Altia Announces PhotoProto 1.0 Release
Automatically Transform Photoshop Artwork into Working User Interface
Prototypes
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, September 12, 2006 — Displays are everywhere.
Designers, artists and engineers must create easy-to-use, engaging
user interfaces if their products are to thrive in the market. The
release of PhotoProto marks the first user interface design tool
created specifically for designers who build interactive devices and
custom GUIs.
From in-dash car displays and mobile phones to medical devices and
tactical navy ship displays, interactive concept prototypes are
essential to acquire usability and market feedback. Without these
prototypes, a designer doesn’t know if the product will be a success
until after it’s manufactured and on the shelf. If it’s a failure,
the financial ramifications are huge.
Until today, designers needed the services of programmers or
multimedia authoring experts to turn their static drawings into
working prototypes. In many cases, the delay and expense required to
enlist these extra resources was overwhelming. But what were the
alternatives? If designers skipped this step, the product didn’t meet
market needs and thus languished on the shelf. If designers took the
time to prototype, the company missed the market window.
PhotoProto breaks through the prototyping bottleneck. Using
PhotoProto, artists can simply arrange and name the layers in their
Adobe Photoshop artwork in a way that allows PhotoProto to determine
their intent. Then, with a simple menu click in Photoshop, PhotoProto
automatically turns this artwork into a working, interactive
prototype that can be packaged, emailed and run on a Mac or PC. The
recipient can push buttons, navigate screens, scroll lists and
perform a myriad of other interactive functions. It requires no
scripting language or complex authoring environment to learn. Equally
important, the output, or “assets,” of this process can be passed on
to engineers and programmers who can use it directly within the
deployed target software — saving even more time and expense while
keeping the look and feel intact. With PhotoProto, manufacturers
release a market-tested product before the market window closes.
Price and Availability
PhotoProto is available for the Mac and PC. PhotoProto can be
purchased from Altia’s website (www.altia.com) for $495. A free trial
is also available.
About Altia
Altia, Inc. is a software company that provides user interface
development tools that can be used from concept to final product
code. Altia was founded in 1991 and its customers include GM, Ford,
Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, Medtronic, Guidant, Panasonic, General
Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and hundreds of other leading
manufacturers.