Discussion topics are created for a particular design and are identified by red pushpins placed on the design. Discussion topics facilitate the evolution of designs by helping stakeholders ask and answer questions, and eventually make decisions. Each discussion topic consists of a subject, a message body, a list of subscribers and owners, and a set of comments and decisions. Furthermore, when you create or update a topic, the current interaction state of your Design is automatically recorded . When other stakeholders view your topic, its corresponding design will be synchronized to match the exact state as when your topic was created. This allows discussions to occur regarding specific interactions in addition to the visual aspects of a design.

You can create Topics for each design in the prototype, and any project member can respond to your topics by leaving comments. To help facilitate team communication, topics and comments are automatically emailed to all project members who are subscribed to a topic. Topic owners can then mark comments as decisions, and resolve topics to prevent further discussion.

You can stop receiving collaboration notifications by deselecting the Send Collaboration Notifications check box in your user profile under Settings.

To create a Topic, follow these steps:

1. Select a page.
In the Review interface, open the Page menu and select a page, or use live navigation if it’s included in your designs.

2. Select a design.
By default, the active design is displayed for the selected page. If you want the topic to be associated with a different design, click the appropriate thumbnail in the Design menu.

3. Create the topic.

• Click the Add Topics button in the toolbar. This action places ProtoShare in “topic creation” mode.
• Click anywhere on the design to create a topic. The New Topic dialog opens. Specify the subject and (optionally) a message body. If you are a Developer you may also choose specific project members you wish to be subscribed to (or notified about) the topic. If you are a reviewer, all project members will be automatically subscribed to your Topic. Once you have saved your Topic detail, a new pushpin is created and the topic appears in the project Topics listing. Note that you can drag the pushpin to adjust its location on the design.

4. Return to interactive mode.
When you’re finished creating topics, press the Escape key to return to interactive mode.