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MyBalsamiq: remote, collaborative UX Design

thibaut_barrere 15y ago
I'll surely give it a try at least. Just curious, are there any other "remote collaborative UX" tools recommended by HNers?
- jsdalton 15y ago
  I found none that made me particularly happy. I actually waited for what seemed like an eternity for Balsamiq's online product to come out (I really had zero interest in the desktop product). When it finally did I tried it and found it was exactly what I was looking for. I am now a happy paying customer.
  - thibaut_barrere 15y ago
    Thanks for the feedback, appreciated! I'll try it out. I'm doing more and more mockups tweaks for our coming SAAS product (see profile if interested); it could help us work more "asynchronously" with our designer when needed.
- xbryanx 15y ago
  I like Balsamiq Mockups better, but there is also mockingbird - https://gomockingbird.com https://gomockingbird.com
- alabut 15y ago
  I've been pleasantly surprised by Google Drawings recently. It's like somebody took Omnigraffle and trimmed it down while also making it easier to share.
- drKarl 15y ago
  You can check pidoco https://pidoco.com/ https://pidoco.com/
psweber 15y ago
Does anyone have experience using Balsamiq for large, complex projects? Had success using it for client work? My company is pushing for everyone to use Axure. I hate Axure.
- ghurlman 15y ago
  I've used Balsamiq to sell business groups inside of very large corporations to sign off on project estimates. It's a fast, easy way to show them what they're getting for their money, and becomes v0.1 of the design as well, with enough fidelity to discover usability & flow without locking into many other design choices.
ghurlman 15y ago
I've been using Balsamiq for a couple years, and I've been looking forward to the online product. I have a few project collaborators that cannot install software onto PCs they have to use at work; a webapp is a godsend.
ronbo 15y ago
chrome is giving a malware warning on this site...
- thibaut_barrere 15y ago
  Using chrome as well but no malware mention!
- jaryd 15y ago
  i also got this warning
- balsamiq 15y ago
  Our ISP (WPEngine) did a full scan and couldn't find anything fishy, and we can't figure out how to reproduce the issue (none of us sees the warning). Can you please email me if you still see it? So sorry for the hassle.
- catfish 15y ago
  same here + capture...
phzbOx 15y ago
I don't particularly like their video intro. I feel like they've tried to fit it under a specific time limit (which is great) by doing everything faster, speaking faster and weirdly skipping animation. For instance, they take 20secs to talk about drag and drop and pressing prev/next to show the next mockup. He said "You can click the previous arrow or the next arrow to go to the next mockup". It's not relevent in an intro video. I.e. if the interface is well made, I'll figure out how to go to the next mockup when in that page. Better would be to stop saying every little actions and talk on the high level goal. For instance, don't say "I'm gonna select a color to put on the front-end of my project". Also, seems like the website is really well designed but the balsamiq part is still with the old flash design. Is it from the same company? Did they chose to not change the old balsamiq because clients were already used to it? Or was that too complicated? Is there an html only version incoming?
rorrr 15y ago
Watching the video was like - WTF, this UI needs a complete redesign, it's so fucking complex.
- infocaptor 15y ago
  can you check out the collab features of http://www.mockuptiger.com http://www.mockuptiger.com
wushupork 15y ago
What are your thoughts on the whole design by committee? This seems to foster that.
- untog 15y ago
  I think there's at least a slight difference between UX design by committee and creative design (for want of a better term) by committee. UX design in groups makes more sense- there are a series of rules and guidelines you can follow to make a good UI. Everyone can co-operate on that, in the sense that they have a rule sheet, and can assess how the design fits those rules. The more creative side of it (logos, colour schemes, etc) is far more subjective, so attempting to do it by committee always brings everything to an "offend no-one" median.
zachanker 15y ago
It would be nice if "Plans & Pricing" on https://www.mybalsamiq.com/ https://www.mybalsamiq.com/ actually took you to http://balsamiq.com/buy?p=myb http://balsamiq.com/buy?p=myb rather than http://balsamiq.com/products/mockups/mybalsamiq#pricingtable http://balsamiq.com/products/mockups/mybalsamiq#pricingtable and then having to click another "Plans and Pricing" link. Looks cool though, will definitely have to check it out.
- balsamiq 15y ago
  Fixed, sorry about that.
kky 15y ago
The video does not explain why the product is great, and jumps straight into feature details. I think the video also assumes familiarity with the desktop product, which I don't have. I lost interest quickly.
dave1619 15y ago
I wish they would have integrated collaboration into the web app editor. Right now it feels like two web apps - the balsamiq editor and then a comment system. But they feel like separate apps and don't integrate with each other.
dariobarila 15y ago
Nice UX!

I'll surely give it a try at least. Just curious, are there any other "remote collaborative UX" tools recommended by HNers?

jsdalton 15y ago
I found none that made me particularly happy. I actually waited for what seemed like an eternity for Balsamiq's online product to come out (I really had zero interest in the desktop product). When it finally did I tried it and found it was exactly what I was looking for. I am now a happy paying customer.
- thibaut_barrere 15y ago
  Thanks for the feedback, appreciated! I'll try it out. I'm doing more and more mockups tweaks for our coming SAAS product (see profile if interested); it could help us work more "asynchronously" with our designer when needed.
xbryanx 15y ago
I like Balsamiq Mockups better, but there is also mockingbird - https://gomockingbird.com https://gomockingbird.com
alabut 15y ago
I've been pleasantly surprised by Google Drawings recently. It's like somebody took Omnigraffle and trimmed it down while also making it easier to share.
drKarl 15y ago
You can check pidoco https://pidoco.com/ https://pidoco.com/

psweber 15y ago

Does anyone have experience using Balsamiq for large, complex projects? Had success using it for client work? My company is pushing for everyone to use Axure. I hate Axure.

ghurlman 15y ago
I've used Balsamiq to sell business groups inside of very large corporations to sign off on project estimates. It's a fast, easy way to show them what they're getting for their money, and becomes v0.1 of the design as well, with enough fidelity to discover usability & flow without locking into many other design choices.

ghurlman 15y ago

I've been using Balsamiq for a couple years, and I've been looking forward to the online product. I have a few project collaborators that cannot install software onto PCs they have to use at work; a webapp is a godsend.

ronbo 15y ago

chrome is giving a malware warning on this site...

thibaut_barrere 15y ago
Using chrome as well but no malware mention!
jaryd 15y ago
i also got this warning
balsamiq 15y ago
Our ISP (WPEngine) did a full scan and couldn't find anything fishy, and we can't figure out how to reproduce the issue (none of us sees the warning). Can you please email me if you still see it? So sorry for the hassle.
catfish 15y ago
same here + capture...

phzbOx 15y ago

I don't particularly like their video intro. I feel like they've tried to fit it under a specific time limit (which is great) by doing everything faster, speaking faster and weirdly skipping animation. For instance, they take 20secs to talk about drag and drop and pressing prev/next to show the next mockup. He said "You can click the previous arrow or the next arrow to go to the next mockup". It's not relevent in an intro video. I.e. if the interface is well made, I'll figure out how to go to the next mockup when in that page. Better would be to stop saying every little actions and talk on the high level goal. For instance, don't say "I'm gonna select a color to put on the front-end of my project". Also, seems like the website is really well designed but the balsamiq part is still with the old flash design. Is it from the same company? Did they chose to not change the old balsamiq because clients were already used to it? Or was that too complicated? Is there an html only version incoming?

rorrr 15y ago

Watching the video was like - WTF, this UI needs a complete redesign, it's so fucking complex.

infocaptor 15y ago
can you check out the collab features of http://www.mockuptiger.com http://www.mockuptiger.com

wushupork 15y ago

What are your thoughts on the whole design by committee? This seems to foster that.

untog 15y ago
I think there's at least a slight difference between UX design by committee and creative design (for want of a better term) by committee. UX design in groups makes more sense- there are a series of rules and guidelines you can follow to make a good UI. Everyone can co-operate on that, in the sense that they have a rule sheet, and can assess how the design fits those rules. The more creative side of it (logos, colour schemes, etc) is far more subjective, so attempting to do it by committee always brings everything to an "offend no-one" median.

zachanker 15y ago

It would be nice if "Plans & Pricing" on https://www.mybalsamiq.com/ https://www.mybalsamiq.com/ actually took you to http://balsamiq.com/buy?p=myb http://balsamiq.com/buy?p=myb rather than http://balsamiq.com/products/mockups/mybalsamiq#pricingtable http://balsamiq.com/products/mockups/mybalsamiq#pricingtable and then having to click another "Plans and Pricing" link. Looks cool though, will definitely have to check it out.

balsamiq 15y ago
Fixed, sorry about that.

kky 15y ago

The video does not explain why the product is great, and jumps straight into feature details. I think the video also assumes familiarity with the desktop product, which I don't have. I lost interest quickly.

dave1619 15y ago

I wish they would have integrated collaboration into the web app editor. Right now it feels like two web apps - the balsamiq editor and then a comment system. But they feel like separate apps and don't integrate with each other.

dariobarila 15y ago

Nice UX!