LiveView Screencaster

Mobile designers need to see their work on a device before it goes to a developer. Once on the device, we can QA the mockup itself; carefully inspecting touch areas, gradients, typography, and colors. I was introduced to a smart piece of software called LiveView Screencaster a few months ago, and it has completely changed my workflow (for iPhone/iPad design, anyway).

Before LiveView came into my life, I needed to export pngs to my Dropbox, and from there save it to the native Photos app, and finally see a series of mockups fit perfectly to the display. This is a convoluted and time consuming process, especially when making small changes to an element like a shadow or button.

Enter LiveView Screencaster. Install it on your Mac, then install the app on your device. From here, you can position an iPhone 3/4/iPad frame over your design to instantly screencast it. This was great, but then I wanted more–I wanted to make changes to my design while screencasting. Thankfully, LiveView still screencasts beautifully when hidden, and another application is in focus. This means I can set my iPhone up in a dock, and use it like a monitor that accurately displays what the design will ultimately look like. Incredible stuff.

Thanks to Chanelle Henryfor introducing me to the software. Thanks to Nicholas Zambetti for making it.