

Ask HN: Review our UI mockup tool, ScreenSketcher - dchest
http://www.codingrobots.com/screensketcher/

======
revorad
1\. Love the fast native desktop app feel.

2\. You cannot just say "any similarities with Balsamiq are probably not
intentional". Your mockups look identical. If you want to keep it that way,
then as rksprst suggested, compete directly and make it cheaper. Show the
comparison on your buy now page.

But you also say "As for pricing, I think it's the last differentiator
companies should think of...". Your software doesn't show that. What
differentiates you from your competitors? For your specific market i.e.
mockups, the look and feel is important. You can't afford to be a copycat
there. I'd say, go the opposite route to Balsamiq. Make it funky, make it
stand out. Charge more.

3\. Feature requests: Rotate objects. Export as PDF. Unlimited undo.

4\. Get rid of those annoying popups asking me to buy. If you want to sell,
then sell properly. Make a video, buy ads, market your product. Don't make the
user's life painful.

Your target market is developers. And the one word you don't want them to be
thinking when using your app is "SHAREWARE".

~~~
dchest
_I'd say, go the opposite route to Balsamiq. Make it funky, make it stand out.
Charge more._

I agree with you. For the first version our differentiator that it's a native
app, but not offering more features (or fewer, but targeted for specific
audience), is pretty weak, but it's just the beginning.

Thank you!

------
csomar
1\. Encourage your visitors to download the product, put more screen shots
that looks dynamic and interesting (may be a slide if you wish).

2\. Good size 1.3 MB

3\. product

\- I can only resize objects horizontally, the button should have a vertical
resize.

\- Why drag and drop to add the object when I have already selected it?

\- Let me chose a selected tab (you selected the first one)

\- I can zoom, that's good, but why doesn't it display percentages, how can I
know the real size?

\- Why shall I purchase the software, if when I click done (when exporting
images for examples), it does export it? I mean your trial version is broken,
hackers don't need to pirate your software!

Overall it's not bad, but why pay $60 for it, while I can get a 100 time
better software from Microsoft (design + web + encoder : expression suite) for
$150??

prices here
[http://www.microsoft.com/Expression/products/Purchase.aspx#P...](http://www.microsoft.com/Expression/products/Purchase.aspx#PageTop)

and product here
[http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/SketchFlow_Over...](http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/SketchFlow_Overview.aspx)

Considering the features and comparing it to sketch Flow: $9 or $12 are good.

------
dchest
We acquired this product a while ago from TwoDesk Software
(<http://www.twodesk.com/>), improved it, and releasing the new version today.
I know, we're going to a kind of established market (think Balsamiq), but we
just love native applications, and we think that making mockups is a good fit
for a native app, and there's a market for a native Windows tool.

It's written in Delphi, so it is fast and tiny (1.3 MB). Every mockup element
is drawn by code, so it scales well (you can resize and zoom in and out), and
there's "automagical" grouping: e.g. when you put a button inside a box, if
you move the box, the button will be moved as well.

What do you think about our prospects in this market? Any suggestions on the
app itself?

~~~
oscardelben
I can't try it because I don't have a windows machine, but I think you don't
have to worry too much about competition because as you said you love the
product you are building. Maybe you could play around with price instead, if
you are going to target regular users.

------
rksprst
Balsamiq seems to have more features that are important + being a native app
is not an advantage unless you are equal on all other fronts.

Besides for that it looks like a nice "copy" of balsamiq. Because your
products are so similar, I think the best way to drive customers is to make
your product significantly cheaper than balsamiq.

~~~
subbu
_being a native app is not an advantage unless you are equal on all other
fronts._

I disagree. Adobe Air apps can't be as fast as native apps. While using
Balsamiq (which is an Adobe Air app) I can feel the slowness. The mouse moves
slower. Also, scrolling is not smooth compared to native scrolling.

~~~
rksprst
I agree with you that native apps are usually better. But, I'd rather have a
slower adobe air app then a native app that is missing important features
(like ability to collaborate with co-workers regardless of platform).

------
uggedal
The artifacts created with this tools looks exactly like those created with
Balsamiq...

~~~
giu
And although there are tons of fonts you could choose to use, they've chosen
Comic Sans, which is also used by Balsamiq...

~~~
dchest
My fresh Windows XP installation doesn't have any fonts other than Comic Sans
that look similar to sketch style writing. What font would you suggest?

~~~
giu
I know of Dafont.com's Handwritten section. Maybe you'll make a find there:
<http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=603> . Although I don't know if the usage
of these fonts is restricted by a license.

It's nice that you listen and respond to such _light_ criticism. Please note:
No offense meant with my comment above :). It was just one of the first things
I noticed (next to the lines) that reminded me of Balsamiq. I hope you can
find an alternative font.

 _Update_ : You also can make your own handwritten font using
<http://www.yourfonts.com/>, bypassing license restrictions that come with
other fonts

~~~
dchest
This is a good suggestion. Unfortunately many handwritten fonts don't have
full Unicode versions, which is important for us. Maybe we'll consider buying
a license from some foundry, but they might cost too much for us at this time.

------
pistoriusp
I'm on a Mac, so I can't review your application. Most of the developers that
I know are on *nix/ OS X. We're in different circles; I'm sure you'll have
clients.

I don't really see why a person would want to use a desktop application
instead of a web based application like Balsamiq. I honestly believe that the
next step to improving Balsamiq would be to stop using Flash.

(Edited to provide more clarification than just: "I'm on a mac.")

~~~
thenduks
I don't have a single peer using Windows either. As a fellow escapee of the
windows world you may be interested in a (non-flash) alternative to balsamiq
called Mockingbird (<http://gomockingbird.com/>). It uses the Cappuccino
framework (so that's 'Objective-J') like 280slides -- that means you'll need
Firefox 3.6 or Chrome probably, but I know you're already on top of that :)

~~~
dzlobin
Seconding mockingbird, It's awesome.

------
maxklein
I like it. Nice website, native apps are fast. A suggestion: Allow different
widgets to be importable, so that I can do windows styles apps, mac style
apps, etc.

------
petervandijck
Awesome. I am an information architect and I've used almost every tool out
there. It's simple, and that's awesome. Needs some serious thought about what
NOT to include (as you'll get 1000s of feature requests). Love that it's fast
and installs fast. IF you can create an efficient way to share/discuss pages,
you are adding value that no other app in this market has nailed (afaik). Feel
free to ping me to discuss :)

------
cwilson
I've got a few issues:

1\. It's Windows only. I do not personally use Windows nor do I have a single
peer developer, designer, or project manager (the ones who would primarily be
using this for mockups) who uses Windows. It's all Mac in the web dev world
these days. A web app or a native Mac app would have been very nice here. As
it is I will never use your product.

2\. From what I do see, it looks exactly like a number of competitors.

3\. You're not doing anything to make this the mockup tool I would use over
other established mockup tools out there. Is your niche here that it's
Windows? If so... I don't really know what to say.

I'm really curious as to why there is this current trend of mockup tools being
created. Do we really need a dozen clones of each other out there? Why is no
one innovating in this space and just releasing just another carbon copy every
single time?

~~~
dchest
HN has a lot of developers who don't use Windows (me too, I'm a Mac developer,
in former life a Windows developer). However, it is not the case that most web
developers use Macs, and certainly not outside of US. But forget web
developers, how about Windows developers?

As for innovation, my opinion is that it doesn't come out of blue. Sit and
think about some innovative idea, then implement it? This doesn't work, or at
least, this doesn't work _for me_. What works for me is that I refine
something over and over again, and then, accidentally, there will be a thing
that people will call "innovative." As pg noted in one of the essays, a lot of
ideas come while writing an essay, not thinking of writing it. This is what we
are aiming for, and this is why we're releasing this version today, and not
sitting and thinking of what innovative things we can do. Innovation will come
with iteration. This is why I can assure you that we're not aiming to create
pointless clones, I hate them too. This is just the beginning.

Thanks for your feedback, which is very useful for us!

~~~
cwilson
I actually completely agree with your definition of innovation and that's
exactly how I think about it.

What I would ask you is, how have you guys innovated with your definition in
mind? When I said I saw no innovation I meant that I literally saw a carbon
copy of a dozen other products out there. Do you take in mind those other
products as part of that refinement cycle you mention? If so, how is yours the
next step in refinement and what has changed or become more streamlined?

I understand this may be your goal moving forward, but I still see it as a bit
silly to start at the same exact point as a dozen other startups and hope that
you'll somehow beat them in a race of iterating and in turn innovating.

Why should I use your product over theirs?

------
Sukotto
Looks nice. However, it looks _exactly_ like balsamiq. That being the case,
why should I buy the challenger (you) over the incumbent (them... with a track
record)?

I think it would be a good idea to make your app look different in an
interesting way.

nitpick: You spell "lunch" as "launch" in your screenshot.

~~~
0hoo
Hi, I'm a co-founder and developer of this application. Maybe I have an
obsession about "launching" for a while. (and I'm not English native too.)

Anyway thanks for your feedback.

------
petervandijck
Here's a thought: make the download free, add an online (simple!) sharing
service (to share with teams and annotate/comment, behind a simple password),
and charge a small subscription fee for that. Say 9$/month per team (unlimited
users), or a graded pricing (9$/m for up to 6 users, 49$/m unlimited
team/users) will get you the same price as the app in 7 months or less, and
more after that (depending on churn of course). Keep the download app free.
Then improve the app a little, but don't add lots of features. (DO add iPhone
stencils, and small UI improvements like editing inline instead of in a popup
box).

------
Sukotto
It's nice to see some competition in this space. Good luck guys.

------
dpcan
I purchased this program way back when you did the promotion post to the
Business of Software forum and I've been using it regularly ever since. It's
so much more responsive than Balsamiq and I absolutely LOVE it.

EDIT: I just read your blog post, and it looks like you took over this product
from the original creator of whom I purchased it from. I hope you allow us to
upgrade if you'll be maintaining it better.

~~~
dchest
Nice to see ScreenSketcher users here! I'll post details about upgrades
tomorrow.

------
NEPatriot
I would try to market this at the "idea" guys in order for them to make their
product more than a crazy idea.

The angle I see is: make it something they can put in front of developers who
they want to recruit as founders or design firms for estimate purposes. Plus
you can save money because the designer doesn't have to wireframe your stuff
from scratch.

------
markkanof
One little nitpick...is the screenshot on the main page supposed to be a joke.
"Launch at mario's" as opposed to "Lunch at mario's". Sorry if I'm just being
one of those guys that ruins the joke.

~~~
0hoo
Hi, I'm a co-founder and developer of this application. Maybe I have an
obsession about "launching" for a while. (and I'm not English native too.)

------
hakan
Somewhat off-topic question: what are you guys using for your forums? Did you
build it yourself or are you using a packaged solution? They're very nice.

~~~
dchest
It's bbPress (<http://bbpress.org/>).

~~~
hakan
Cool - thanks a lot!

------
DanBlake
What advantages does it have over mockflow.com ( collaborative web based
balsamiq competitor ) or even over balsamiq itself?

~~~
petervandijck
Mockflow is slower and too complicated. Balsamiq of course is awesome, but
competition is good in this space. It can still get a lot better.

------
guiseppecalzone
I'm a big fan of demo videos. I like to see something in action before I
download anything. That in the works?

