Creating Wireframes 0

Wireframes are an effective way to communicate intended design to your business stakeholders.  They are invaluable because they allow your users to decide if the application will be useful and usable in the way they need it to be, without developing the entire application.  Developers love this because it helps to avoid scope creep, and it helps to produce an application even the most insatiable users will enjoy.

As a developer, I try to throw design concerns over the wall to a UI or usability specialist.  I often find myself needing to prepare a quick set of screen mockups or wireframes anyways by drawing one up on a piece of paper or a whiteboard.  I haven't convinced myself to use any of the software that's available to me because of price, or because of the lack of usability (yes, wireframe software can lack even common sense usability).

I've recently evaluated a few different wireframe technologies, including the Pencil plugin for Firefox, Axure RP Pro, and WireframeSketcher.

As someone who develops in the open source community, I'm used to getting free tools.  As a developer working for the enterprise, I'm used to getting the best tools paid for by my employers.  Of course, I'm always asked to look at evaluating each tool to see where the best cost/benefit can be acheived.

The Firefox plugin called Pencil is a nice little tool with plenty of features out of the box.  They even include a standalone version of the application to install on either Windows or Linux.  If you can't convince anyone to pay for anything for you, and you don't have the money to fork out for a nicer tool, you can make-do with this one.

WireframeSketcher is a full-featured Eclipse plugin.  I love it because I'm a huge fan of Eclipse, and I always try to avoid leaving my IDE.  The tool provides a lot of modern UI components for use in your mockups, including a Lorem Ipsum text section component, breadcrumbs, tabs, as well as the common UI mockup components you would expect from such a tool.  And at $75 for a single license, it's not going to break the bank for an individual looking to buy a tool for their personal and professional use.

Finally, Axure is a standalone wireframing tool, with plenty of other features I wasn't really interested in using.  The tool was very straightforward to use, has some nice UI components, and some nice export features.  But, at $589 a license, I was disenchanted very quickly.

My vote goes completely towards WireframeSketcher.  I will always use this tool personally and profesionally, and recommend anyone looking for this type of tool use it.  Take the WireframeSketcher tour here:  http://wireframesketcher.com/tour.html