Over the past year, Fluid UI has made great strides to provide the best possible website and mobile prototype building solutions for entrepreneurs, designers, developers, and product managers across the globe.

In that light, we are happy to announce that our hard work has paid off as we earned the esteemed Rising Star Award for 2018 from FinancesOnline, a popular platform for SaaS reviews. This title is given out to products that are increasingly being recognized by B2B companies as an efficient solution to their various operational needs.

Apart from being recognized as one of the foremost up-and-coming companies in FinancesOnline’s list of website builder platforms, Fluid UI also managed to bag the Great User Experience Award for 2018 for its overall satisfaction of 93%.

Fluid UI was tested for its interface and capabilities based on usability, flexibility, comprehensiveness of features, value for money, and a variety of other criteria. Some of the Fluid UI features that were highlighted:

• Fluid UI’s rapid prototyping interface that helps users streamline and accelerate the design process
• The user-friendly linking system that can be navigated using simple taps and clicks
• The extensive material design, iOS, Windows, and Wireframe libraries where users can choose from over 2000 components for their prototypes
• The fast and hassle-free uploading of existing assets
• The real-time collaboration features that include change tracking tools, page locking options, and video calling capabilities.
• The integrated feedback collection and remote user testing functions that let you review your prototypes efficiently

To read the full review and learn more about what their experts have to say about our prototyping tool, be sure to visit FinancesOnline. You can even post your own review of Fluid UI to let us know how we can further improve our offerings. We look forward to giving you better prototyping solutions this 2019!

Improved the stability of the more powerful group/ungroup feature and generally improved the reliability of the editor.

Features/improvements:

• Enabled align / distribute inside groups
• Added the ability to ungroup existing library widgets like tables
• Groups with properties set like links or background colours not longer get deleted on ungroup, instead they become their own widget and maintain their old properties (powerful!)
• Fixed a case where save to symbols used on a locked group corrupted the group
• Fixed a case where groups being dragged between pages caused a crash

Bugfixes:

• Fixed link to back / link to home not working correctly
• Fixed delete on a table widget would only delete one row
• Fixed a case where widgets would jump when aligning sometimes when snapping was turned on

Previously there was some confusion about what features were available on what plans and how to choose monthly / annual recurring payments. We've cleared this up with the revised plans layout, plus made the credit card form easier to use and brought everything in line with our design standards. Hopefully you'll find time to benefit from this release :)

• Applied design standards to the upgrade flow UI
• Added a FAQ to the upgrade section to answer common support questions without needing to contact us and wait for a reply.
• Clarifed how to select the plan you want
• Clarified what features are available on which plan
• Fixed a case where users couldn't upgrade account if their first attempt wasn't successful

We've totally rewritten the widget menu, adding a slew of new features and taking a major leap forward in the overall editing experience. This huge release started in January and covers everything - improved speed, usability, reliability and a range of awesome new features and options. Read on for the full breakdown.

Responsive widgets and positioning with anchoring

Added the ability to anchor widgets to the top, left, bottom, right or center of the page and within groups. Resizing a page or a group containing widgets will now obey the anchors, meaning you can create your own responsive widgets and positioning.

Vastly improved color picker

We won't lie, the old color picker was well past its sell by date. We've rewritten the old one from scratch, adding a memory for your previously used colours, more precise color picking and an RGB input option to go with the previous Hex value input.

We've also added the ability to have no background colour set for widgets that want to be transparent. You can also now set create gradients that display from top, bottom, left, right or any angle of your choosing.

New opacity controls

Opacity can now be set at a more granular level - for the entire widget and for individual background colours in the case of gradient colours.

Toggle between point and % size values

Want a widget to be 100% the width of the page, and to stay that way if you make the page bigger or smaller? Then just type width 100% into the width input.

Combined with anchoring, this makes for incredibly easy positioning and resizing.

Text is easier to work with than ever

When creating a text widget using the quick bar, it will automatically get bigger or smaller based on how big you draw the box. If you change the line height, text will now automatically adjust to ensure the entire text widget remains visible. Similarly, the line height will automatically adjust when changing the text size proportionately.

Selecting and editing widgets within groups

Widgets inside groups can now be selected and edited.

You can also now ungroup all the pre built widgets in the libraries, taking their individual components and rearranging them in whatever way you please.

Resizing for groups

Groups are now resizable. Widgets inside groups with % width and heights will resize with the group. Widgets with anchoring will anchor to the different sides of the group.

What all this means is you can create groups where some widgets will scale as you resize and others will stay locked to the top, left, bottom or right. Woohoo!

Finally, bugfixes

There are over 40 bugfixes also included in this release, including:

• No more links flashing when selecting widgets when zoomed in.
• Fixed cases where widgets would jump during dragging when snapping was on.
• Fixed font rendering when zoomed out to look more like zoomed in.
• Multiple other stability, performance and consistency improvements.

Thanks to you!

Thanks for reading this far. This is our biggest release this year - we really look forward to hearing your feedback!

Dave

Android App 2.5

• NEW: Order project list by recently updated
• NEW: Save to home screen now uses home screen icon and splash screen
• Fix for clicking a link to open an external URL - now opens external URLs links in browser
• Fix - preview image shows properly in project list when logged in to account
• Fix - Handled/fixed a number of crashes reported by users

iOS app 2.5

• NEW - Order project list by recently updated
• Fixed - Open external URLs correctly in browser
• Fixed - transition animations go from the wrong direction when device is upside down
• Fixed - Show preview image in project list
• Migrate from swift 2.x to 3.x

Download the updates from the app store now!

New functionality for teams

• Team members can now add/remove other team members to their teams
• Team members can now share/unshare any project the have collaboration permissions on with other team members
• Team members can now clone and archive projects that are shared with them
• Team members can now change any project settings they are collaborating on

Usability improvements for teams

• New far more usable collaboration menu (toggles for team members, you no longer have to remember their email addresses)
• Added a link to team management in project collaborators list to jump easily back and forwards between team management and project collaboration management
• Changes Share menu to "Share/Collaborate"
• Separated out "Share" and "Send complete copy" and provided some more information on their functionality.

Misc improvements based on Fluid design standards

• Improved version history layout
• Improved project settings layout
• Improved Splash screens settings layout
• Improved team members management styling
• Added Avatars and names to collaborators and team management panels

Deprecated

• "Share to view" functionality has been removed. Sharing is either now as a fully collaborative teammate or as a reviewer, which the link is always available for.

Other bug fixes

• Handle case where there is no open project, but you want to manage team
• Archived projects should not appear in the shared projects list
• Allow team members to re-share project with other team members

Updated website and editor to block any data collection until we have set out the terms of use of the website.

Also, some bugfixes:

• Fixed broken zindex of widgets when undoing
• Fixed aligning groups only to align the groups, not the widgets in the groups.
• Fixed Collaboration - background colour not changing successfully in team sessions.

• Added new geometric shapes (stars, polygons, curves and many more)
• Added a new iOS Icons Library
• Added a new look and feel for the library dropdown: much easier to navigate and consistent with our design standards.
• Improved layout for icons libraries and uploads.
• Other changes to improve stability which will prevent unexpected editor behaviour.

• [Fixed] Gradients not drawing in preview on most recent version of FF.

Preview / Collaboration

• [Fixed] (Preview) - Video/sound does not reconnect correctly when toggling video button multiple times in the same session.
• [Fixed] (Preview) - Library for reviewer defaults to open, not closed.
• [Fixed] (Preview) - Camera still transmits sound after user turns off their own preview (introduced in latest preview release).
• [Fixed] (Preview) - "New version" warning now shows every time a project is updated, not only the first time for reviewers.
• [Fixed] (Preview) - Offline video calling toggle still showing despite being on a call (introduced in last release).
• [Fixed] (Collaboration) User avatar out of position in collaboration mode when user has no uploaded image.
• [Fixed] (Collaboration) Widget menu shows in collaborative edit mode when zoomed out if another user creates a group of widgets.
• [Fixed] (Collaboration) Copy + pasting (and duplicate) in collaborate mode no longer causes the active page to change for other users.
• [Fixed] (Collaboration) When collaborating - page size changes propagate incorrectly.

General performance / stability

• [Fixed] Lock GUI when zooming.
• [Fixed] Lock UI when clone project, create project is first clicked to prevent two versions of the same project being created.

(These two fixes should fix a number of cases where projects could become corrupt as the timing of the events could mean the server didn't know which project/page was actually open).

Rendering

• [Fixed] Fixed an issue where one of the pre-rendered iOS asset icons (checkbox) rendered incorrectly in preview.
• [Fixed] Changing page orientation not updating widgets that are % width.
• [Fixed] Fixed a case where text positioning would be broken in preview if the line height or text size was manually input (not using the +/- spinners).
• Line Height is not saved between refreshes
• Tables do not draw correctly after refresh

Editing

• [Fixed] Case where clicking edit on a gradient causes a crash / loop
• [Fixed] Case where grouping is broken after deleting and undo
• [Fixed] Widget table drop position isn't accurate when dropped from Library
• [Fixed] (+) and (x) wireframe widgets now resize better
• [Fixed] Entering the third digit in color picker input assumes too quickly #ABC means #AABBCC, prevents adding in more details colours.

Misc

• [Fixed] Version history project shows incorrect number of versions of project (off by one)

Originally, Fluid UI was conceived of as a mobile prototyping tool, but one of the things we've learned over the years is that people don't need mobile as much as they want a single tool that allows them to design for whatever platform they need for their current project. "One tool to rule them all" so to speak.

Since then, we've updated the libraries to allow for more flexibility but one area that needed an overhaul was the preview - and thankfully now that is done with this release. So without further ado...

Bigger video calling!

• Communicating ideas and getting feedback in user tests just got a lot easier with the larger video size.
• Click on users to focus on them so you can watch their thoughts as they click through your prototypes.

New preview options for desktop previews

The biggest problem with preview until now has been that it was really focused on mobile only - no more!

• Ability to toggle the mobile frame on/off.
• Ability to align the preview to the top / left / bottom / center etc. Mobile apps will most often be center aligned with frame on, desktop apps now have the option to be top aligned which will make them more realistic.
• Ability to set the background color of the page - now you can match the background color with part of the project, making your desktop project merge perfectly into the background.

All of these features work seamlessly and in real time with all collaborators and reviewers that are online at the same time, so be prepared to blow people away as you update your projects in real time.

All in all, Fluid UI can now show desktop projects with equal levels of immersion as mobile ones. But wait, there's more!

Reviewer permissions

Another area we get a lot of feedback on is the ability to toggle what permissions reviewers have when accessing your project. We've added some new project level permissions so you can dictate what can and can't be seen

• Ability to toggle whether a project can be reviewed (by the reviewer link below) at all. Turning this option to NO this will mean the project can only be previewed when you are logged in to your account or a team member's account that the project is shared with.
• Ability to enable/disable posting of comments in the preview
• Ability to enable/disable the video calling features.

We've also had plenty of feedback about people wanting to be able to share different links to the same project with different user groups - e.g. one link for developers or subcontractors and a separate link for clients in order to make sure they don't come in contact with each other.

• Added the ability to create additional project links that are unique and can be added / deleted / named - e.g. "Developer link"

Right now, these links don't have comments or calling enabled (separating out comments and calls on the same project to different links gets...messy), but if it's an important feature to you, please let us know in the chat!

And finally...

• Added a link to embed the project - often people look to use an iframe (youtube style) to embed a prototype link in another tool or website (Jira, github etc).
• Also added an easy copyable link to the "project only" url (with none of the Fluid UI chrome around it).

Oh wait, that's just preview. There's also improvements to comments!

• We've dramatically tidied up comments, made them sexier looking and easier to use. Of particular note, comments are now threaded better and the actually placing of comments is done inline rather than in the side panel, saving a good bit of time.
• Clicking on a comment in the side bar will zoom into the page where that comment is located in the project, saving a bit more time.

Definitely finally this time!

• We've added the ability to totally close the library in preview, allowing you to play with your prototype with nothing else getting in the way.
• Removed the need for reviewers to sign up before previewing (sorry, this was a miscommunicated requirement before - it was needed for users to make comments, but should not be needed for preview. We've moved it back to where it makes sense).
• Improved how the 1:1 and Fit scaling functionality works - 1:1 is now always a pixel perfect zoom level, while "Fit always draws the project as large as possible given the size of the window.

Ok, that's it for now - our next two big releases all relate to the library and widgets and will be out in April/May - stay tuned!

Dave