| StickyDrive™ : What is it? |
StickyDrive™ Product Overview, Development, and Delivery Document Overview This document is designed to detail and specify the functions, design, and contents of a customized version of StickyDrive™. Please review this document carefully. If you are a customer, distributor, supplier, agency, or other entity it will be important to define who will be responsible for the development and delivery of artwork concepts and if applicable, actual artwork to StickyDrive for final software deployment. If you do not have resources available in-house to assist with the development of artwork, StickyDrive can provide artwork and custom software enhancement services as needed. A Look at the StickyDrive™ Skin Framework
Important Definitions and Concepts
The skin is broken into two parts: (1) the "Top Skin" containing the controls for the StickyDriveT program and (2) the "Bottom Skin" containing links, buttons, animations, movies (streamed or resident), and other content.
Company Logo This identifies the company and reinforces the brand to the user at all times. In general this image will act as a web link to the firm website. The position and size of this item may be modified. About Us Screen (optional) If a user clicks on the upper left-hand corner of the application (generally the space reserved for the logo image) a screen may be made to appear which shows information such as follows. This is an optional feature and in general most clients prefer to use the logo click action to link to a specific website. Information which might be optionally shown includes:
This takes the user to the music player portion of StickyDriveT. This button may be moved, resized, altered, renamed, or optionally removed at the request of the client. Any music should be delivered in .mp3 format (.wav is also acceptable) Photos Button This takes the user to the photo viewer portion of StickyDriveT. This button may be moved, resized, altered, renamed, or optionally removed at the request of the client. Any photos should be delivered in .jpg format Docs Button This takes the user to the file viewer and launch portion of StickyDriveT. This button may be moved, resized, altered, renamed, or optionally removed at the request of the client. Documents may be delivered in any format however documents for which there is not already a registered extension within the operating system will not launch when attempted by the user (e.g. an .mpp file will only launch if the user has installed a program which will allow viewing of a Microsoft Project file) File Search Text Field Allows the user to search for a full or partial filename among files on the drive. Importantly, this does not search the text within a file. This text field look may be modified, resized, altered or optionally removed at the request of the client. File Search Button The File Search is activated when this button is pressed. This button look may be modified, resized, altered or optionally removed at the request of the client. Minimize Button Minimizes the application to the toolbar when pressed. Only the color of this button may be modified. Size and location of the button are fixed. Close Button Closes the application when pressed. Only the color of this button may be modified. Size and location of the button are fixed. Home Link Navigates the user back to the welcome screen in the bottom portion of the application. This link may be modified, relocated, or otherwise altered, but should not be removed from the skin. Add Files Link Navigates the user to a screen where files may be quickly added to the drive in an intuitive and non-disruptive manner. This link may be modified, relocated, or otherwise altered, but should not be removed from the skin. See Folders Link Immediately displays the flash drive file directory in windows explorer. This link may be modified, relocated, or otherwise altered, but should not be removed from the skin. Tools Link Navigates the user to a screen which displays certain StickyDrive tools including a help screen. This link may be modified, relocated, or otherwise altered, but should not be removed from the skin. Background Imagery This imagery is that static portion of the background which is commonly thought of as the primary thematic artwork for the customized StickyDriveT software. This imagery may be created as needed to reinforce the objectives of the campaign. DriveSpace Indicator This text displays the current used and total drive capacity to provide the user with a quick view on how much drive capacity remains. This text may be modified in color and position and optionally removed at the request of the customer. Additional Items Additional items may be added to the top skin including news feeds, web links, document links, and other items (as allowed by your selected StickyDriveT package); however, (a) caution should be exercised so as not to make the top skin appear too busy and (b) these functions must be independent of the bottom skin as they will not be able to influence activity within the bottom portion of the skin.. Note: all customized versions of StickyDrive will display the logo and tagline: "powered by StickyDrive" either within the top skin or on the welcome screen of the bottom skin.
It is possible to include numerous types of content and information in the welcome screen. Nearly any content you can view through the internet can be delivered to StickyDrive. Below are a number of popular options for content types and delivery mechanisms.
Drop-down, or "cascade menus" and tabs can help to increase your available "real estate in the interface" and provide users with additional functionality. These additional areas can be used to display multiple documents, hyperlinks, videos, or other resources. Menu buttons can:
We can create multiple hyperlinks to different sections of your webpage, or to multiple different web pages. Additional Bottom Skin Items A number of other possibilities for your StickyDrive exist including, RSS or other XML-based Live News Feeds and Information Releases, Slideshows, Rolling advertising, dynamically changing campaign advertising, contests, data submission forms (e.g. email address collection to sign up for a newsletter), full animation and motion capability, games, surveys, music, and even user-specific content driven by external sources (e.g. a marketing database). The Loading Screen Dimensions: 351px. wide x 623px. tall The Loading Screen is typically the combined background image of the top and bottom skin without any links, buttons, or other items. On top of this skin is placed text which says simply "Loading." and a small portion of the skin devoted to obligatory StickyDriveT copyrights and patent rights. Please keep the bottom 1/8 of the loading screen free of text so that this can be added on top of the main background image without impacting on the loading screen artwork. Essentially, the loading screen acts as a splash screen that will display to the user during the loading period (1-5 seconds typically) each time the application loads. This screen is the exact same dimensions as the UI (User Interface). That is, the dimensions of the loading screen are equivalent to both the top skin and the welcome screen. Artwork Requirements StickyDrive Services can only accept artwork delivered in AI (Adobe Illustrator), PSD (Adobe PhotoShop), EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) or other industry standard layered file format. Whenever possible, it is greatly preferred that we receive vector artwork. This insures the very best artwork quality for the final product. If you have internal capability to deliver Flash files and wish to submit original Flash files in FLA format using Flash 8 Professional and AS 2.0, please contact StickyDrive to discuss in greater detail. If you do not have the ability to create the skin design in a layered format listed, please contact us to discuss design alternatives. As a general rule, most firms will need to acquire artwork such as Company logo, Brand or Event logo(s), background images, photographs, overlay transparencies and certain other imagery, including video files, integrated animation files, documents, music and other skin elements as designed and planned for. Due to the wide spectrum of possible applications within the StickyDriveT platform, if you have specific questions as to what is achievable from a design and software development perspective please contact your supplier. Tip: When developing skins, it is best to start with the development of an integrated background image which is a single image combining the background of the top and bottom skins. This image will appear as a seamless background to the user when viewing StickyDriveT and will also serve as the background image for the loading screen. From that point forward, it shall be possible to layer the additional elements such as buttons, links, forms, or other artwork on top of that background image. Remember however that certain functions in StickyDrive (e.g. music player, photos viewer) will change the bottom skin or the top skin. Therefore, the artist should remain cognizant of this issues such that the artwork has a natural visual breakpoint around the dimensional cutoffs described above in the "dimensions" portion of the top skin and bottom skin sections of this document. Content and Functionality Requirements As described in the sections above, there exist many different areas available for customization. It is possible (and likely) that during the development process there will be multiple design iterations as you are exposed to these numerous possibilities. This is a natural part of an evolving development of your custom drive and results invariably in a look that is congruent with your campaign or event plan and more clearly resonates with your customers. Windows Operating Environment There are additional customizable areas for the StickyDrive application in regards to its interaction with the Windows Operating System. Auto-Run Menu When a user plugs in their drive the Windows Auto-Run menu will appear with StickyDrive listed as the first option. It is possible to specify the verbiage displayed to the user up to a maximum of 30 characters (including spaces) [Suggested text: "Launch (insert product name)."] Task Bar After the application is launched, if a user minimizes the program it is reduced to the task bar. It is possible to specify the verbiage displayed to the user up to a maximum of 20 characters (including spaces) Pre-Delivery Requirements With few exceptions, StickyDrive requires artwork to have written approval and PO (purchase order) from the purchasing company prior to receiving the artwork and creating a working version of the StickyDrive application with the artwork. Creating FLA or working versions of StickyDrive without approval of artwork and/or without a PO number require written approval from StickyDrive management. After Delivery of the Artwork Once completed with the above items, you may deliver your artwork to your supplier or distributor or, in the event that artwork is being developed by an agency, distributor, or supplier, that artwork will be submitted to StickyDrive for integration into the custom build. At this point, StickyDrive creates the files needed to operate the software. These files, once tested and approved by the required parties, are then added to the Flash drives. Should an update be needed after the initial file loading process, the drive updates will be managed via StickyDrive's auto-document update software. |
Links to URLs can be designed with graphical buttons, simple text, or even hidden within an image. When a user selects any of these URL links, the default browser on the PC is launched and navigated to the defined URL.
StickyDrive™ has the ability to update documents loaded into the media device. This enables companies to "push" new documents out to customers holding the media device they provided - and "pull" or delete documents that are no longer current. Companies can also offer the user the option to download documents, music, or images to their flash drive from a remote server. This might be illustrated with a button stating "Check latest news release" - which would download a file to the media device and open it.
Media content stored on the company server can be streamed to the user via controls on the skin. Movies, music, slideshows are examples of content that can be played through controls built into the skin.
