2 Tools I Enjoy Making Wireframes

After dozens of wireframed projects I found myself using only 2 tools, that I would like to share with you.

Tool number 1: Pencil Project http://pencil.evolus.vn/

http://pencil.evolus.vn/en-US/Handlers/PictureHandler.ashx?ResourceId=4be6736...

The only one reason why I put it as number 1, because it is free. Being free is a powerful argument, sometimes a deal breaker.

There are many people who complain about it, but it worked fine for me for a while. Yes, it is buggy, sometimes crashes (never lost any data though) and is not the nicest looking thing out there, but it does its job well. Pencil doesn’t have a native wrapper for Mac, yet, and you have to open it from the Firefox (which I am not using at all).

Tool number 2: Balsamiq Mockups http://balsamiq.com/

Well, they don’t deserve to my number 2, actually, because they are almost perfect. I hate Adobe Air wrap-up though, but it’s manageable. Everything else makes it an absolute winner. You will never buy anything better for $79, speaking about mockup editors and wireframing tools. (People who know me, know that I am really conservative about spending money for software, and I am very picky about whom to pay.)

5 Comments

Nov 23, 2010

Audra said...

Have you tried gomockingbird.com?

Nov 23, 2010

Olexandr Prokhorenko said...

Yes, I've tried Mockingbird also. I would say, it was "good enough" for me. I didn't like the pricing - as long as I'm considering paying money, I would prefer to pay them to Balsamiq. Speaking about free account, it didn't impress me much. I think that last time I tried it I run into some problems with saving or exporting the wireframe that I built, plus that scrolling bar on the left side was terrible. You can probably do better once you get used to it, but while you're learning - it's terrible. However, in general, I'd agree that this is a good mockup tool candidate, too.

Mar 10, 2011

gotiggr said...

Another interactive prototyping tool you might want to check out is Tiggr – http://gotiggr.com. With Tiggr you can create, share and preview Web and mobile HTML prototypes. The key is that you can create interactive HTML prototypes with navigation which you can view and test in any browser.

Jul 26, 2011

brinda said...

2 yrs of rigorous coding (evenings and weekends), using only php + mysql + html + javascript + jquery + lot of brains + lot of meditation + lot of patience + lot of love = Mockuptiger

Jul 26, 2011

brinda said...

Yet another wireframe clone! Here we proudly present the super clone of all mockup/wireframe applications - MockupTiger

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