Mockup Tiger helps you build wireframes, mockups and prototypes. It is the best web based Rapid prototyping application. Use it online or host it yourself, just like. Moqups is a streamlined and intuitive web app that helps you create and collaborate on wireframes, mockups, diagrams and prototypes - for any type of project. The Better Way to Wireframe Responsive Websites and Mobile Apps. FlairBuilder is a prototyping tool that lets you create interactive wireframes for websites and.

WireframeSketcher is a wireframing tool for creating wireframes, mockups and prototypes for desktop, web and mobile apps. It's a desktop app for Mac, Windows and. Flash Player 10 or higher required. Flash Player 10 or higher required. Ultimate Guide to Website Wireframing. Lost Secrets 4 November 1963 Kennedy. Most designers wireframe their designs in one way or another, even if it just involves them making quick sketches on the back.

Rapid, effective and fun wireframing software. Unleash Your Creativity! Balsamiq Mockups is a rapid wireframing tool that helps you Work Faster & Smarter. It reproduces the experience of sketching on a whiteboard, but using a computer. Making mockups is fast. You'll generate more ideas, so you can throw out the bad ones and discover the best solutions. Quick Add. Build a user interface at the speed of thought.

User Interface Library. Tons of UI elements. Just drag and drop!

IPlotz allows you to rapidly create clickable, navigable mockups and wireframes for prototyping websites and software applications. IRise combines the best prototyping tool with inline requirements management software - create wireframes and diagrams too. Integrate with tools like JIRA & TFS.

Wireframes are dead, long live rapid prototyping. Wireframes, your time is up. You’ve served your purpose. You’ve brought order where there was once chaos and provided gainful employment for thousands of UX designers, but I’m afraid now it’s time for you to go to the big recycling bin in the sky. You’re just no longer cut out for the cut and thrust of UX design and have been replaced by that young upstart called rapid prototyping. In this article I argue why you too should ditch wireframes and embrace rapid prototyping. What are wireframes?

In the same way that architectural drawings might outline what goes where for buildings, wireframes outline what goes where for a set of UI screens. Wireframes typically outline the components for a screen, together with any associated behaviours, such as what happens when a button is click and where a hyperlink should go. They don’t show exactly how a screen will appear, only how it will be composed and how it will behave.

For example: An example wireframe with footnotes. Wireframes are usually put together by a UX designer (or designers) prior to any visual design work and are typically constructed using diagramming tools such as Visio and Omnigraffle, or design and drawing tools such as In. Design and Fireworks. They typically form part of the functional specification for a system, outlining all the requirements for each screen, and as such are usually annotated (as is the case with the example above), often in excruciating detail. Why ditch wireframes?

So what’s so wrong with wireframes? Well wireframes themselves are not necessarily bad; it’s more the sort of design behaviour they encourage and the way they are often used (and abused) in projects. Here are some reasons why for the vast majority of projects wireframes should be consigned to the rubbish bin. Wireframes (which are static by nature) are not well suited to defining dynamic on- page interactions, such as expanding content, AJAX style reveals and animations.

As the boundaries between web and desktop applications become increasingly blurred and on- page interactions become more common place wireframes simply no longer cut the mustard. Wireframes are not very user friendly (which is kind of ironic for a UX design tool). Project stakeholders are often intimidated by what they perceive to be very technical documentation and find it difficult to understand exactly what wireframes are, and what they show.

Wireframes are typically very open to interpretation. Wireframes look like they’re very exacting and specific but because behaviours and interactions have to be described they are by nature very open to interpretation. One project stakeholder can read a wireframe very differently from another which can lead to confusion and misinterpretation. Wireframes can encourage the . Designers can spend ages meticulously creating, annotating and updating wireframes and then lob them over the fence for the development team to build; safe in the knowledge that everything is documented, so any dialogue can be avoided. Wireframes can be too prescriptive.

Many visual designers can feel that wireframes reduce their role to little more than a colouring in exercise; one of applying the necessary branding and look and feel for each screen rather than carrying out proper design work. Wireframes often add unnecessary drag to the design process and can encourage death by documentation (a particularly nasty way to go). Creating and annotating detailed wireframes takes considerable time and effort; time and effort that is usually better spent iterating and improving designs, rather than specifying them. Bypassing wireframes with rapid prototyping. If wireframes are so flawed what’s the alternative? Simple, the alternative is to bypass wireframes altogether and either go straight from sketch / outline designs to developing working code (in an Agile fashion), or as is more use common use a rapid prototyping tool to create a prototype. There are now loads of great rapid prototyping tools out there such as Axure (my own favourite), Balsamiq, Easy.

Prototype and i. Poltz. If you’ve got mad web design skills you can also always create a prototype directly in HTML and CSS. There are a number of advantages of rapid prototyping over wireframes including: Prototypes are a much better at communicating a design. It’s much easier to sit down with designers, developers, product owners and of course users to get feedback and to run through design ideas if everyone can see how things might work with their own eyes. Prototypes are more user friendly. Where as people are often scared off by wireframes everyone understands what a prototype is (just make it clear that prototypes are very different from the finished article).

Prototypes require less documentation as they are less open to interpretation and on- page interactions can be mocked up. If you do need to document your prototypes (hopefully with an emphasis on . It’s much easier to carry out usability testing with a prototype than a set of wireframes and to get lots of juicy feedback from users in general. Prototypes require less work. If you are careful to prototype . A classic mistake is to mock- up a design to the nth degree and then chuck this over the fence for the development team to build.

Prototypes can also be even more prescriptive than wireframes, so it’s just as easy for visual designers to get upset because they feel left out of the loop. This is why it’s so important to always prototype . Designers, developers, product owners and of course users should all be involved in creating, critiquing and evaluating prototypes.

This is why I’ve found it best to sketch designs before you even think about touching any prototyping tools. That’s great, but I still need a paper trail. If you absolutely must have wireframe like documentation you can still get by without wireframes because some rapid prototyping tools such as Axure will automatically spit out specification documentation for you. Granted what it spits out isn’t fantastic but it’s much easier than having to maintain a prototype and a separate set of wireframes. As a last resort you can also always screen grab pages using the excellent Screengrab!

Firefox plugin and create your own specification document. Adobe Flash Player 9 Free Download Chip Online Flash. On screen annotation tools such Protonotes and Web. Notes allow you to easily add comments to your prototype so there isn’t even a need to add footnotes to your screen grabs.

You can simply grab the pages with the comments shown, so you see, there really aren’t any excuses for not ditching those wireframes! More about rapid prototyping.