Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?

#1

Post by DanielBMarkham » Thu, May 15, 2008, 11:27 PM UTC

So I have a new startup idea, and instead of looking at the technical details (which I always can work out anyway) I thought I would start looking at the User Interface. What's the best HTML prototyping tool?

Some people say Adobe Photoshop, but I don't understand how a painting and image tool would be useful. Also note that I am _not_ talking about development environments! I simply want the best tool -- easiest to use and full of great graphics design ideas -- to markup a dummy HTML page.

Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?

#2

Post by picnichouse » Thu, May 15, 2008, 11:33 PM UTC

I love Axure for prototyping. I'm a mac user and it's windows only, and it's the only reason I have VMWare installed. Once you get it set up properly, the fact that it's running in windows doesn't even get in the way.

Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?

#3

Post by mixmax » Thu, May 15, 2008, 11:35 PM UTC

notepad and a knowledge of html and css

Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?

#4

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 15, 2008, 11:38 PM UTC

mixmax wrote: post #3

notepad and a knowledge of html and css

[deleted]

Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?

#5

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 15, 2008, 11:43 PM UTC

mixmax wrote: post #3

notepad and a knowledge of html and css

[deleted]

Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?

#6

Post by danlester » Thu, May 15, 2008, 11:43 PM UTC

I've actually found Excel very useful for knocking-up a site layout enough to get a designer onto it...

For getting something graphical, I've used SiteSpinner. It gives PowerPoint-style WYSIWYG editing, and produces pretty good HTML code. The pages look exactly like they did when you drew the page. Cheap but has a lot of design functions.

Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?

#7

Post by mathoda » Thu, May 15, 2008, 11:50 PM UTC

i use adobe fireworks for drawing ideas out of my head and textmate text editor to actually code the page

Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?

#8

Post by mattlarge » Fri, May 16, 2008, 12:07 AM UTC

I normally draw a prototype in Inkscape using layers to show different states of a site.

Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?

#9

Post by daragh » Fri, May 16, 2008, 12:16 AM UTC

Pen & paper for rapid prototyping, then start mocking up with actual code.

This isn't 1999, you'll save yourself a lot of trouble than messing around with Photoshop layers.

If you actually begin coding well from the ground up the application of design will be far more natural and agile than if you were trying to slice up a psd.

Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?

#10

Post by benn » Fri, May 16, 2008, 12:27 AM UTC

Me. I'm the fastest html prototyper. ;)

Pen and paper then textmate i reckon.