Ask HN: What's your favorite UI Mockup tool? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite UI Mockup tool?

#21

Post by sixwing » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 7:49 PM UTC

in order of preference: 1. pen + paper 2. html + css 3. omnigraffle 4. photoshop

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite UI Mockup tool?

#22

Post by PCheese » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 7:50 PM UTC

Mockingbird - https://gomockingbird.com/

Maybe it's just because I love web apps done with Cappuccino.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite UI Mockup tool?

#23

Post by joshuabutner » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 7:53 PM UTC

Omnigraffle, Photoshop or paper. Although, seeing the templates created by Amir Khella (keynotopia.com) has made me want to try to use Fireworks a bit more for this.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite UI Mockup tool?

#24

Post by loungin » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 7:54 PM UTC

stevelosh wrote: post #10

A whiteboard, or Penultimate on the iPad if there's no whiteboard around.

Second for whiteboards. If I must get it into electronic form either take a picture or inkscape.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite UI Mockup tool?

#25

Post by aaronblohowiak » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 8:05 PM UTC

plainOldText wrote: post #19

knarf55 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

cool -- you actually create your entire wireframe in keynote?

Yes. I do everything in Keynote. Then I'll pick up the colors I need and start coding the CSS part. And when I need some photo editing, I use GIMP. Usually the mockups are better than the final product, because in Keynote 1. you can align everything so damn good 2. the font rendering looks awesome

Re:alignment, a CSS grid system can help!

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite UI Mockup tool?

#26

Post by pbreit » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 8:05 PM UTC

nolok wrote: post #9

Balsamiq

I like balsamiq specifically because it is rough. That eliminates a lot of the wasted time arguing about pixels.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite UI Mockup tool?

#27

Post by logicalmike » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 8:06 PM UTC

nolok wrote: post #9

Balsamiq

I'll second this. I've been a paid user for years now.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite UI Mockup tool?

#28

Post by naner » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 8:16 PM UTC

chime wrote: post #20

I love Pencil for Firefox. It's seriously underrated: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pencil/

Not available for Firefox 6.0

I do believe Firefox's frenetic update schedule just bit me in the ass.

EDIT There's a standalone version: http://pencil.evolus.vn/en-US/Downloads/Application.aspx

EDIT2 This add-on ("temporary branch") works with Firefox 4-6: http://code.google.com/p/pencil-ff4/

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite UI Mockup tool?

#29

Post by imusicmash2 » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 8:19 PM UTC

as a product manager, I use 2 tools for wireframes and flow design

Flairbuilder and OmniGraffle http://flairbuilder.com/ http://http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnigraffle/

The Flairbuilder developer is quite active and responsive about updates. I switched here from Balsamic because Flairbuilder allows for somewhat dynamic & functional mockups.

http://twitter.com/#!/flairbuilder

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite UI Mockup tool?

#30

Post by ExpiredLink » Sat, Aug 27, 2011, 8:20 PM UTC

plainOldText wrote: post #12

Keynote for Mac. I love the fact it's so easy to use. And sometimes the mockups look so good you'll want to "lick them", to quote Steve Jobs. :))

side note: good looking mockups are dangerous because many managers and stakeholders don't know the difference between mockup and real application. They think you're done.