I'm really bad at doing neat pencil sketches and handwriting. Balsamiq easily lets be draw something up on my computer that looks obviously like it's "hand drawn style" and make is clear both to me while creating wireframes and to everyone else when I shard them that it's not intended to be high fidelity. I intentionally use Comic Sans to emphasize that.
If I were better with a pencil, I'd do these in a notepad or on graph paper - and then share phone camera photos of them.
F<or anyone who's ever died a little bit inside when their PM/boss say "Those wireframes are perfect. lets just hand those off to the devs!", I _highly_ recommend using whatever tooling or personal restrictions that workj for you - to generate output that is clearly "interface ideas" instead of being misinterpreted as "finished UI/UX designs".
> Balsamiq easily lets be draw something up on my computer that looks obviously like it's "hand drawn style" and make is clear both to me while creating wireframes and to everyone else when I shard them that it's not intended to be high fidelity.
I thought this was the core value proposition of Balsamiq.
Using rough drawings is useful for user research. Users are less likely to criticize or suggest big changes if you present a polished design, even if it is just a mock up.
Spreadsheets (specifically Excel) are the most general-purpose end-user software I have ever seen. I saw people using it for art/painting. Someone used it for demonstrating graphics shaders and ray-tracing.
You can even play a flight simulator or doom in them.
Having seen that, in 2015 I began working on a UI drafting software for that kind of technical designers. We ended up getting rid of the layout thinking overhead while drafting. They call it Content-First Design.
If you'd like to try it it's free: https://uxtly.com
tracker1•10h ago
Note: not a fan of Balsamiq's current rent model... I bought a long time ago when it was < $100 for a regular license/download. Been a while since I used it.
stronglikedan•9h ago
Me too, which is a shame, since I've found nothing that beats it's simplicity and speed of idea-to-wireframe.
skydhash•9h ago