[deleted]
A wireframe kit for Google Drawings and 4 reasons it beats Omnigraffle and Visio
11–20 of 23 posts
Re: A wireframe kit for Google Drawings and 4 reasons it beats Omnigraffle and Visio
#12I see five reasons, and they are all advantages of being cloud-based, rather than a desktop application. There isn't much about drawing itself.
Re: A wireframe kit for Google Drawings and 4 reasons it beats Omnigraffle and Visio
#13I use paper and pencil for my mockups. They've got the unique property of not making you think about details, but allowing you to put them in at any level. You don't need any skill either. It works even if your drawings consist of lopsided rectangles.
> They've got the unique property of not making you think about details
Paper and pen is good too, but it makes me think about details like:
* Whether a line is straight
* Whether my writing is legible
* Whether my writing fits in the container
etc. I don't have to think about these when using a drawing app. Also I can send my render to an XML slicing service. On the other hand, connections are much easier to draw on paper.
Re: A wireframe kit for Google Drawings and 4 reasons it beats Omnigraffle and Visio
#14Um....can anyone tell me how to use these? Do I have to slice them up?
Re: A wireframe kit for Google Drawings and 4 reasons it beats Omnigraffle and Visio
#15Um....can anyone tell me how to use these? Do I have to slice them up?
Just copy them using File -> Copy
Re: A wireframe kit for Google Drawings and 4 reasons it beats Omnigraffle and Visio
#16Omnigraffle is a lot better than this for really making pretty diagrams, because it's connection aware and can do graph layout. Also, if you learn the Keyboard Shortcuts you can be really fast. It's one of the few applications I use as much as emacs, and it's worth learning.
People in this thread have been saying pen and paper, but it's (obviously) a pain to scan a bunch of pen/paper sheets for search later or remote collaboration.
FWIW, a new solution I've been using with some success just over the past few days is Penultimate, a really simple/nice IPad notebook app -- as distinct from a sketching app.
http://ipad.maccreate.com/2010/04/16/penultimate-ipad-app/
Use that with a $15 Pogo Sketch (you can get it in the Apple Store) and a $11 pair of fingerless cloth gloves from Hot Topic (http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/Accessories/GlovesArmwarmer...)
The gloves are really handy as they turn off palm detection, so you can rest your hand on the Ipad surface while you use the stylus, just like a normal sheet of paper.
Re: A wireframe kit for Google Drawings and 4 reasons it beats Omnigraffle and Visio
#17The only "advantages" here have nothing to do with wireframing, they're just the advantages of any hosted service. When it comes down to it, Omnigraffle is better than Drawings for doing wireframes, because that's what it's meant to do.
On the other hand, how about http://www.gomockingbird.com?
Re: A wireframe kit for Google Drawings and 4 reasons it beats Omnigraffle and Visio
#18Nice. Just the other day I was contemplating the use of a specialized webapp that allows me to easily create mockups of new user-interface designs. However, Google Drawings now seems extensive enough to be able to fulfill most of my needs with regard to UI prototyping. I believe I read about Balsamiq on HN a while ago; it must be tough for a small company to operate in an area that intersects with areas google might…
I think Balsamiq saw this coming, in the past two months or so they've been publicly progressing with their development. Templates with inheritance, online saving, and components (so you can say design the footer and headers for several pages and have them be the same element reused.) are all on their way.
My point is, even if you're now competing with a team from Google, you're not over and out yet.
Re: A wireframe kit for Google Drawings and 4 reasons it beats Omnigraffle and Visio
#19Google Drawings have a long way to go. First, they need to add the ability to "connect" lines. This is a very basic ability and I was astonished when I discovered it was missing. Then they need to add some REAL way to make stencils and reuse them. Stencil gallery anyone?
Re: A wireframe kit for Google Drawings and 4 reasons it beats Omnigraffle and Visio
#20Nice. Just the other day I was contemplating the use of a specialized webapp that allows me to easily create mockups of new user-interface designs. However, Google Drawings now seems extensive enough to be able to fulfill most of my needs with regard to UI prototyping. I believe I read about Balsamiq on HN a while ago; it must be tough for a small company to operate in an area that intersects with areas google might…
* it must be tough for a small company to operate in an area that intersects with areas google might be(come) active in*
That's getting to be more and more of us.