In this exercise, you will learn how to use the PowerPoint storyboarding add-in to create application storyboards. This will be accomplished by examining an existing storyboard file and by adding in some additional storyboard slides to address an additional user story.
- Log in as Annie, who is responsible for representing customer interests and user experience. All user passwords are P2ssw0rd.
Let’s get started by locating the existing storyboard. Launch Internet Explorer and click on the TFS Project Portal button in the favorites bar to load the dashboard.
Figure 1
Fabrikam Fiber project portal
Select the Shared Documents link to view the library where the PowerPoint file named “FF Storyboard – Start” is located.
Figure 2
Location of Shared Documents link
Select the link for the “FF Storyboard - Start” file to load it in PowerPoint.
Figure 3
Location of starting storyboard file
We are using a shared location in SharePoint so that the entire team has access to the file.
Select the yellow Enable Editing button towards the top of the PowerPoint window.
Figure 4
Enable editing of storyboard file
Select the Storyboarding tab at the top of the PowerPoint window.
Figure 5
Initial view of storyboard in PowerPoint, showing the Storyboarding tab
If you wanted to create a new storyboard from scratch, you could do so from
Start | Microsoft Visual Studio 11 | PowerPoint Storyboarding.
These storyboard slides show how the new PowerPoint storyboarding add-in can be used to mock up UI for web and mobile applications. You can take advantage of slide masters and different layouts to create re-usable templates that are set up for your application. Select the Layout button to see some of the layouts that are available in this storyboarding PowerPoint file.
Figure 6
Slide masters and layouts
If you wanted to make modifications to the slide master layouts, you would do so by selecting the
Edit Layout button in the Storyboarding tab.
- Press the F5 key to view the storyboard in presentation mode. Click through the slides with the mouse or press the right arrow key until the presentation is finished. Note that the storyboard provides the look and feel for certain pieces of a web application and a Windows Phone 7 application. Animations are used to show how the user is interacting with the application.
- Let’s create some additional storyboards for the Fabrikam Fiber intranet site, where employees interface with customer data and service tickets. When creating storyboards, it can be helpful to document specific scenarios that translate to user stories for the development team to implement and test. In Team Foundation Server, assume that there is a product backlog item representing a user story that states “Service rep can view service ticket details from the dashboard.”
Delete all the existing slides so that we can concentrate on the new user story by repeatedly pressing the Delete key (or Ctrl-A followed by Delete).
Figure 7
Deleting all existing slides
Select the New Slide drop-down button and choose the “1_Default” layout from the “Web Browser” slide master.
Figure 8
Creating a new slide using a slide master
Take a look at the new storyboard slide to see everything that is provided by the slide master. The entire chrome for the web application is there, which helps keep our storyboard slides looking consistent.
Figure 9
New slide using the selected slide master
Note that the slide master also includes some placeholders for the web page title and address, which are editable. Modify the “Web page title” placeholder by entering “Dashboard” instead. This slide is going to represent the Dashboard page, which is designed to show a rollup of tickets, alerts & messages, and other company-wide information.
Figure 10
Modifying placeholders provided by the slide master
As a quick aside, load the Fabrikam Fiber intranet site in Internet Explorer by clicking on the FF Intranet Portal button in the favorites bar (https://intranet.fabrikam.com). This loads the Dashboard page. Take a glance at the UI shown here so that we can duplicate some of it in the storyboards.
Although storyboards normally precede implementation, in this lab you will occasionally refer to both storyboards in development and the finished product in order to help speed up the demonstration.
Figure 11
Dashboard view of Fabrikam Fiber intranet portal
Back in PowerPoint, add a new Text Box to the first slide.
Figure 12
Adding a Text Box to the slide
Enter the text “Dashboard” for the new text box to create the heading for this page and position it as shown in the following screenshot. Make the text bold, use font size of 16, and select a gray font color.
Figure 13
Adding content to the storyboard slide
Now let’s create a button named “Create New” below the Dashboard title. Select the Storyboard Shapes button if the panel is not currently open.
Figure 14
Opening the Storyboard Shapes window
In the Storyboard Shapes panel on the right-hand side, type “button” into the search box to locate the Button shape.
Figure 15
Searching the shapes library
Drag and drop an instance of the Button shape onto the slide.
Figure 16
Adding shapes to the storyboard
Change the text from the default to “Create New”, choose a white font color, and choose an orange shape fill color to match the required design. Imagine that Fabrikam Fiber has a UI style guideline in place that we must adhere to.
Figure 17
Modifying the new button shape
As you are storyboarding, you can create your own shapes to reuse later. Select the new button that you just created, select the Add to My Shapes button, and name the new shape Fabrikam Button.
Make sure you select the outer edge of the button shape (not the center part) in order to make the Add to My Shapes button available.
Figure 18
Creating a new, re-usable shape and adding it to our library
You can import and export shapes to help build up a storyboarding library. In addition, there are plans to provide an online community where more storyboarding shapes may be found.
You can sometimes speed up the storyboarding process by reusing existing assets. In this case, let’s take a screen clipping of the rest of the existing Dashboard page, rather than adding an actual data grid and manually populating it with data. First, ensure that the Internet Explorer window currently showing the Fabrikam Fiber intranet portal is visible. Finally, in the Storyboarding tab of PowerPoint, select the Screenshot drop down button and then select the Screen Clipping option.
Figure 19
Using a screen clipping to speed up storyboarding
After PowerPoint minimizes itself to show the greyed-out Fabrikam Fiber Dashboard page, click and hold the left mouse button on the upper-left corner of the grid, move to the bottom-right to include Network Alerts, Messages, and so on, and then finally let the left mouse button up to select the screen clipping to use.
Figure 20
Selecting the area to clip
Back in PowerPoint, position and size the screen clipping so that it fits in nicely right below the Create New button.
Figure 21
Positioning the screen clipping in the storyboard
Back to the scenario we are storyboarding, imagine that the employee sees this dashboard and is concerned about one of the tickets that has been open for a long time without resolution or escalation, so she decides to view it by clicking on the reference number link. This should then load a view that shows the service ticket details.
Figure 22
Location of service ticket hyperlinks
Start storyboarding this scenario by creating a new slide using the same layout as before. The new slide should go right after the first one that you created.
Figure 23
Create another slide using the same template
Next, add in some fake ticket details as shown below using the techniques shown in this lab so far. In addition, make use of the Street Map and Map Marker storyboarding shapes to help represent the location of the customer residence.
Alternatively, you can load the “FF Storyboard - Finish” PowerPoint file from the shared documents library and then copy / paste the needed content to save time.
Figure 24
Storyboarding the second slide showing service ticket details
When storyboarding in PowerPoint, you can also build in a representation for the flow of an application using hyperlinks from shapes. Select the first slide that shows the Dashboard, then select the image that shows the grid of tickets, and finally select the Hyperlink button in the Storyboarding tab.
If we chose to create this slide using a proper grid from the Storyboard Shapes menu, instead of a screen clipping, we would be able to create a hyperlink from a specific cell instead.
Figure 25
Turning the grid into a hyperlink
In the Insert Hyperlink window, select the Place in This Document option, choose the second slide, and select OK to create the link.
Figure 26
Selecting the slide that the grid will link to
We can also take advantage of PowerPoint animations in order to improve the presentation of the storyboards. Return to the first slide if not already there and search for the “mouse pointer” shape in the Storyboard Shapes window. Drag and drop an instance of the mouse pointer onto the slide. This shape will be used to represent the user clicking on one of the service tickets on the Dashboard.
Figure 27
Mouse pointer shape will be used to simulate user interaction
Make the mouse pointer shape larger so that it is easier to see.
Figure 28
Increasing mouse pointer size
In the Animations tab, select the Add Animation drop-down and select the Custom Path option near the bottom (scroll down to find it).
Figure 29
Animating the mouse cursor shape with a custom path
Use the mouse to draw a path from the current location of the Mouse Pointer shape to one of the service ticket hyperlinks (the grid is just a picture). To do this, hold the left mouse button down near the Mouse Pointer shape and draw a line to the hyperlink, letting go of the mouse button and pressing the Escape key when done.
Figure 30
Resulting path of the mouse cursor shape
Press Ctrl+S to save your work back to Team Foundation Server.
If you are prompted to refresh and try the save again, go ahead and do so.
- Press the F5 key to view the storyboard in presentation mode. Press the right arrow key to start the mouse cursor animation. When it reaches the hyperlink for the service ticket, press the right arrow key to navigate to the second slide. Press the Escape key when finished.
At this point, let’s say that we have completed development of the storyboards and would like to link this file to a user story in Team Foundation Server. Select the Storyboard Links button from the Storyboarding tab in PowerPoint.
If prompted to connect to a team project, go ahead and select the VSALM -> DefaultCollection ->FabrikamFiber team project and then connect.
Figure 31
Location of Storyboarding Links button
In the Storyboard Links window, select the Link To button to link the storyboard to a work item.
Figure 32
Location of button to link storyboard to existing work item
In the Choose Linked Work Items window, select the Title Contains search method, enter “service ticket”, and select the Find button.
Figure 33
Searching for the correct work item
Select the work item with title “Service rep can view service ticket details from the dashboard” and then select the OK button.
Figure 34
Selecting the correct work item
After the link has been made, you will see confirmation in the Storyboard Links window. Select the Close button to finish.
Figure 35
Confirmation showing that the storyboard has been linked to a work item