Video Review
This is huge and we’re probably most excited about this new addition. Now in the new Cage, you can share, collaborate, review, and approve video. Perfect for agencies doing broadcast and motion graphics, but also for all the studios that work on games, vfx, animation, and 3D.
From a UX perspective, we wanted the experience of reviewing video to be almost the same as an image. Knowing we had to handle a few things differently (and after working with a few studios on the best solution), we built all the interaction around the timeline. Here’s a closer look at the Video Review:
- Notes can be made on a frame-by-frame basis for the video and you’ll be using the same notes interface you’re using throughout Cage to make notes, tasks, etc.
- Tasks can be seamlessly made just like you would make them on images.
- Timeline functionality. In the timeline, you’ll see that the playhead has a “+” to denote “add”. You can click the video or the playhead, at which time the video pauses and gives you the option to make a note. Also in the timeline, you’ll see the option to quickly move between notes (think of this like fast forward, but to skip to the next note). And we have all the other settings like volume, full screen, etc.
- Modern web technology. We’ve built everything for this using HTML5 (and CSS, Javascript, etc)…and we’ve spent a considerable amount of time on the new compression and encoding algorithm so that your quality is super high, and the playback is super fast (playback of the video on mobile is pretty nice too).
There’s also another view (much like this for images) and we’ll show that to you guys too. We’re working on some pretty handy little tools for video for version 2, so stay tuned for some continual improvements and enhancements. We’re excited about the new Cage, and really excited about the addition of video. Enjoy!
The video used above is from our recent commercial shoot.Special thanks for our friends at Staplegun for their generosity and help.
Note List
With the current version of Cage, you only see and create notes on the actual image you’re viewing. We think this is great and we love the visual approach to providing more context to what you’re discussing. But that’s not for everyone and sometimes you just want to see the discussion. Often times (especially during those marathon discussions with your team or clients) people just want to have the discussion and the visuals take back seat, we know we this from our won experiences too. So we decided to build two views for you to toggle between (this is your preference, use which ever you prefer). You can still see and make notes directly on top of the work, but if you prefer having the discussion in a forum that’s more about the content and less about the visuals (we keep referring to “visuals” cause we have a surprise for you all), you can use the Note List. Here’s what you’ll see:
- Contextual discussions. Directly on this page, you’ll see the visual you’re working on to your right and all the discussions and different notes on the left. From here you can still create notes and tasks (both update in each view, so it doesn’t matter which one you use).
- Interactive feedback. As you’re interacting with a discussion, it highlights the area of the visual where the note was drawn and we also show a small thumbnail that you can click to see a larger view the highlighted section of the work. As you scroll down the page, the visuals follow you to each section you’re working on.
That’s the Note List inside Cage, a simple way to interact with your team and clients around creative work. A special thank you goes out to Foundry Collective and Paul and Scott for submitting some of their work to us for inclusion in the new demos we’re doing. You can see more of their work at Foundry Collective (great guys, who happen to have native roots in Oklahoma). More to come soon.
Calendar & Tasks
This is one the new features we’re most excited about. For a long time now, we always talked about adding a Calendar inside Cage to help designers stay on track and manage their projects, deliverables, revisions, and approvals. Now, you have all that and more! Here’s a quick breakdown of the Calendar in the new Cage:
- Alerts. We alert you once you’re logged in if you have any overdue tasks. If you click “view all”, a nice little interaction happens and you’ll be able to see more details and also check them as done. Speaking of alerts…we’ve also added email notifications (another big request).
- Calendar Views. You can see the Calendar in a monthly (more visual) view or you can see your tasks in a list view (which all have filters so you can sort them by Dates, Project, Overdue, and by Person).
- Tasks. You can quickly add tasks directly in this view. You can see some general details about tasks in the Calendar and if you hover over one, you can get a detailed look at the task. In the task detail, we provide the file that task is associated with, along with some metadata to provide more context (Client, Project, File Name, number of Tasks, number of Unread Notes). You can check tasks as done directly in this view too.
All tasks in Cage are associated with projects and files. We’re not a general task or project management system tool, we simply built a task management tool for creative work to make collaboration in Cage even easier. This feature is extremely useful and we’ve kept it as simple as possible so that it’s easy to use (the reaction so far has been amazing). Stay tuned for more!
Archives
Out with the old…in with the new. Ever wanted to put a project on the back-burner or archive it for awhile but weren’t able to in Cage? Now you can archive projects as they are completed and you can reactivate projects whenever you like. A really handy feature, especially when you’re working with clients that have a tendency to make last minute changes or even after something has already been approved. Enjoy!
All New Branding
*Reader’s Note: You can view more images by hovering outside the right side of the image and clicking.
Before we got started redesigning the new product, we also decided that we desperately needed a better logo (the old one was more of a placeholder). So, we thought we’d share some of the explorations, design decisions, and lengthy conversations that took place to get to our new branding. We think the new logo accurately represents the new product and the new company.
What did we want in our new logo? It had to look gorgeous and function well in the application and on new business cards (these letterpresses cards are going to be pretty rad). It had to be fun, approachable, and polished (something our current one wasn’t). I think the exact conversation went like this, “the new identity should pretty much be awesome”…which was followed with “and should play on the word ‘cage’, be fun, clever, and have some color.”
After looking at several designers’ portfolios we landed on Mauricio Cremer (SGNL Studio). His work is fantastic and well-rounded, and he also happens to be a local designer and good friend. He moves seamlessly from print and illustration to web and interactive, so we knew he could handle the project we were about to throw at him.
Explorations of the Mark
Challenge: With a name like Cage how do you brand it without using a literal cage? Cage is so much more and we wanted the viewer to understand that in the first few seconds.
Solution: It had to be something clever that fit our mission (simple collaboration for designers). When considering this mission, we kept coming back to a pencil because it is one of the most fundamental tools used in designing, sketching, writing notes, signing off on approvals or crossing to-dos off your list. The angled position demonstrates the pencil in action. Back to the logo needing to be clever, the shape, lock and lines also depict a traditional cage. We went through several iterations to get to this and we feel like the new mark is a great representation of everything we wanted in this re-brand.
Choosing the Typeface
The typeface we opted for in the new Cage logo is a slightly modified ITC Avant Garde. Because we wanted to stick to lowercase and a heavier weight, this font worked perfectly for us. The shapes (lots of circles) worked well together and felt cohesive. Mauricio modified the “a” and “g” by adding the points (to emphasize the point of the pencil).
Inside the “app” we’re using Proxima Nova, which we’re equally excited about. With its multiple san-serif weights, we feel that Proxima Nova is a really nice compliment to the logotype.
So there you have it. Here’s a few pics we took along the way and what we arrived to. Enjoy! We certainly do. Stay tuned for the all the new Cage - coming super soon.
