Balsamiq Mockups - Smart tool for those who wants to chill

Ok, here is how it started. I usually hit the whiteboard or the glass-board or even paper and pen to chalk down plans, ideas and visual elements that goes in any project module. I’m not smart enough to use the fancy tools that does things that makes you look smart.

I’ve heard about Balsamiq Mockups before but never tried it seriously. Today, I installed it and tried looking for the limitation of the trail, so I can decide if I should buy it or not. As I could not find it easily and quick enough (yes, I’m lazy too), I emailed Peldi asking him, “What are the limitations of the Balsamiq trial?”

Coupla hours later, I got this reply from Peldi;

Brajeshwar, your money is no good with me! :)

After all that you’ve done for the Flash/Flex/FMS community, the least I can do is send you a free license.

Ain’t that awesome. I’m feeling elated and happy – “Wow! Just like that.”

Balsamiq Mockups

Balsamiq Mockups from Balsamiq Studios LLC is a platform independent AIR application (Windows, Mac, Linux). This Mockup tool intentionally uses hand-drawn UI elements, so that people don’t get attached to “that pretty color gradient” or think that your mockup has actual code behind it and is “practically done”.

Using Balsamiq Mockups feels like you are drawing, but it’s digital, so you can tweak and rearrange controls easily, and the end result is much cleaner. Teams can come up with a design and iterate over it in real-time in the course of a meeting.

There are over 60 pre-built controls to choose from, you can design anything from a super-simple dialog box to a full-fledged application, from a simple website to a Rich Internet Application. Browse through the samples or download more Mockups.

Note: The limitation with the Trial was that it won’t let you save your files (but you can still export/import and save it manually).