Update on Information Architecture Wireframe Tools
Earlier this week on the legendary mini-list, Mark Wagner asked about visualization tools. Thus reminding me an update to the MNteractive Wireframe post was in order.
I’ve gotten to know both NeoOffice/OpenOffice and ConceptDraw quite a bit in the past 6 months or so. Once ConceptDraw adds nested templates, it will be Visio for Mac. But it feels clunky and old, like they’re stuck in Mac OS 8.5.
The biggest benefit to NeoOffice/OpenOffice is it’s price tag….$0. For wireframes I’ve grown real fond of it. It’s somewhere between PowerPoint and an actual illustration tool. For wireframes, that’s exactly what I’m looking for. It feels a little sluggish now and again, but I’ve yet to find an app in this space that doesn’t.
Characteristics of the ideal wireframe development/prototyping tool (off the top of my head):
- Integration with a spreadsheet for lists
- Nested templates
- Template tags for date created, date updated, author name, project, client, version, page number, page name
- Palette of standard browser form elements
- Color palette limited to 5 colors; black, white, light gray, dark grey, hyperlink blue
- Export to PDF
- Multi-page find & replace
- Support for standard geometric shapes; squares, rectangles, circles
- Typeface palette limited to Arial, Arial bold, Arial italic
4 Comments
A while back I remember seeing a post for pre drawn web elements (buttons, menus, etc) All in illustrator format. Does anyone happen to know that link? Or of something similar?
I remember thinking that pre drawn objects would make programs like illustrator/freehand much more friendly for rapid prototypes
I was just talking with a co-worker this week about this, and we were scratching our heads wondering why theres not a ready to use tool for fast wireframing. We’re coming at it from the “we’re not designers, but we want to show what a screen could look like” school of thought. Visio’s working right now, but it should be so much easier.
Well, there’s the tool that I’ve been pimping out for a while now, Axure RP. It’s a wireframing and rapid prototyping tool. Imagine Visio, but with better defined and more functional shapes and (best of all) a button you can push to make a functional prototype (also a button for a Functional Spec document… also cool but not nearly as).
I’ve now used it on a few projects and it’s really made it possible for us to get some good feedback from users. This is especially true for highly functional sites. Version 4 is currently in Beta and it has some much needed improvements.
When doing things beyond basic wireframing (modeling interactions, for example), the interface can get a little clunky. But for someone who’s not a coder it’s still pretty quick. So it’s not perfect, but it is a highly useful tool for IAs.
I’m considering using Adobe Flex as a fast way of generating prototypes … it’s really easy to use. Also, Thermo will be out soon and that will allow Designers to generate Flex prototypes within a neat drag & drop, designer-friendly GUI. Will be worth looking into for wireframing also.