Graphic design and software development are two areas that need to hand-in hand when it comes to creating compelling applications - and one mobile platform company has decided to make it easier.
Research In Motion has announced the imminent release of a new user interface (UI) framework named Cascades for its BlackBerry platforms.
The new UI will help take some of the pressure off these two key areas by allowing for a range of inputs to the development process to be made more intuitively.
For a web app to make a difference to a company it needs to be easy to both use and navigate - setting up a number of challenges during the design process.
Graphics need to be suited to the target audience - garish colours and flashing icons tend to be too distracting for corporate applications - whilst the back end needs to provide the user with a defined benefit.
To this end, the new Cascades framework gives both designers and developers an edge - encouraging the two to work in a more streamlined fashion.
The needs of the interface itself are addressed with plugins that reduce the frictions associated with producing visual displays for mobile platforms by allowing Photoshop files to be ported directly into the interface.
On the scripting side, developers are given an environment that suits a user-oriented approach - allowing for fast prototyping and smooth turnaround of usable, in-house mobile programs.
Cascades gives these key personnel easy access to a number of high-level functions that would otherwise require an excessive amount of low-end coding to achieve - essentially speeding up the design of user-specific UI scenarios.
Defining layouts for flexible lists and rendering 2d and 3d objects becomes easier, with more intuitive development controls meaning that less time needs to be spent configuring once-off graphic controls.
For teams that are not equipped to produce high-end visuals, Cascades comes with a number of components built in to the UI's core that allow for the development of applications with a professional look and feel straight out of the box.
Layouts, animations and rendered objects can be implemented straight from the start - meaning that web application development times for BlackBerry devices can be greatly reduced.
In turn this means that organisations looking to roll out internal apps to improve employee connectivity or distribute mobile software to engage with their customers through a familiar platform may be able to do so with a dramatically reduced turnaround time.