

Ask HN: what tools do you use for UI mockups? - offdrey

I am currently trying to choose a product for making UI prototypes. So far I've found these : Balsamiq, FlairBuilder, Moqups, JustInMind, Axure RP. So I was wonderng if anyone had any experience with them or other ones?
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userium
I have used Mockingbird (<https://gomockingbird.com/>) and Balsamiq
(<http://www.balsamiq.com/>) in the past. Currently I like to use Omnigraffle
pro (<http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnigraffle/>).

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mrgreenfur
I use and adore Omnigraffle. It is hands down the best diagraming software
I've ever seen.

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chris_mahan
Pen and paper. If I need to have an electronic version, I take a picture with
my 8 megapixels phone camera and I email it.

It's the fastest tool, but it does require knowing how to draw straight lines.

It also leaves management under no illusion that the thing is "almost done".

I work at a company in the top 15 of the Fortune 500.

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aespinoza
I agree to a certain extent. I still use my notebook to create mock ups, but
nothing beats balsamiq's demo-ability. The fact that you can take a mock up
and make it interactive, and show the real flow is amazing. I have taken our
mock ups done in balsamiq to design meetings, and it makes it extremely easy.

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chris_mahan
The thing I like about pen and paper is that I can go hang at the local coffee
house or library or park, and not have to worry about wifi. Also, a guy
scribbling in a book isn't as stared-unwelcomingly as a guy with a laptop.

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aespinoza
Definitely, if Wifi is a problem, then a notebook or whiteboard is fine. Most
of the time, when I have demoed wifi isn't a problem :D

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michaelbuddy
Axure is a good tool. Really easy to get up to speed and small niceties that
keep things quickly moving. I like it better than the Free 'Pencil' software
because you can mockup dropdowns really easy. You can also change the fidelity
of the mockup so it looks like hand drawn. Seems gimmicky but people sometimes
need it to be hammered into them that it's a wireframe.

When you export, you can export to a working clickable mockup with notes and
things on it. I've felt pretty darn productive with Axure and that's why I
recommend it.

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michaelbuddy
If you work on Windows and want something with full vector graphic drawing,
take a look at Xara Designer Pro or Xara Web Designer Premium. You'll have
drawing capabilities like with Illustrator, but it's faster and you can assign
things as buttons and mockup working websites.

You can make working dropdown menus too.

It produces a lot of absolute positioned css code, so it's not integrated with
any web framework but does render pixel perfect.

I'm not sure how it would handle a responsive site, probably not, but you
could quickly mockup the mobile version though.

You might also look at Corel Draw too.

If you want free, again Pencil, Inkscape or try the Google Draw templates -
[http://mortenjust.com/2010/04/19/a-wireframe-kit-for-
google-...](http://mortenjust.com/2010/04/19/a-wireframe-kit-for-google-
drawings/)

another recommend for draw.io and also look the maqueta software -
[http://maqetta.org/news/2011/ibm-contributes-maqetta-
html5-v...](http://maqetta.org/news/2011/ibm-contributes-maqetta-html5-visual-
authoring-tools-to-open-source-community.html)

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aespinoza
I used Visio for the longest time. This year though, I began using balsamiq
(<http://www.balsamiq.com/>) and I am extremely happy with it.

I have also seen Jetstrap (<https://www.jetstrap.com/>) and it looks very cool
but haven't tried it myself.

[EDIT] Fixed Typo.

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inokon
Hi, I have been looking at fluidui which is purported to be faster than paper
for web apps. I like it because you the UI is drag and drop. You can zoomout
and just make a thumbnail view or zoom in and detail each page. I like
invisionapp for stiching together your paper or illustrator sketches with
hotspots and an easy to email url that invites you to bookmark the app. I
bought Balsalmiq because it was so dang satisfying but I find my workflow is
not awesome because I can't play with it easily on my phone.

Right now I just bought a $4 pad of news print from BLICK. It's cheap and I
can use it on the airplane which is where I'll be tomorrow. HTH!

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thdn
Take a look at <http://pencil.evolus.vn> , it can run as an standalone .exe
and also as a firefox extension.

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gee_totes
Totally recommend <https://www.draw.io> if you're on Google Apps. Syncs with
Drive, has a ton of cool elements, and all elements are super customizable if
you know a little code. Also the developer is very responsive -- I've
submitted bugs and feature requests and they've gotten back to me right away.

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rbargagli
We use InvisionApp (<http://www.invisionapp.com/>)

You transform designs into beautiful, interactive web & mobile mockups and you
can receive feedback and collaboration in real time inside the mockups

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kurotek
If you are on a mac, I'd suggest checking out <http://keynotekungfu.com/>

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bitlather1
I like Balsamiq because it's easy to work with and the jagged edges boldly
state "I am a prototype, not the final product"

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monkeymajiks
Keynote and keynotopia is a winning combination. It's super quick and can
output to a vast number of formats.

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bwh2
Whiteboards and a camera phone for sketching; HTML+CSS+JS (Foundation or
Bootstrap) for clickable prototypes.

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offdrey
Thank you everyone for the feedback. So far I really enjoyed using balsamiq. I
like how simple it is.

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ereckers
I use Balsamiq (which is great and I would highly recommend) as well as a
simple yellow Tops notepad.

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professorTuring
I use the well known InkScape <http://inkscape.org>

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codegeek
also check out <http://easel.io>

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palidanx
<http://www.cacoo.com>

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meerita
Adobe Illustrator all the way.

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ajaxguy
new kid on the block : webflow.com I haven't tried this yet.

