Your first project will be created automatically when you sign up.
Each project starts with a blank canvas from which your idea can grow. You can start designing the second you are signed in.
You can create additional projects by clicking "New project" in the home menu.
To create a page:
See more about adding, cloning and deleting pages and changing their settings in the page menu.
Add any number of widgets from your library and edit widget properties to create the look and feel you need for your project.
The final design step is to link your widgets to your pages to create an interactive, playable storyboard for your prototype.
Once a link is created, you can set the gestures and transitions assigned to them and delete them. You can also set the default gestures and transitions for your project in the project settings.
Once you've added a few pages, widgets and links, test out your app in the browser by clicking on the Preview button.
Download the Android or iOS player apps to test the app live on your device.
Continue editing until you have your first version of your prototype, then...
An idea without feedback is like a tree without roots. Getting feedback on your prototype is the next step and must come from two sources - your project stakeholders and your users. Get their feedback, then iterate in an agile fashion until you have your final solution.
Your first project will be created and already open when you sign up.
To create a second or further project:
Fluid UI automatically saves your work both locally and online every few minutes as well as every time you click the preview button - there is no need to specifically save or manage projects.
The only way your data will be deleted is if you ask us to delete it. We store data for inactive accounts for up to a year. After a year of an account being inactive you will receive an email warning you that your account is going to be deleted. If the account is active it will not be deleted ever.
To change a project name,
Copy a project by:
You can then change the name of the copied project. The original and copied projects are now in your active projects. The copy will automatically open and your original can be accessed by clicking ‘My projects…’ in Home menu.
How to archive a project
You can archive a project by:
Why archive projects?
You can then manage your archived projects, delete or restore them in the future.
How to access archived projects
Go to Active projects and then use the filter in the search bar to find all of your archived projects.
A project needs to be archived before it can be deleted. Follow the steps above to archive the project. Go to ‘Archived projects’ and click the bin to delete the project permanently.
Click on the home icon to access project options and settings.
From here you can:
Use project settings to:
Set the transition and gesture you want to have in your app. This will mean that each new link you create will automatically be set to the default transition and gesture you have chosen.
You can also change the gestures and transitions for individual links.
You’ll find the options for uploading your own splash screen and icon in the project settings menu.
There are 3 ways to create a page with Fluid UI:
Once created, pages can be moved around the canvas to create a storyboard for your prototype.
You can clone a page by clicking the sheep in the top bar.
You can delete a page by:
Click on the comment tab in the top bar. Here you can add your own comments and view comments made by collaborators.
To add a comment:
You can set any page in your prototype to the start page by focusing on that page and clicking the "Start page" switch in the page settings menu. Only one page can be the start page.
You can also click the preview button on any screen to preview starting with that particular page so you don't need to navigate from the start page each time (this option is available once the page has widgets on it).
Choose your default screen orientation and resolution when you are creating a new project. You can also choose a custom size if your size is not in the presets.
Use project settings which is in the home menu to change the device orientation as well as the default gestures and transitions for your project.
Find out more about project settings
Increasing the page width or height in the page menu will automatically cause any pages to scroll (horizontally, vertically or both) when you preview.
Pinned widgets are frequently used with scrolling pages to make some content static while other content scrolls.
The top bar which is found at the top of the editor contains a number of features.
When we talk about screens in Fluid UI we are talking about the device screen you are designing for. You can read all about choosing the right screen resolution for your app design here.
You can choose which device screen resolution you are designing for when you create a new project and by choosing project settings in the home menu.
A page in your project corresponds to a page in the app you are designing. You can change the page's height, width, orientation and set it as the starting page for when you're previewing your app prototype.
Select any widget or hotspot and use the blue ‘link’ icon on the right hand side of the widget menu. The screen will zoom out to your entire project. Click again to drop the link on the page you want to link to.
You can drop the link onto another page, or on the buttons that appear on the side of the canvas.
These include:
Once a link is created, you can click on the widget it is linked from and the link settings menu will appear in the tool bar. You can access the links gestures and transitions from here or alternatively, hover over a link and a circle with an arrow will pop up. If you click on this you will be given gesture and transition options as well.
Delete a link by clicking on the widget it is linked to. You'll find a trash bin in the link settings which can be used to delete the link.
The library has 3 tabs:
The widget libraries include dedicated libraries for iOS, Android, Windows, wearables and website wireframing.
By default the ‘wireframe’ library is selected, this is a good option if you don’t want to worry about the exact device you are prototyping for, but just want to get a good overall feel for how your app's UI will flow.
To access the libraries, click on any page and the library will open on the left of the editor. Select your chosen library from the widget library drop-down menu and start designing.
Tip: You can close the widget library if you’re not using it to give yourself a bit more space.
Upload your own images from Photoshop or the web and make high fidelity prototypes.
You can either drag and drop the images into the editor window, or use the ‘Select image’ button in the uploads section to search your computer's hard drive for an image.
You should always make sure your images are 'saved for web' using a program like Photoshop or one of the free online image editors.
When you keep your image files as small as possible the editor will load quicker and previewing will be much quicker.
Edit and resize the images like any other widget.
Tip: You need to have a paid (solo) account in order to upload your own images.
Symbols will speed up your design process for every project.
Reusable designs are stored in your symbol library.
Save whole screens and use them in other projects.
Save your customised widgets and cards ready for quick access when you need to mock up a similar project.
To delete a symbol, drag it to the red trash bin in the bottom right of the screen.
Tip: You can access all of your saved symbols from any project.
There are two ways to add widgets to you page:
1. A single click
A single click on a widget will add it to the selected page. The widget will automatically be placed on an area of the page that the editor predicts it belongs.
For example: A header item will go in the header section of the page. You can move it by dragging and dropping it somewhere else.
2. Drag and drop
Dragging a widget from the library and dropping it on any page (selected or not) will add that widget to the page at the location it is dropped.
The smart menu allows you to use shapes and symbols very quickly when designing. To use it click on a shape and click and drag on the page to create a new widget.
Use the smart menu to:
Use the library search function to find widgets by type. For example type 'list' into the search bar to bring up all of the list widgets in that library.
Selecting multiple widgets: Start dragging on the page frame (the dark grey area around the selected page) or on an area that does not already contain a widget other than the background.
All widgets that are contained in the blue box after dragging will be selected.
Use the group icon to create a group, and when a group is selected, you can ungroup them with the ungroup icon.
Tip: Groups will be clearly indicated by a border when selected. In order to edit widgets in a group, they must be ungrouped first.
Hotspots are widgets that are visible on your page when creating your prototype, but don't show in preview mode (unless you choose to show them in preview settings).
They let you link a particular part of an image to another page without having to chop up the uploaded image.
To use a hotspot, add one from the library and select the link button to add a link from that widget.
Hotspots are useful if you want to link from more than one area on an image. If you want to link from the whole image you can do this too with a normal link.
Click on a widget to access the widget menu.
Move the menu around your screen by clicking and dragging the white area of the menu.
The widget menu will always be visible on screen when a widget is selected. When no widget is selected the widget menu will be hidden.
Depending on the type of widget selected there are different tabs at the top of the menu which open general settings, colour settings and text settings.
Use the grid view in view settings to align widgets pixel by pixel. You can set the number of pixels in each square in the grid.
The snap to grid option will also help align widgets to the nearest pixel.
Use your keyboard's arrow keys to align widgets by moving pixel by pixel.
Select two or more widgets and the vertical/horizontal align icons will appear in the widget menu.
There are 6 options in total:
Select any widget or widget group and use the arrows to send them to front or back.
Widgets can be resized by dragging from one of the 4 corners or the sides of the widgets.
All resizable widgets have a clear box/outline indicator.
Holding down shift will maintain the aspect ratio of a widget while resizing it.
To get the size of your widget pixel perfect you can use the resizing tool. simply chose the height and width that you desire.
Tip: Some larger widgets cannot be resized as they are fitted to the size of your page and the device type you are designing for.
Click on any text to edit it. If you want to increase the size of the box that the text is contained in, drag from any of the box's corners.
The text edit submenu is found in the widget menu and will appear as soon as you click on a piece of text. The menu lets you change the:
Tip: Remember to drag the text box as you make the text bigger so it is aligned as you want it to be. If you don't make the box bigger some of text may be hidden.
The background and border properties menu is used to set the non-text properties of a widget, including:
Tip: Different widgets have different customisation options. For example, you can change the colour of some widgets but not others and some of the larger card widgets cannot be resized.
The pin/unpin button is in the widget menu.
You may have created a scrolling page and you want to have a widget float over the page and stay in view while you scroll the page in preview mode. Use the pinned/unpinned option to control what moves with the page.
Any widget can be fixed on top of a long/scrolling page (‘pinned’) or allowed to move with the scrolled page (‘unpinned’).
There are 3 different zoom contexts - project, page and widget
Different options become available at each context. Learn how to navigate the canvas to make your workflow even more efficient.
The project will be zoomed out to the maximum and all the pages and links in your project will be visible. You can use this mode to move pages around your project and get an overview of your entire project.
How to zoom to project context
Actions in project context
The page will be centred and the page menu will be visible. Here, you can manage the width and height of your pages, make page notes, set the start page, orientation and more.
How to zoom into a page
Navigating between pages
Tip: If you focus on a non active page that is already on screen, the canvas won’t move. This helps when editing multiple pages that are lined up closely.
Actions at page context
The widget menu will be visible and a widget or widgets will be selected. Use this level to change the look, feel, positioning and size of each widget.
Control-z (command-z on mac) will undo any action you take.
The timeline review in the bottom right corner (beside the bin) also has a full history of actions you've taken in the current session. You can use it to jump back to any previous state the project you're working on.
Use version history to restore a different version of any project.
In general:
| P | Switch to project preview |
| C | Switch to comments mode |
| E | Switch to project editing |
| L | Open/close library |
| Escape | Close a menu or zoom out to project context |
| ⌘/CTR + + | Zoom out |
| ⌘/CTRL + - | Zoom in |
| ⌘/CTRL + 0 | Zoom to 100% |
| ⌘/CTRL + S | Save |
| ⌘/CTRL + Z | Undo |
| ⌘/CTRL + Y | Redo (Also ⌘/CTRL + Shift + Z) |
| ⌘/CTRL + A | Select all widgets on the active page |
| ⌘/CTRL + Mouse click | Add/remove to selection |
| Delete/Backspace | Delete selected widgets |
| Escape | Deselect selected widgets |
| ⌘/CTRL + C | Copy |
| ⌘/CTRL + X | Cut |
| ⌘/CTRL + V | Paste |
| ⌘/CTRL + D | Duplicate |
| ← ↑ → ↓ | Move widget |
| Shift + ← ↑ → ↓ | Move widget 10x |
| ⌘/CTRL + ← ↑ → ↓ | Increase size in the selected direction |
| ⌘/CTRL + Shift + ← ↑ → ↓ | Reduce size in the selected direction |
| ⌘/CTRL + Mouse resize | Maintain aspect ratio when resizing a widget |
| ⌘/CTRL + I | Make text italic |
| ⌘/CTRL + B | Make text bold |
| ⌘/CTRL + U | Underline text |
| ⌘/CTRL + Enter | Confirm text change |
| Escape | Cancel text change |