Adobe Illustrator hands down.
Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?
11–19 of 19 posts
Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?
#12A pen & paper mockup to start with...
Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?
#13A Moleskine pocket storyboard notebook & and pencil. Carried everywhere.
Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?
#14I was in your shoes couple of years ago and was researching for an application to do prototyping and storyboarding. I ran into an open source project called Denim coming out of University of Washington. I never got the chance to use it though. Good luck and here's the homepage is:
Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?
#15I was in your shoes couple of years ago and was researching for an application to do prototyping and storyboarding. I ran into an open source project called Denim coming out of University of Washington. I never got the chance to use it though. Good luck and here's the homepage is: http://dub.washington.edu:2007/projects/denim/
DENIM is quite cool. A bit quirky last time I used it, but really handy.
However, it seemed to get wonky with 10+ pages in a site.
Maybe that's changed.
Works really well with a tablet interface, though a plain mouse will work too.
Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?
#16it really depends on what you're trying to accomplish--
-- for wireframes, showing what info in what form, and information design sketches: omnigraffle, indesign
-- for full-on mockups, prototyping ui elements that need more polish, typography and overall design comps: photoshop/illustrator
-- for interactive prototyping, demonstrating an interaction paradigm: html/prototype/scriptaculous, dreamweaver's templated JS functions (MM_swapimg, etc), or a good-old-fashioned paper prototype/whiteboard
Your project will require one or more of these different fidelities of prototype, depending on what you have in mind.
Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?
#17Pen & 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.
Pen and paper? E-gads man!
Yes, of course wire-frame with _pencil_ and paper. I was specifically thinking of a tool that could show some design patterns -- typography, color schemes, use of white space, and then help put together a static page.
Just something as a calling card/vision tool, something to give an idea of what the user experience and benefits would be like with the completed product.
In a busy/crowded market, it seems to me that interface design is more important than ever.
Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?
#18On a Mac, you've got to use Omnigraffle. On a PC, consider Powerpoint or Visio. Photoshop is great in the right hands, but a huge waste of time unless you're a graphic designer.
Re: Ask YC: Best HTML Prototyper?
#19Pen & 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.
Spoken like a true programmer hehe :)
I have to disagree here as I think Photoshop for prototyping will save you days of time. Starting out coding is like saying, "I don't value the design; I want to skip that and just get the app ready." By doing it in Photoshop (or something similar) you can ignore the differences between browsers and ignore CSS, HTML, Javascript, etc and focus on the design. I've found that, if I use Photoshop, I'm able to complete the design and then focus on the code. Step 1: design. Step 2: code. If I try to start with the code, it's a back and forth, back and forth and the process takes me a lot longer and the design suffers greatly.
Photoshop is a design tool, not an HTML generator, in my opinion. You need an HTML editor to code it and it's probably best to code it by hand instead of using a generator. I use the Photoshop-generated HTML only as a last resort if I can't figure out how to hand-code it.