Review of Balsamiq Mockups - cool tool for web design

One of the hardest things to do well as a web developer is to communicate clearly and effectively with other members of the team, clients and designers. Communicating information about the structure of a web page or the pages that comprise a web application can be a nightmare. Scraps of paper everywhere, endless Photoshop revisions that look like the finished item and a host of other annoyances.

All that is a thing of the past. I was recently introduced to Balsamiq Mockups by a colleague who was enthusing about it.


What is it?
Balsamic Mockups is a program that allows you to quickly draft, that is mockup, web pages and application interfaces. It is now possible to quickly and easily assemble a presentable understandable set of drafts in electronic form. 

The interface is very simple to use. The components you need are all dragged into place. A brilliant feature here is that you can use your own data and really customise the look and feel of the mocked up pages.

It's worth noting here that the look of the components you drop in are hand drawn, this is deliberate and really helps with the informal presentation of ideas. The clean lines of a Photoshopped mockup are easily taken for a completed idea when in fact you need the slightly rough look to assist in conveying the idea that this is mocked up and therefore can be changed.

The mockups can be moved around easily as images and saved files. or sit down with a series of UI testers and dynamically create new versions to compare later.

As a UI design tool this is so cool. You can create mockups to use in presentations
There is a desktop version and a web version so there is a great deal of flexibility there.

This is a brilliant tool no doubt about it. I recommend it to all who are doing any work in software development which requires a UI design.

Currently priced at US$79 which is under £40. This makes it a very affordable tool to have available. It's a real timesaver.