August 1, 2009
I spent some time recently looking at GUI mock up and associated requirements management applications. I grouped the tools into three categories: general purpose tools that could be used for mock ups, specialized tools oriented towards mock-ups and simulation, and hosted services for mock-ups and collaboration with teams and customers.
My research so far has identified the following -
General Tools for GUI Mock Ups
- http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio
- http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/
Specialized Tools for GUI Mock Ups
- http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups/desktop
- http://www.evolus.vn/Pencil/Home.html
- http://www.axure.com/
- http://www.mockupscreens.com/
- http://www.irise.com
- http://www.foreui.com
- http://www.carettasoftware.com
- http://www.mockflow.com
- http://mockupscreens.com
- http://wireframesketcher.com/
- http://www.flairbuilder.com/
- http://www.designervista.com/
- http://dub.washington.edu:2007/denim/
- http://www.extremeplanner.com/easyprototype/
- http://napkinlaf.sourceforge.net/
- http://www.elegancetech.com/
- http://www.smartdraw.com/examples/gui/
- http://www.serena.com/products/prototype-composer/index.html
- http://www.simulify.com/
The feedback from several people who have used a variety mock up and simulation tools seem to favor the more general-purpose tools such as Visio and Omnigraffle for general GUI mock ups.
Relative to requirements management, I have never been a big fan of specialized tools (and there are a lot of them on the market, many with big price-tags) and have tended to favor tools such as MS Word, FreeMind mind mapping, Excel and powerpoint as means to capture, analyze and organize requirements.
Still some more research to do, so if anyone has any suggestions based on their experiences please let me know!
UPDATE:
HELLO THERE!
Are you an experienced User Experience designer? Drop me a line (brian@purpleforge.com) – we are always on the look-out for good people to work with on new projects at Purple Forge.
Like Zombies? Take a look at this!
Some others to look at, Pencil ( http://pencil.evolus.vn/en-US/Downloads/Application.aspx ), FluidIA ( http://www.fluidia.org/ ), Cacoo ( http://cacoo.com/ ), Mockingbird ( https://gomockingbird.com/ ), QMockup ( http://www.quickmockup.com/ ), Designer Vista ( http://designervista.com/ ). While I don’t have any specific recommendations on these at this time, as I’m evaluating options in this area myself, they have all been worth reviewing in order to see the full feature scope available in the industry.
The key benefit of the general purpose applications is just that, you can prototype for everything from web applications, to desktop applications, to mobile applications – allowing for greater flexibility with your target markets.
p.s. You have mockupscreens listed twice.