Review: Balsamic Mockups

After writing about prototyping GUIs with Powerpoint, I was contacted by Peldi, owner of Balsamiq.com, giving me a free license of his product Balsamic Mockups, to try and if I liked, write a review about it.

I've downloaded the application (made with Adobe AIR), and made a mockup of the Downloads section of the community.

 

Here is a screenshot of the interface took while I was finishing the mockup:

The app is quite intuitive to use, with toolbars and markers appearing when you select elements. Everything is drag&drop, then customize. All elements come with sample data that explains special tags or characters (for example, using "f " for closed folders and "F " for open ones in a folderview element).

Here it is the final result, and a real screenshot for quick comparison:

 

As you can see, it is quite similar, and I assure you didn't took more than 5 minutes to build it. Surely I could have played with sizes a bit more, but I wanted a "fast and dirt" prototype.

Prototyping with this tool is really fast and I'm surely going to use it for home projects.

Published 04 August 08 by Kartones
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Comments

05 August 08 by Pacman

# re: Review: Balsamic Mockups

Hi Kartones,

All those proptotyping tools are OK, but i think that they force you to think in a GUI traditional way, based on buttons, dropdowns, tabs, treeboxes (an other windows controls).

I'm not against all these controls but sometimes It would be better if we think how can we represent the interface or data   to make the app more usable instead of adapt our data to the common controls.

Anyway i've to recognize that the tool is quite impressive ( and it does not use common controls ;P)

05 August 08 by Kartones

# re: Review: Balsamic Mockups

Hi Pacman

Yes, of course. Your point not only is valid, it is a fantastic way of thinking and planning GUIs.

But depending on the project, you might be restricted to traditional look and feels, or it might be just a "quick and dirty" prototype with the desired functionality.

At work I've only designed the basic options and tabs for web forms. Final design (for example, if the menu will be placed at the left or under the header) it is not decided yet. I just wanted to clarify that navigation will be done via tabs, and what users will do in each tab/page.

For un-traditional prototypes probably we will probably have to rely on paper prototypes and/or pure drawings at least for a while :P

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

05 August 08 by Startup Marketing Advice from Balsamiq Studios | The Balsamiq Blog

# Startup Marketing Advice from Balsamiq Studios | The Balsamiq Blog

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17 April 09 by Cristian Pascu

# re: Review: Balsamic Mockups

Indeed, twisting to UI to fit in a certain technology or in what's cool in that technology is a serious mistake that developers sometimes do, or a inevitable trade-off that some projects have to live with.

Nevertheless, we should always be thinking about finding new, better solutions for improving our users experience. If it's harder for most of the users to grasp technology, it's definitely easier for software developers to their best in understanding user habits and needs for offering the best possible UX.

As for Balsamiq Mockups, a cool app, that's for sure! :-)

27 April 09 by Ryan B

# re: Review: Balsamic Mockups

Its a fair criticism to say that tools like this constrain the designer to use existing, conventional approaches like pulldown menus and folder views.  But most of the time, conforming to existing UI concepts makes an application more usable, not less.  In the big picture, UIs won't get better if we only use what we've already got.  But there is a majority of projects that are not about reinventing what a UI can be.  Projects like: "I have a bunch of articles I want to publish online, organized by topic, with search capabilities".  For projects like this, a prototyping tool like Basalmic is a great way to get ideas down fast.

28 November 09 by techbug's me2DAY

# 데꾸벅의 생각

Axure를 쓸것인지 Pencil (Firefox Plugin)을 쓸것인지.. fidelity가 높은걸 써야 할텐데.. 결정을 못내리겠네.. Balsamic은 너무 피델리티가 낮고.. 쩝..

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