Comments on: A Bit More Info on Balsamiq Mockups http://stuffthathappens.com/blog/2008/07/27/a-bit-more-info-on-balsamiq-mockups/ Technology and Geek Stuff by Eric Burke Thu, 04 Nov 2010 22:37:00 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Rich http://stuffthathappens.com/blog/2008/07/27/a-bit-more-info-on-balsamiq-mockups/comment-page-1/#comment-18306 Rich Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:27:32 +0000 http://stuffthathappens.com/blog/?p=521#comment-18306 I agree with Peldi about the rotated dialog boxes and so-on - while it might be nice for someone who knows about UI design (that's not me by the way!) to be able to rotate things arbitrarily, if you give that power to clients designing UIs through JIRA, you're going to start having to answer questions about why a rotated ListBox isn't possible, when Balsamiq Mockups let the client draw it in the first place. Perhaps there needs to be an 'Idiot Mode' which removes most rotate functionality - it could be integrated with the JIRA permissions system. I agree with Peldi about the rotated dialog boxes and so-on – while it might be nice for someone who knows about UI design (that’s not me by the way!) to be able to rotate things arbitrarily, if you give that power to clients designing UIs through JIRA, you’re going to start having to answer questions about why a rotated ListBox isn’t possible, when Balsamiq Mockups let the client draw it in the first place. Perhaps there needs to be an ‘Idiot Mode’ which removes most rotate functionality – it could be integrated with the JIRA permissions system.

]]> By: Peldi Guilizzoni http://stuffthathappens.com/blog/2008/07/27/a-bit-more-info-on-balsamiq-mockups/comment-page-1/#comment-18303 Peldi Guilizzoni Mon, 28 Jul 2008 05:54:04 +0000 http://stuffthathappens.com/blog/?p=521#comment-18303 Eric, thanks for the answers, and for taking the time to make the pictures (they really help my little brain) :) I understand the value of arrows and lines to help with marking up a Web/Software mockup, and I am planning on adding those. Shapes I still don't get though. Mockups is a UI wireframing / prototyping tool, and I don't want it to become a generic diagramming tool (though, as you say, I am pretty close). I do not want to add rotation exactly for this reason (I have never seen a GUI with tilted buttons, or at least not a good one!), and generic shapes fall in that same category in my mind. I only have rectangles because they are used often to group UI containers together in dialogs and such. Thanks for the Napkin link, I'll take a look, though I must admit I really like my wife's actual hand-drawings, which is what I use now. :) Once again thanks for taking the time to help me make Mockups as good as it can be! Peldi Eric, thanks for the answers, and for taking the time to make the pictures (they really help my little brain) :)

I understand the value of arrows and lines to help with marking up a Web/Software mockup, and I am planning on adding those.

Shapes I still don’t get though. Mockups is a UI wireframing / prototyping tool, and I don’t want it to become a generic diagramming tool (though, as you say, I am pretty close). I do not want to add rotation exactly for this reason (I have never seen a GUI with tilted buttons, or at least not a good one!), and generic shapes fall in that same category in my mind. I only have rectangles because they are used often to group UI containers together in dialogs and such.

Thanks for the Napkin link, I’ll take a look, though I must admit I really like my wife’s actual hand-drawings, which is what I use now. :)

Once again thanks for taking the time to help me make Mockups as good as it can be!

Peldi

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