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Review my Startup: jMockups - A Better Way to Web Design

jmockups.com

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Re: Review my Startup: jMockups - A Better Way to Web Design

#31

Post by thasmin »

My screenshot and canvas don't match, but I'm running Chrome. Same thing happens in Firefox, so it's probably the OS. I'm running Windows XP with two LCD monitors. ClearType was off so I turned it on, and that seems to have fixed it.

There's a bug when selecting items with a box when the cursor leaves the canvas. It would also be nice to set a new default font.

I was looking for a good web page mockup tool last weekend, but couldn't find one. I know HTML though and went with a good editor.

Re: Review my Startup: jMockups - A Better Way to Web Design

#32

Post by karanbhangui »

matt1 wrote: post #29
nickl wrote: post #28

If you’re using Internet Explorer, you need to switch to a different browser No

Internet Explorer (at least through v8) don't support the canvas tag, which jMockups is built on. Most web developers and designers don't use IE, so I don't think I'm giving up too much by not supporting it. Plus, you can share your mockups with anyone regardless of their browser so it shouldn't be an issue for most of the target audience.

Don't bother supporting older versions of IE. However, take a peek at this: http://code.google.com/chrome/chromeframe/

Edit: also, great job on the app. Branding could use some work (i.e. the name) but I think this is well beyond my expectations. I was about to pay for a balsamiq license today, but I'd rather have this. Any idea for license costs?

Re: Review my Startup: jMockups - A Better Way to Web Design

#33

Post by daleharvey »

daleharvey wrote: post #26
matt1 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting -- the canvas size shouldn't be fixed. There's a grip in the bottom right corner which should allow you to resize it. If it doesn't, let me know. Can you articulate why the selections don't feel nice? Gradients are possible and also on the todo list. Designing a clean UX to facilitate their creation is tough though. If only there was a tool I could use to experiment with different designs... As far as the…

oh sorry, I didnt notice the canvas resize, I think thats more along the problem I mentioned before, it feels like a website a little much, I expect my "canvas" to be centered and on a darker gray bg, as it would be in gimp / photoshop / inkscape / fireworks etc. the selection is harder to explain, the canvas can quite busy and its not very easy to know exactly what is selected, the combination with the floating dial…

also, whats with the weird feature detection for canvas, why not just send people straight to the demo and use standard canvas detection methods, it can bail out with a message if canvas isnt there.

I almost failed the test because the canvas text didnt render the same

Re: Review my Startup: jMockups - A Better Way to Web Design

#34

Post by shadchnev »

I stumbled upon this when I about to draw a wireframe for a new project on paper, so I decided to give it a try. Here's my comments, as I'm creating the mockup:

- it's usable. Probably easier than Photohshop to throw together something quick and simple

- There's no way it's going to replace Photoshop anytime soon since I need a many more tools to get a real design done but it works for mockups.

- I don't get why the height is limited. My canvas is very wide (24 inch display) but only about 50% of the available space. Already found out from the comments how to resize

- it's hard to position elements exactly: it behaves differently from Photoshop near the guiding lines, which takes time to adjust to

- can't do ctrl-c, ctrl-v to duplicate objects. Again, it's a pattern I'm used to

- when the number of objects becomes large and overlapping, the list of layers will be useful probably. Or, I'll move to photoshop for anything complicated anyway

- when I hold the shift key down, I expect the element to move much quicker (I guess Photoshop does it this way)

- I cannot make only part of the text underlined. If I have a piece of text with some links in it, I'm forced to create individual elements for all links

Re: Review my Startup: jMockups - A Better Way to Web Design

#36

Post by matt1 »

thasmin wrote: post #31

My screenshot and canvas don't match, but I'm running Chrome. Same thing happens in Firefox, so it's probably the OS. I'm running Windows XP with two LCD monitors. ClearType was off so I turned it on, and that seems to have fixed it. There's a bug when selecting items with a box when the cursor leaves the canvas. It would also be nice to set a new default font. I was looking for a good web page mockup tool last weeke…

Can you email me? (You don't have an email in your profile.) matt@jmockups.com

I'd like to get more information.

Re: Review my Startup: jMockups - A Better Way to Web Design

#37

Post by djbriane »

I think its a good idea, there is definitely room for a mock-up / wireframing tool that exists outside of Photoshop or other desktop apps. Unfortunately for you there are several other options on the market right now that (so far) are much better. For example, Balsamiq mock-ups has a web based product that has most of the capabilities of your product with a more polished design (granted its Flash based but not sure thats a differentiator).

I do like the fact that you are doing it in HTML5, and your browser test is pretty ingenious (although would be nice if it wasn't necessary through browser detection).

Keep it up, always room for a better tool for designing!

Re: Review my Startup: jMockups - A Better Way to Web Design

#38

Post by matt1 »

shadchnev wrote: post #34

I stumbled upon this when I about to draw a wireframe for a new project on paper, so I decided to give it a try. Here's my comments, as I'm creating the mockup: - it's usable. Probably easier than Photohshop to throw together something quick and simple - There's no way it's going to replace Photoshop anytime soon since I need a many more tools to get a real design done but it works for mockups. - I don't get why the…

Your comment on the width is well-received. I doubt many people are going to use this to create a mockup wider than 960px, so when I implement the grid I think I'm going to limit its width. I'd appreciate everyone's thoughts on this.

Ctrl C/V : Will do.

Re layers: Can you give me an example (share your mockup link) where that would be useful? I worry that it would complicate things more than they need to be.

Can you elaborate on the shift key? How does that work?

Eventually I'd like to implement a rich text feature where you can format the text however you want. Currently, as you noted, an element's font applies to all the text within it.

Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming.

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