Three reasons why I like Balsamiq Mockups

"Do I need a reason to like a person ?"
"No need or ?"
"Do you need it ?"
-- Westward journey

For a small team with only three or five people, documents and other things can be saved in time. However, there are two documents that cannot be saved. Not only can we save the trouble, but we have to do our best to keep them updated. These two documents are: the database model created using Power Designer (or more advanced, domain model) and the interface prototype.
My favorite software is Balsamiq Mockups, a hand-drawn and lightweight software. I like it for the following reasons:
-Fast -- it allows me to draw the interface prototype as quickly as possible.
-Hand-drawn style-the interface drawn with it is a hand-painted style and cool.
-They are all ready-made-they have built-in frequently-used controls and icons, which are basically enough.

Fast

If it takes almost the same time to draw a page prototype as writing a page, I 'd better write the page directly. But lookMost interface prototype toolsFor example, if you want to add a Grid, they will require me to drag the Grid control to the page-> right-click and select Properties-> go to the "Columns" Tab page-> click "Add... "button-> name of the input column-> width of the input column (of course, you may not know exactly how many pixels are there. Who cares about you ?) -> OK. Well, this is just adding a column. Then, repeat the process for 10 times and add the column to it. In this case, it may be uncomfortable to find that the width of the Five columns is not suitable, but even worse, you find that it does not support dragging and dropping the column width with the mouse, you can only click N multiple times to find the column width attribute text box, modify the width pixel value, and then click N multiple times to "OK" to preview the effect ...... Other software is desperate for money.
If you drag a Grid in the Balsamiq Mockups ......

As shown in, you just need to write a piece of code with some Wiki style in one breath, and a Grid will do it.
Menus and trees are similar, as shown in.

However, if you need to draw a form consisting of N Multiple labels and TextBox, you still have to drag the control one by one to set the Label text, which is quite troublesome. However, since the Balsamiq Mockups file is in simple XML format, there are still some lazy methods to think about.

Hand-drawn style

What does the hand-drawn style look like "? Not very nice? On the contrary, in the prototype stage, hand-drawn style forces designers and customers to focus on the functions, layout, and interaction of the program, in this way, you will not hear the customer say "I don't like the color of this button ......". To ensure a full hand-drawn style, Balsamiq Mockups even provides an easy option for the Image control to convert the Image into a hand-drawn style, as shown in.

All are ready-made

Balsamiq Mockups is a very simple small software with few features. However, in terms of controls, it is a great effort to build in not only all commonly used controls, but also the attributes of each control are carefully designed, which is neither complex nor complex, it also covers the necessary functions, and the results are exquisite. The built-in icon library is also very good. No need to collect third-party control libraries everywhere, no need to install plug-ins, absolutely worry-free. Of course, from another point of view, this is also a disadvantage-when its control library cannot meet our needs, and it cannot be customized by itself, it can only be stunned.

Summary

The first task of usability design is to have a deep understanding of what users areHowAndWhy?Use your software. Otherwise, even if each function looks reasonable, rigorous, and powerful, it may drive users crazy.