Comments on: Help, we’re drowning in wireframing apps!

By: The rise and rise of Balsamiq « Simpler is better

The rise and rise of Balsamiq « Simpler is better — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:40:16 +0000

[...] wonder if this is just a reflection of the season, or whether the overwhelming number of free and paid for competitors with eat into their market [...]

By: Transparency – A Corporate Value | commadot.com

Transparency – A Corporate Value | commadot.com — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:11:38 +0000

[...] has plenty of copycats and competition. I plan on reviewing them at some point. However, a post like this helps customers to remain [...]

By: cicampemu

cicampemu — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:01:26 +0000

i´ve been mostly using Balsamiq and Axure but i´ve been asked to work with Justinmind prototyper! i reckon it´s by far the best prototyper: AJAx effects, database simulation and comments without a single line of coding… quick and powerful, great tool!

By: Balsamiq Company Blog

Balsamiq Company Blog — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:37:52 +0000

[...] My, it seemed that 2009 was the year of new wireframing tools. Someone even complained that we’re drowning in them! [...]

By: John Loy

John Loy — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:13:04 +0000

I’ve used Illustrator, Visio (during my PC days), Omnigraffle, and Protoshare mostly. Ultimately, I realized the technique/tool that was by far the most efficient and effective was straight-up HTML and CSS. A lot of the extra functionality one might like in a prototyping tool can be approximated with various drop-in javascripts like http://code.new-bamboo.co.uk/polypage/ for modeling states and http://www.protonotes.com or http://reframeit.com for annotation and discussion. Using basic HTML and CSS then also makes it trivial to use http://git-scm.com to version the progress and branch the alternatives as you go.

By: Sasha Kovaliov

Sasha Kovaliov — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:35:29 +0000

And guess what
We are done with the first part of the wireframing solutions list comparison. Hope to cover all of them in a week or two.
http://ciohappyhour.com/ultimate-wireframing-toolbox/

By: Pidico° – prototying and remote, moderated user testing – combined!- 90 Percent of Everything

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:24:10 +0000

[...] Above you can see the wireframing/prototyping tool. It’s pretty much as you’d expect if you’ve ever used Axure, Protoshare or any of the other similar tools out there at the moment (there were at least 32 last time I checked). [...]

By: Start with wireframes.

Start with wireframes. — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:29:09 +0000

[...] Help, we’re drowning in wireframing apps! (90percentofeverything.com) [...]

By: Fabrice

Fabrice — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:24:58 +0000

FWIW, I’ve been maintaining a list of tools too. See http://weblogs.asp.net/fmarguerie/archive/2009/02/15/gui-design-and-prototyping-tools.aspx

By: Harry Brignull

Harry Brignull — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:35:31 +0000

Vikas, I’ve added Simulify to the list, cheers.

By: vikas

vikas — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:42:03 +0000

hi all,

I agree that having sooo many tools in this market is really amazing. And yes the market force will lead so some of the products dying.

Just like Balsamiq with the pencil look and wiki way of defining the controls really started the trend, new ideas will make this more interesting.

Add another too http://www.Simulify.com into the browser based list.

Let the best win.

vikas

By: Wireframing & Rapid Prototyping Apps « Devmanic – Software Development Mania

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:25:18 +0000

[...] via Help, we’re drowning in wireframing apps!- 90 Percent of Everything. [...]

By: Harry Brignull

Harry Brignull — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:21:56 +0000

Leo – I agree, a “pure” feature comparison is a bit daft as more != better. But still, it would be nice to see…

By: Leon Barnard

Leon Barnard — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:04:32 +0000

I would be a bit wary of doing only a feature comparison. I think that Balsamiq was pretty revolutionary and started a wave of copycat mockup applications, many of which are trying to compete by adding features that Balsamiq doesn’t have (e.g. support for templates, lots of interactivity), but many of the Balsamiq-like applications are too complex and/or not very usable. Balsamiq has always been very grounded in simplicity and ease of use and I think this should be taken into consideration. I have tried some of the other applications on the list but stick with Balsamiq because it meets most of my needs and receives frequent updates. My advice for now – stick with the leader.

p.s. no, I don’t work for Balsamiq

By: Peldi

Peldi — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:39:39 +0000

Hi Tom, Peldi from Balsamiq. In case you read this and have time / are willing, I’d love to hear your gripes about Mockups: email me at peldi@balsamiq.com. One can’t please everyone, but it would be useful to us to know what offends some people so that we can get to the root of the issue and improve!

http://www.inspireux.com/2009/01/09/dont-design-for-everyone-its-impossible/

Thanks!
Peldi

By: Cristian Pascu

Cristian Pascu — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:31:25 +0000

The wireframing/prototyping tools market definitely got very crowded over the past couple of years. A big comparison table would be most welcome and I actually thought a creating one to share with people and help them take a good decision in choosing the right tool.

As a prototyping tool creator (http://www.flairbuilder.com) I actually had to try most of the ones I found out about and see what features they have. But I also think that the perspective of the professional users outthere is more important and relevant.

As for the large number tools available, I hope beside the fired up competition, innovation will also come up.

Cheers,
Cristian

By: DJ

DJ — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:27:09 +0000

To be contrary: tools don’t matter, as long as they sufficiently communicate to whoever you’re communicating to.

Me?
Once was PPT more or less 100% (hello Francois!)
Now: Talking to people (hit and miss) / Paper & pen (universal) / Axure (fiddly) / some Photoshop (fun but slow) / Balsamiq (hate it)

By: tom bery

tom bery — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:06:51 +0000

I’m using qmockup, it’s very simple and it’s very easy to get license for free recently.

http://www.quickmockup.com/get-free-quick-mockup.html

By: Ben Gilmore

Ben Gilmore — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:02:30 +0000

Dan Harrelson from Adaptive Path has been doing some work on the same thing…

http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2009/09/16/rapid-prototyping-tools-revisited/

By: Francois Jordaan

Francois Jordaan — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:07:36 +0000

Few people would’ve tried more than 2 or 3. Seriously, in a busy production environment and projects often lasting months, you don’t get much chance to just “try out” a new app. You need to get things done, straight away, and don’t want to risk wasting time on an inadequate app.

I used Powerpoint for a long time, which was adequate, but frustrating. I currently use Omnigraffle, which is generally a joy to use, but has 2 major shortcomings: (1) no dynamic interactions (only hyperlinks between pages), and (2) no re-usable objects.

The hallmark of a good wireframing app for me is the ability to work quickly and unconstrained. Your designs should not be influenced by the strengths or weaknesses of the app you’re using. Or as little as possible, anyway.