Wireframing Tools | The Coffeehouse

zhuo

Just wondering if anyone know of any good wireframing tools? Visio, word, PPT are just terrible for wireframing. So time consuming and hard to change.

Any suggestion is much appreciated.

Minh
WOOH! WOOH!

Assuming you mean "prototyping" -- why not just use the Visual C# / VB ... themselves. It's pretty quick to put together mock screens w/ them.

zhuo

Minh wrote:
Assuming you mean "prototyping" -- why not just use the Visual C# / VB ... themselves. It's pretty quick to put together mock screens w/ them.

It's for preparing functional specifications, so not quite prototyping, in fact it's more for functional proposals that I prepare to try to get contracts signed. I guess I can put in the extra effort of making the wireframes using Visual Studio but no body's going to pay me for it so I try to keep this stage as short as possible.

netlife
Orange head

In reply to zhuo

#Sep 12th, 2006 @ 7:13 PM

I would suggest demo'ing either the Pencil Project (firefox plugin) or Axure. We have often used Visio in the past but we now find it a bit heavy and too far removed from the web, not easy moving from visio wireframes to clickable prototypes Smiley

~ brad
website design

littleguru
<3 Seattle

In reply to zhuo

#Sep 12th, 2006 @ 7:13 PM

I used Word to do it... you are quite fast with it... Rectangle for the win.

PaoloM
Hypermediocrity

In reply to littleguru

#Aug 24th, 2008 @ 8:35 PM

PowerPoint FTW.

Create a library of often used tools and use that as a template for a new presentation.

JoshRoss
A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent.

In reply to littleguru

#Aug 24th, 2008 @ 8:35 PM

<trolling>And Microsoft made you a PM?</trolling> I can see clippy popping up and tell you that it looks like your are trying to prototype an application. And then it would go on about how you're using the wrong tool for the job and maybe you should be writing a term paper or something instead.

In all seriousness, I would try sketching out some ideas on paper first. There was a good write up on this at simple-talk.com, its a site by some of the red-gate software folks. Here is the link: http://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/.net-tools/software-tool-design-design-by-sketching/

littleguru
<3 Seattle

In reply to JoshRoss

#Aug 26th, 2008 @ 7:35 PM

Well... I didn't say I don't do it on paper first Wink or whiteboard. But in the end it needs to be in a more formal form and I like the rectangle tool in Word a lot Wink

Peter JPteam
justproto - prototype your wolrd!

In reply to littleguru

#Aug 26th, 2008 @ 7:52 PM

Pen and paper are fine but wireframing apps make your life 100X easier, mockups are interactive, you can click through them and changing a drawing is a snapshot which can't be said about pan and paper technique

Hey Why don't you try our tool?

http://justproto.com There's a 30days trail (without credit card etc.)

it's browser based, easy to use, fast, reliable and has multiuser real-time collaboration

I hope you will like it and your feedback is always appreciated!

Duncanma
Just Coding for Fun...

I thought this tool (Balsamiq) looked pretty nice ... if you want to go all serious with your sketching, and can't wait for SketchFlow

Koogle
I'm a Terminator - Astalavista, Vis7a!

In reply to Peter JPteam

#Jun 4th @ 1:00 PM

video demo &/or more screenshots etc to show more of what your tool is capable of doing ..helps (anymore prototype elements?) .. 30day trial with signup form can't be a big hit tbh... I've already watched the Balsmiq video demo and now testing it out (5minute demo messages)- no signup form Smiley

"and can't wait for SketchFlow"

...nope not really

TommyCarlier
I want my scalps!

In reply to Duncanma

#Jun 4th @ 2:18 PM

Duncan, I also like Balsamiq. It's simple but has enough power to quickly design a UI. Here's one I quickly created a while ago to demonstrate something on C9:

blowdart
Peek-a-boo

In reply to Duncanma

#Jun 4th @ 2:18 PM

My problem with Balsamiq is it's flash. Why is that a problem? I keep right clicking on things. Oops.

Peter JPteam
justproto - prototype your wolrd!

In reply to Koogle

#Jun 4th @ 4:55 PM

yes we are working on video,

and would you try it if there was no registration required at all (just and open demo)?

I saw sketchflow in early preview and looks really nice actually i like to direction MS is going with GUI on its new products (zune is gr8, Win7 is quite impressing to)

Koogle
I'm a Terminator - Astalavista, Vis7a!

In reply to Peter JPteam

#Jun 5th @ 1:38 AM

yeah.. and they should have a way of drag&dropping an object back to the toolbar to delete it.

"yes we are working on video,

and would you try it if there was no registration required at all (just and open demo)?"

kool.. and yes I would

Peter JPteam
justproto - prototype your wolrd!

In reply to Koogle

#Jun 5th @ 3:02 AM

as for drag'n'drop into toolbar, hmm have to consider it i thought pressing DEL is convinient enough but i'll let the dev team know

wenintheus

You mentioned that the tools you use are hard to change. There's a tool out there called OverSite (www.taubler.com/oversite) that I've been using for years now. It's not only easy to create wireframes with it, but maintaining and modifying your wireframes is really easy.