Version 3 of the Slate app represents a new, modernized user interface design, with special attention given to how our customers use the app in different ways. The new design will be released in phases, Version 3.0 contains the first set of changes, the Scanner and Home Screen.
The Scanner & Logging In
When you first open the app, you’ll be taken immediately to the scanner. If you installed the app fresh, you’ll notice you can’t really do anything else. This is on purpose. Without a user profile, the only thing you should be a able to do is scan slates.
If you have an account already, go ahead and log in, otherwise create a profile.
When scanning, you’ll find the same features that were available in previous versions of the app:
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Turn on the device torch (light)
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Open a slate from an image stored on the device
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Flip the camera
Moving Between Scanner & Home Screens
Once logged in, you’ll see a Go Home button on the scanner screen. This will take you to the home screen.
In the same spot, on the home screen, you’ll find the Scan Slate button. You can easily toggle between these two screens by tapping these buttons.
Note, after you tap them once, they will collapse down to just an icon. This is to conserve space, once the user is aware of what the button does. We will use the pattern in many places within the app moving forward.
A New Home For Your Favorites
At the top of the Home screen lives the favorites widget. Don’t have any favorites? Try adding a few. Marking a slate as a favorite is the same as it was in the previous version. Open the slate, tap the star icon.
If you don’t like to use favorites, tap the x in the top-right corner of the placeholder and the favorites section will collapse down. To bring it back, just favorite a slate
On each slate you favorite you’ll see a few key pieces of information:
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The logo/avatar of the stack it belongs to (top-left)
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The name of the slate
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How long ago it was modified, along with the user’s avatar (bottom)
Stacks (aka Accounts)
Stacks? What are Stacks?
So we’ve been calling them “Accounts” since the beginning. The problem is that’s very easily confused with the user’s profile, which many other software systems refer to as your “account.” Think about it, how many times have you said “log into your account” when referring to the act of entering your credentials. You rarely, if ever, hear someone say “oh, go log into your user profile.” The idea here is to eliminate this confusion.
But, again, why Stacks? Well, if you put a bunch of slates on top of each other, you could call it a “stack” of slates, right? Thats exactly what our “account” really are. Just a collection of slates. They don’t represent an organization (some organizations have multiple accounts in Slate Pages), just slates. So, “Stack” seemed fitting. The rest of this article will use the term Stack.
Below your favorites, you’ll find your Stacks that are associated with your profile. Here’s how it works:
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The first one in the list is the currently selected stack, indicated by the white arrow, and a white halo. We tried to make it obvious which one was selected.
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The next three stacks are your most recently used. To switch to one, just tap it.
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Want to see all the stacks you have on your profile? Tap the Stacks button. Kinda neat, how that looks like a “stack” of slates, right?
The Currently-Selected Stack
Everything in white represents the currently-selected Stack.
The current Stack, as well as the number of slates contained with in, is listed at the top. You’ll find a search button to the right.
Within the list of slates, you’ll find the usual information available: Slate image (if it has one), slate title, and last edit. List the favorites, the last-edited will include the user’s avatar and a relative amount of time since it was last edited. The user’s display name will also be shown.
The slate list will show you slates in the order they were edited, with most recently edited at the top.
To Refresh the list of slates, pull down on the list.
The Current Stack, Full-Screen
This is where we had some fun with the new design. As you scroll the list of slates, the favorites slides up, and all the other Stacks move out of the way, giving full-screen attention to the current Stack. Also, the search bar becomes full-screen-width.
Want to get back to the favorites? Just pull the screen down.
Search
The search feature works across all fields on a slate, not just the title, so you can search for any content you may need.
Simply tap into the search field and begin typing. The list will update automatically as search results become available.
