Patent ID: 8572500

Claim:
A computer program product comprising one or more computer storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a computer-implemented method for facilitating design of one or more screens of an application, where the method is comprised of the acts of: presenting a user interface which simultaneously displays in one screen the following: a screen presentation portion for presenting an application screen under design, the application screen including one or more application elements controlled by executable instructions that when executed, cause a change in the application screen's state; a history area for presenting various states of the application screen at different stages of design; a mode control for selecting between an interactive mode and a design mode for interacting with the presentation portion of the user interface; and a navigation control for selecting various states of the application screen; at the user interface, (i) when in the design mode, presenting in the presentation portion of the user interface the application screen but disabling any application elements of the application screen so the application screen does not change the state of the application screen, and providing at the presentation portion of the user interface the presented application screen that is thus limited to design changes of a stylistic nature; and (ii) when in the interactive mode presenting the application screen in the presentation portion of user interface the application screen as if the application screen is actively executing with any design change made during the design mode, and providing one or more application elements that effect a state transition for the application screen; (iii) storing the state transition for the application screen; (iv) displaying the application screen for the state transition in the history area of the user interface; repeating each of the acts (i)-(iv) one or more times; and presenting for selection at the user interface the stored states for the design of the application screen as displayed in the history area of the user interface.