home |
site map |
This month I looked at a card sorting tool, a diagramming
and wireframing tool, and a rapid prototyping tool.
Here are my thoughts:
Balsamiq | ||
description | ||
|
|
|
1. What is the function of the tool?
Balsamiq is a web site sketchup and wireframing tool, known as a
rapid prototyping tool, which differentiates it from other kinds of prototyping
tools which have more features and have much more functionality but also require
a greater time investment. This evaluation is of the ‘Mockups’ free seven-day
trial.
2. What is the scope of the tool – how
many participants/users etc.?
Balsamiq works with Windows, Mac and Linux as a desktop tool via
Adobe Air, and can also work as a plugin, for example, for Wikis, such as
Confluence (see video ‘Intro to Balsamiq mockups’ at Balsamiq Studios, LLC
(2012a)). It is essentially for one
user login.
3. At what stage in the IA process
would you use it?
Although Mockups is described on the Balsamiq site as aimed at ‘the
early stage of designing a new interface’ (Balsamiq, LLC 2012b), in the overall
arc of development, it would be best used in the later stages of information
organisation for a web page, after content and labelling issues are largely in
the process of being solved, and the team is working through how the elements
will be composed on an actual web page and subsequently throughout the site, and
on navigating and wayfinding.
4. What are the practical applications
and in what settings?
The company is emphatic in pointing out that the beauty of Balsamiq Mockups is that it remains a static sketching tool, rather than a full prototyping tool, such as Axure RP (see Axure Software Solutions (2002-2012). The argument is that while full prototypes can be very close to the real finished product, they are also time-consuming to create, invested with much more care and work, and are harder to change (see the Balsamic Studios Manifesto (2012b) and also the statement on the Balsamic UX blog (2012c) regarding this). Along this line of thinking, the reasons that Balsamiq Mockups is not an interactive tool are also given in the two above explanations. Balsamiq also state that use of Mockups should end when user interface decisions are ‘selected’ (2012c), which this evaluator reads as ‘reached’ or ‘determined’. In summation, Balsamiq’s argument is that ‘early stage ideation is effective at low-fidelity’, which Mockups embodies (2012c):
5. What is the cost and time
involved?
A single-user license is US$79.00, while multiple-user licenses range from US$ 158.00 for three users up to US$3,950 for 100 users. The desktop application of myBalsamiq is available for from US$12.00 per month for three active projects (with unlimited users) up to US$249.00 per month for the Enterprise version (100 active projects and unlimited users). These two sets of pricing are not fully clear on first read-through. After rereading, it appears that the single-and -multi-user licences are one-off purchases, while the myBalsamiq options are subscriptions. Software upgrades are almost weekly, and Mockups for Desktop features free upgrades in perpetuity. The applications can also be installed on a number of computers for one user, which makes for a refreshingly flexible feature of the service model.
Sources |
This Web Page Created with PageBreeze Free HTML Editor