireframe project with just a quick glance.

Other notable updates in this release include E-Mail notifications for comments and support for including feedback and annotations in PDF document export.

We are excited to present the following major features in this month’s update.

Re-Designed MockStore

As you may be aware, MockStore is a community space to share and import third-party wireframe libraries for MockFlow. In this update, the user interface has been given a facelift with major categories placed on the left and filters (new,popular,random…) for each category at the top.

Now the MockStore is moderated by our Team to make sure only quality libraries are shown to the user. When you submit a library to the MockStore,it is first added to  the unapproved listing and then it will be checked for standards and if found worthy and unique, it will get approved by a member of our team.  Users can uncheck the “Show approved libraries only” box to view all libraries. By default this box is checked.

Deep-Linking for Public Wireframes

Wireframe projects shared with a URL like those at http://mockflow.com/samples now have deep-linking, which means each page displayed in the project has its own unique URL that brings the following benefits.

• Link or Share a specific page of a project (Example: Channel Listing Page – Youtube Wireframe)
• Navigate the project with your browser’s forward / back buttons.

Windows Phone 7 UI Kit

The CreateNew menu in the dashboard now includes option to create wireframes for “Windows Phone 7 apps”.

The latest MockFlow desktop and web clients allows you to copy/paste wireframe content between projects.  Earlier users had to export selected data and import it to transfer between projects.   Now with support for native clipboard access sharing design pieces is as easy as copy/paste text.

Also now merging pages from revisions of a project is much easier with a dedicated ‘Copy Page to Clipboard’ button.

We are excited to announce the availability of a new addon service for MockFlow called GetPDF. GetPDF enables users to combine images and/or webpages to instantly publish design documents in PDF format.

This service helps web developers and creative designers who want to quickly publish a pdf by putting together a list of designs or even include webpages by mentioning their url. Other options provided are document Cover Page, auto-generated TableOfContents and desired page size. This is useful for generating Design proposals and reports without much effort.

GetPDF has a restriction of 3 pages for users with the free basic account while premium subscribers have increased page limit.  For more information and samples, login using your MockFlow account at http://getpdf.mockflow.com

Snapping components to the grid is one of the most requested features for MockFlow and we are happy to release it in today’s update: pixel perfect ‘Snap-To-Grid’ function.   It is available in the Grid Settings as shown in the pic above.  Components snap on move and also on resize enabling precise layout of wireframes with ease.

We are very excited to officially announce the next major version of MockFlow’s super-easy wireframing service called X8.

Over the past few months, we’ve been working hard on making subtle changes to the product based on feedback collected from our proactive customers and internal testing. Today we present the major improvements and features available in X8.

Social Sharing:

The ubiquitous ShareThis.com platform has been integrated with MockFlow, so sharing your public wireframe projects to social media sites like Twitter, Facebook is only a click away.

Simultaneous Wireframing:

Previously MockFlow required locks to editor when more than one collaborator is wireframing a project at the same time. Now we are getting rid of it, therefore any number of editors can collaboratively make changes to a wireframe project at the same time, changes are automatically synced between the collaborators in real-time. Make it a team-work.

UX Addons:

MockFlow isn’t only for wireframing anymore, we are actively expanding its portfolio to provide a complete Usability Suite through its Add-on services.   As an opener, a program for creating interactive banners in html called DivCraft is already available. Development for more addon services has already commenced.

Soon MockFlow will become the one-stop shop for designers and UX engineers.

Other Improvements:

Secured Delete:  Here on deleting a project will ask you to renter your account password for better security.

Component Improvements:  Straight Line arrows, Easy color change of icons and Stroke thickness for shape components besides other changes.

TOC in PDF Export: PDF Export  now looks more professional as it includes  TableOfContents and better font rendering.

Fast Project loading:  We have made impressive performance gains especially when loading large projects by improving compressed data transfer.

User Interface Improvements:  More informative icons and many minor interface changes for faster workflow such as sharing.

More to Come:

In keeping with our mission to never stop delivering goodness,  we have already started working on improvements to “Export to HTML5″, the pending native iPad viewer for MockFlow and more add-on programs.

MockFlow’s Blog is no longer hosted with Posterous. It has been moved to WordPress.com.  This blog’s new URL: blog.mockflow.com.

The reason for this change is quite obvious as WordPress is the best blogging platform available with several features including better admin and customization.

Hopefully this will help us to post articles regularly to keep up with MockFlow’s updates