What is an embedded GUI framework?

An embedded GUI framework helps designers and developers work together to create the visual, auditory, and physical controls that enable users to interact with devices such as wearables, smart home appliances, medical equipment, and industrial machines. These frameworks typically wrap the low-level operating system and hardware details within higher-level components to ease development easier and make the GUI platform neutral. For modern systems, embedded GUI frameworks that support designers and developers working together to create vivid, graphics-rich elements are better able to achieve the smartphone-like experiences that consumers crave.

Why use Crank’s embedded GUI framework?

The Storyboard embedded GUI framework is built by a team of embedded experts that understand the importance of UX design and development and trusted by major household brands across multiple industries. Storyboard helps product teams to iterate around application design and enhance UX with ease, resulting in sophisticated GUIs that deliver exceptional user experiences on low-power, low-resource devices.

How do you choose an embedded GUI framework?

An embedded GUI framework should ensure a seamless design and development process that results in the creation of rich, sophisticated user interfaces that run efficiently on low-power, low-resource devices. When choosing a framework, you should consider the intuitiveness of the designer-developer workflow system, the ability to rapidly iterate and test design changes, the optimization of the runtime code for performance and battery life, and the ease of adaptability to hardware platforms of different size and scale.

What Makes Storyboard Different?

Brands That Trust Us

What makes Storyboard different?

Designed by our team of embedded experts that understand the importance of UX design and development, Storyboard is trusted by major household brands across multiple industries as their preferred framework to create GUI apps for products that succeed. More often than not, they also win design and UX awards!

User interface innovation is critical and going to market with a mediocre touchscreen UX is not acceptable. Storyboard helps product teams to iterate around app design and enhance the UX with ease, resulting in sophisticated GUIs that deliver exceptional user experiences.

Your product's success depends on your GUI

Let's face it. If your touchscreen is poor, then your product could fail. Nowadays, end consumers expect rich graphical and high performance user experiences from every device they touch. Storyboard was built to facilitate UX-focused development, because we understand how critical the GUI experience is to your product's success.

Watch Demo ▸

Storyboard capabilities

Experience rapid GUI development to target deployment. From a design tool file to an embedded GUI application in minutes, Crank Storyboard makes it easier for designers and developers to rapidly create optimized embedded GUIs that focus on delivering a brilliant UX.

Import content ▸

Import your GUI graphics content from design tools like Photoshop, Sketch and Illustrator.

Add animations ▸

Capture movement and motions in a click with Animation Record and the Animation Timeline features.

Manage iterations ▸

Be in control of changes with Compare & Merge and collaborate in a parallel workflow for UX iteration without code disruption.

Test & validate ▸

Validate your prototype functionality with the Storyboard Simulator or directly on your target hardware device.

Debug & optimize ▸

Get actionable insight into your application data to help make informed decisions as you build out your project.

All hardware & OS ▸

Have the freedom to create GUIs that scale across markets, processors, OS' and embedded targets.

Reduce costs ▸

Reduce your overall costs with a smaller footprint and reusable GUI components for other products and devices.

Boost innovation ▸

Validate designs and begin UX testing earlier, and get to market faster so you can focus on your next award-winning idea.

"The certainties Crank showed about Storyboard-built GUI apps — their small RAM footprint and low power consumption — were important factors in its selection for the Dash.”

James Stemper

Director of Program Management, Stages Cycling

"“I definitely would say they exceeded our expectations. They were nailing it every time with the GUI."

Brian Gallagher

Aptera / Andromeda Interfaces

Storyboard is a key part of us being able to design a unique UI experience from start to finish. If we were using a different tool, it’d be more challenging and take much longer.

Electronics Engineering Manager

Create engaging user experiences

A smartphone experience has become the standard for touchscreens across all industries. Colors, animations, haptics and other touchscreen GUI elements are critical components of a rich UX, all of which are easy to create and refine with Storyboard.

To get a glimpse of a Storyboard-built GUI on your platform, we've created demo images to help test and evaluate the GUI potential of your hardware.

Download sample GUI applications ▸

Iterate on design without destroying work done

Because of its unique parallel workflows and decoupled designer and developer working environments, Storyboard eliminates the reluctance that used to come with design iteration. Now, product teams can work on optimizing the end-UX more effectively because design changes don't delay or break development work.

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Never start from scratch with supported platforms

Storyboard’s unique architecture allows it to be compatible with all hardware and OS platforms, giving you the freedom to create applications that scale markets and embedded devices.

You also have the freedom to incorporate modern visual or 3D elements into your project. Storyboard supports VG Lite, OpenGL and a host of other rendering technologies, including our award-winning Hybrid Rendering, to ensure your project is able to take advantage of ecosystem updates as they happen.

Our Compatibility ▸

FAQs

What is an embedded GUI framework?

An embedded GUI framework helps designers and developers work together to create the visual, auditory, and physical controls that enable users to interact with devices such as wearables, smart home appliances, medical equipment, and industrial machines. These frameworks typically wrap the low-level operating system and hardware details within higher-level components to ease development easier and make the GUI platform neutral.

For modern systems, embedded GUI frameworks that support designers and developers working together to create vivid, graphics-rich elements are better able to achieve the smartphone-like experiences that consumers crave.
How do you choose an embedded GUI framework?

An embedded GUI framework should ensure a seamless design and development process that results in the creation of rich, sophisticated user interfaces that run efficiently on low-power, low-resource devices. When choosing a framework, you should consider the intuitiveness of the designer-developer workflow system, the ability to rapidly iterate and test design changes, the optimization of the runtime code for performance and battery life, and the ease of adaptability to hardware platforms of different size and scale.