Ask HN: Is there room for a Balsamiq competitor targeting iphone mockups?
10 comments
Keep in mind that Balsamiq prototypes look like rough sketches instead of "professional looking mockups" on purpose.
When you show a customer a mockup that is "just a sketch" (or looks like one) you can get their feedback on the layout and content.
When you give them a realistic looking mockup, the conversation can get bogged down in minutea like in "Can you make the background less blue? Maybe like Bob's shirt?" or "I don't like that font, can you...?" At which point you have to explain that it's only a mockup, not the actual product and politely try to steer them back to what you asked them in the first place.
Also, when they see a what looks like a finished product they think the work is mostly done which sets unreasonable expectations.
When you show a customer a mockup that is "just a sketch" (or looks like one) you can get their feedback on the layout and content.
When you give them a realistic looking mockup, the conversation can get bogged down in minutea like in "Can you make the background less blue? Maybe like Bob's shirt?" or "I don't like that font, can you...?" At which point you have to explain that it's only a mockup, not the actual product and politely try to steer them back to what you asked them in the first place.
Also, when they see a what looks like a finished product they think the work is mostly done which sets unreasonable expectations.
Yeah, that sounds like good advice, chris.
What if you could streamline the process and cover both the wireframing and mockup phases? The tool I'm thinking about building is very similar to other prototyping tools (like Balsamiq), but would basically take your wires and "upgrade them" to a more pro-looking mockup (after all, it's just a matter of switching out images).
What if you could streamline the process and cover both the wireframing and mockup phases? The tool I'm thinking about building is very similar to other prototyping tools (like Balsamiq), but would basically take your wires and "upgrade them" to a more pro-looking mockup (after all, it's just a matter of switching out images).
They already have that covered.
http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/135659#...
http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/135659#...
Which link specifically were you referring to?
I'm thinking that a bunch of the iphone mockups that I've seen end up with the same shared components - toolbars, tab bars, status bars, etc. Those standard components are really the same objects, just in a more hi fidelity fashion.
Also, AFAIK with those tools, once you export, there is no way to keep the wires and mocks in sync, right?
I've experienced times in a consulting shop where both the mocks + wires are being iterated on simultaenously (mostly because the product guy would use omnigraffle where the designer would use photoshop) - leading to mocks + wires that just didn't jive with each other. This created confusion among the dev, design, and product teams about what specifically we were building, leading to increased time to market.
I'm thinking that a bunch of the iphone mockups that I've seen end up with the same shared components - toolbars, tab bars, status bars, etc. Those standard components are really the same objects, just in a more hi fidelity fashion.
Also, AFAIK with those tools, once you export, there is no way to keep the wires and mocks in sync, right?
I've experienced times in a consulting shop where both the mocks + wires are being iterated on simultaenously (mostly because the product guy would use omnigraffle where the designer would use photoshop) - leading to mocks + wires that just didn't jive with each other. This created confusion among the dev, design, and product teams about what specifically we were building, leading to increased time to market.
Keynotopia is a pretty good mockup alternative for iPhone and iPad apps. It's not an application per se, but it's a set of templates for Keynote (or PowerPoint or Open Office). You export the result as a clickable PDF which works in a variety of viewers like GoodReader.
http://keynotopia.com/
You can get pretty nice results that are somewhat interactive on the device itself.
http://keynotopia.com/
You can get pretty nice results that are somewhat interactive on the device itself.
Hmm - yeah, that's a really interesting concept.
Seems like the market is really fragmented - everything from traditional photo/vector graphics software (photoshop, illustrator), traditional wireframing (omnigraffle, etc), online wireframing (balsamiq) and even presentation software (keynote and powerpoint!)
Keynotopia seems like a smart move for those who tend to lean to the presentation side of things - though I'd find it hard to believe that a designer who likes (or is used to) working in illustrator or photoshop would want to start using keynote!
Seems like the market is really fragmented - everything from traditional photo/vector graphics software (photoshop, illustrator), traditional wireframing (omnigraffle, etc), online wireframing (balsamiq) and even presentation software (keynote and powerpoint!)
Keynotopia seems like a smart move for those who tend to lean to the presentation side of things - though I'd find it hard to believe that a designer who likes (or is used to) working in illustrator or photoshop would want to start using keynote!
Just to give you guys an idea of what I've been thinking of, here's a screencast of a little prototype I've been working on in my spare time:
http://screencast.com/t/tWUPNgGht2
The UI totally sucks and it isn't well designed at all. There's no sense of clickable screens, no sharing, no ipad, no retina, and no concept of a wire (only a mock). But the germ of the idea is there.
http://screencast.com/t/tWUPNgGht2
The UI totally sucks and it isn't well designed at all. There's no sense of clickable screens, no sharing, no ipad, no retina, and no concept of a wire (only a mock). But the germ of the idea is there.
There's always room for competition. You just need to find the right audience and pricing structure. BTW there is an iPad based app for mockups that does iPad/iPhone mockups - iMockups.
If there's one successful company making something that nobody else makes yet many people want, it seems like there has to be space. I'd go for it.
Try, if you can do a better jon there defenitly is! :)
Is there room in the market for a competitor in this space?