Triggers

In ProtoPie, a Trigger is an event that triggers specific actions, called Responses, in your prototype.

Touch Triggers

A touch trigger involves actually touching the display of a smart device. It can be, for example, a Tap, Long Press, or Drag action. Multi-touch gestures, such as Pinch and Rotate, are also supported.

Tap

An action where the tip of a finger touches the touchscreen and is raised immediately.

Trigger Property

Number of Fingers

Up to five fingers supported

Double Tap

An action where the tip of a finger touches the touchscreen twice rapidly.

Trigger Property

Number of Fingers

Up to five fingers supported

Touch Down

An action where the tip of a finger touches the touchscreen.

Trigger Property

Number of Fingers

Up to five fingers supported

Touch Up

A response is triggered as soon as a user releases a layer. For example, it can be used in combination with drag to initiate an interaction when a user drags and releases a layer.

Trigger Property

Number of Fingers

Up to five fingers supported

Long Press

An action where the tip of a finger is raised after a certain amount of time touching the touchscreen.

Trigger Properties

Number of Fingers

Up to five fingers supported

Pressing Time

The amount of time during which a finger touches a screen

Fling

A response is triggered when a layer is swiped across the chosen direction, at a speed faster than the default speed.

Trigger Property

Direction

The region towards which the finger moves

Pull

Pull is a trigger with true/false properties. If the target layer is pulled past a certain point, the layer moves according to the distance set by the user in the trigger's property panel. If the conditions aren’t met, the layer returns to its original position.

Trigger Property

Direction

The region towards which the finger moves

Distance

The amount of space a layer moves

Follow Over Pulling

A reaction that takes place when a finger moves beyond a preset region

Easing

Change of acceleration of layer movement

Drag

An action where the tip of a finger moves across the screen while touching the touchscreen.

Trigger Property

Number of Fingers

Up to five fingers supported

The response properties linked to drag triggers

Direction

The area towards which a layer moves

Limit

The minimum and maximum values under which a layer can move

Ratio

The ratio between the distance a layer is dragged and the distance a finger moves on the screen. When the value is set to 100, the two distance values are equal in other words, a layer covers the same distance a finger moves. When the value is higher, the layer moves farther compared to the finger, and vice versa

Pinch

An action where two fingers pull away from or come toward each other while touching the touchscreen.

The response properties linked to pinch triggers

Direction

The area towards which a layer moves

Pivot

The reference point from which a layer undergoes rotation or resizing

Limit

The minimum and maximum values under which a layer can move

Rotate

An action where two fingers turn in the same direction while touching the touchscreen.

The response property linked to the Rotate trigger

Pivot

The reference point from which a layer undergoes rotation or resizing

Conditional Triggers

As the name implies, conditional triggers activate Interactions based on specific conditions.

Chain

An action where the changes of a property of one layer changes the property of another layer.

Trigger Property

Property

Layer attribute values as a reference for changing other layers

Response Properties after Chain

Trigger’s Layer Mapping Range 1

A movement range for a chain’s target layer

Response’s Layer Mapping Range 2

The range of values for a layer that will move within the movement range for a chain’s target layer

Range

The Range trigger fires when an object’s property or variable transitions into a range (hence the name) you define. This trigger will only fire once as the property transitions into the range. For example, you might define a Range trigger that fires when the x property of an object becomes 200 pixels or greater. The trigger will fire once as the object transitions from 199 to 200. This won’t fire again as the x property remains 200 or greater, and it won’t fire when the property drops below 200 (e.g., 200 to 199). However, it will fire again if the property once again transitions from 199 to 200.

Trigger Properties

1. Greater than or equal to

When a target layer’s value reaches a certain value

2. Less than or equal to

When a target layer falls under a certain value

3. Between

When a target layer’s value lies between two certain values

4. Not between

When a target layer’s value is outside the range between two certain values

Start

Start allows you to activate interactions upon loading a certain scene.

Trigger Properties

Start After Jump

Start activates right after a Jump response is executed.

Start With Jump

Start activates together with the Jump response.

Restart Every Time

Start activates every time the active scene is loaded.

Detect

A response is activated when a layer property or variable changes.

Mouse Triggers

Mouse triggers activate based on the movement of a computer mouse. They allow you to create interactions based on the cursor hovering over or leaving an object.

Mouse Over

A response is triggered when the mouse pointer moves over an object.

Mouse Out

A response is triggered when the mouse pointer moves away from an object.

Key Trigger

Press

A response is activated when a key on a physical keyboard or an Android device is pressed.

Trigger Properties

Keyboard

The following keys are supported: letters, numbers, arrow keys, ESC, TAB, SPACE, and BACKSPACE.

Android

The back button as well as the volume buttons can be selected.

Input Triggers

The input trigger must be used with an input layer.

Focus

A response is activated upon an input layer receiving or losing focus. A Focus In event implies that the blinking placeholder is visible in the input layer, or that the native keyboard appears if a smart device is used. A Focus Out is simply the opposite.

Trigger Properties

Focus In

A response is activated in case of a focus in.

Focus Out

A response is activated in case of a focus out.

Return

A response is activated upon pressing the return key on a physical keyboard, or a native keyboard if a smart device is used.

Sensor Triggers

Sensor triggers enable accessing specific native sensors in smart devices and mapping responses onto their properties.

The response properties linked to the Sensor trigger

Smoothness

It's used to smoothen the layer movements mapped to specific sensor values. Three smoothness levels are available, from lowest (1) to highest (3)

Mapping Range - Device's Sensor 4

The range of the sensor's values

Mapping Range - Response's Layer 5

The range of the layer's properties mapped to the sensor values

Tilt

A response is activated upon a smart device reaching specific tilting angles.

Trigger Property

Compass

A response is activated based on the direction the smart device is pointing towards.
For example, to create a realistic compass prototype like this one, Compass is used with the Rotate response. The movement of the needle (Angle) is then determined by the detected compass angle (Degree), a value between 0 and 360, and the set rotation direction (clockwise/ counterclockwise).

Sound

A response is activated based on the volume of a detected sound.

Learn how to use this trigger is used in the Mobile Game prototyping masterclass.

3D Touch

A response is activated based on the intensity of a touch force. The value of the touch force can range from 0 to 6.7.

Note that 3D Touch is only supported by older Apple devices such as iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max.

Proximity

It's used to create interactions based on how close or far something is from the smart device's proximity sensor.

Trigger Properties

Far to Near

A Response activates if the device moves closer to a physical object

Near to Far

A Response activates if the device moves away from a physical object

Receive

Receive triggers make interactions among devices possible. They must be used together with Send responses. A response is activated when a device with the Receive trigger accepts a message sent from a different device using a Send response. The message received on one device should match the one sent from the other device.

Send and Receive messages can be used within the same scene to modularize interactions or reuse a set of responses, avoiding repetitive work.

Channel [Component]

Inside the component, you can use the Send response to send a message and this can be received by a Receive trigger outside the component. This also works the other way around. Refer to Components for more information.

Channel [ProtoPie Studio]

Select ProtoPie Studio as a channel to allow interactions among devices (it works the same way for ProtoPie Connect).

Channel [Current Scene]

To modularize interactions or reuse a set of responses avoiding repetitive work, you can use Receive triggers and Send responses in one scene.

Message

A message is a string that is transmitted. When the message in the Receive trigger on one device matches the message in the Send response, interactions among devices can take place.

Assign to Variable

It is possible to send a value together with a message. This value would have to be assigned to a variable upon receiving.

Voice Command

The Voice Command trigger enables triggering responses based on voice commands. You can set the Voice Command trigger to be triggered either while someone is speaking or after someone finished speaking. It's possible to include or exclude specific phrases within the commands.

In order to use the Voice Command trigger, you need to enable listening using the Listen response.

Learn more about voice prototyping.