Feb 6 2013
But selecting the wireframe tool that's right for you can be challenging. As more wireframe tools become available, the focus is shifting to include IA. Whether you're a Mac or PC user, on a. With more wireframe tools to choose from than ever, we select the pick of the bunch. Creative Bloq ART AND DESIGN INSPIRATION. Mac OS, Windows. Features of this wireframing tool include sitemaps and various widgets in the form of various UI elements. A diagram in Pencil ()Pencil is the only desktop-based wireframe tool on this list, and it’s open source, which means that every feature is available to all users for free. Check out the 20 best free STL viewer tools of 2018 for all platforms: Online, Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS. Before deciding to 3D print an STL file or when reviewing the work of a colleague, you want to view it. Luckily, there are many options available. Some of these 3D viewers are not. OmniGraffle is an app for Mac OS that gives you plenty of tools to create amazing wireframes and mockups, but it’s also great for creating all kinds of charts and diagrams as well. (read full article on source site).
In response to many who have suggested in my blog Sketch VS Photoshop that Fireworks is a great alternative to Sketch, I decided to download it again after many years.
First Impressions
In the first few minutes after using the UI, I can tell why everyone has been saying that Adobe neglected this product. It feels very unpolished compared to Photoshop which has a dark sexy, intuitive interface (CS6 is even better). The buttons look completely outdated. The top bar is pretty much useless. The Bitmap tools (marquee, brushes, eraser, etc.) are good for image editing, but they’re just noises for user interface design. You might as well use Photoshop or the cheaper alternative PixelMator for that purpose. Additionally, those tools are just not vector-friendly.
After playing around with the properties on my rounded rectangle, I started to really miss the live editing and the keyboard arrows (up & down) that would allow you to see direct results from your tweaks. Sketch has a really efficient way to adjust the settings and see live results without having the press Enter all the time. Dragging stuff around feels very sluggish compared to Photoshop/Sketch and I work on the latest iMac with 32 GB of RAM.
I was pleased to see that you can apply multiple of the same styles (drop shadows, inner shadows, etc.), but managing them was a pain. The number of clicks/popups that I have to go through is just astounding. Also, for some obscure reason, Adobe feels that the default drop-shadow should be at 315 degree angle and at a 65% opaque black. That basically means that you have to adjust those settings every single time.
In the first 5 minutes, the application crashed on me as I wanted to re-arrange my toolbars. That might just be bad luck.
The Export Tool Is Pretty Sweet
You can slice your design and get the html file that contains all the images. I can see why exporting sliced designs can be useful, especially if you don’t want to be bothered with codes.
But it’s 2013 and most designers stopped relying on images to create simple interfaces. We use CSS now and we love clean codes. Sketch and now Photoshop has a neat feature that allows you to “Copy CSS”, which essentially gives you the CSS equivalent of the properties you have set. It’s useful on occasions, but not truly groundbreaking. That’s until they figure a way to make the codes cleaner (e.g. have multiple styles separated by commas instead of repeating for box-shadow), embed more settings such as border-radius, border, gradient, patterns, text-shadow, etc.
Still Pixel
At the end of the day, what really made me switch to Sketch was the 100% vector direction and how simple the UI is. Blurring tool for mac. I care deeply about the number of clicks needed to achieve one task. With Sketch, it just feels like all the properties that I use are there, only when I need them. That’s a sign of a good UI.
It was a tough decision to switch from Photoshop, but the advantages far outweigh the hurdles. While Fireworks is a decent alternative focused more for Web design, it still carries the same issues that I’ve had in Photoshop. It feels like a tool that was invented when the Web was prominent, before the Mobile era and certainly before retina displays came along. There is no tool in Fireworks that made me think “Hmm, they really thought about this for mobile designers”.
What Is 100% Vector, Really?
Okay, I feel like a lot of people misunderstand what 100% vector really means. Well, let me clarify that. In Photoshop, you have vector shapes, but changing the width will screw the rounded corners. It’s like the application really treats it as an artwork rather than a dynamic shape. In CSS language, if you change the width of your box, it won’t change your border-radius.
Zooming in will show all the pixels, which means that you won’t be able to see how it’ll really look like in 2x and you won’t be able to export to PDF or even print your designs as is. You will always have to set the DPI. It is resolution dependent. In Sketch, all that disappears. Thanks to that, you can do pretty cool stuff like exporting in 2x without creating extra layers.
Sketch does a beautiful job at importing SVG icons from your favorite designers. In fact, I found a pretty neat process that even allows you to import all your Photoshop icons into Sketch. It’s a bit tricky though.
![Tool Tool](https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5aa1b0a0b0d77f251878398f/16:9/w_1200,h_630,c_limit/180319_r31690-tout.jpg)
- Select the shape in Photoshop.
- Copy and paste that shape to Illustrator.
- Save as SVG.
- Drag and drop the SVG file to Sketch.
Finally, because Sketch is vector based, all the layers are compatible with other vector based application such as Keynote. It is perfect for presentation, or designing for print since you won’t have to care about DPI. For example, I was able to redesign my Résumé in a very short time, and that experience was actually enjoyable! My Photoshop experience with designing resumes or business cards was not a good one.
Animation
This is a topic that I’m passionate about and no one has solved it beautifully yet, not even Sketch. I want to be able to animate the transitions in my designs and preview them quickly, anywhere. That would help the process of showing engineers how I’d like my design to be animated. Fireworks, Photoshop and AfterEffects all do that task in their own way, but I never felt compelled to dig deeper for fast prototyping. They just don’t feel natural for what I truly want. It is unfortunate that Sketch has no support for that yet. Perhaps, Sketch shouldn’t and perhaps we need a dedicated app as powerful as Quartz that’s much easier to understand but that can easily animate using physics, ease-in and ease-out by just tweaking the numbers and applying properties and specially made for user interface design. But it’ll be interesting to see how design applications will evolve to fulfill that need.
Price and Support
I was surprised to find out that Fireworks actually costs $299. It’s ridiculous considering how little Adobe work on that product anymore. In comparison, Sketch costs $49 and has a small business license for 5 users for only $124. You’ll have to judge it for yourself.
This series is supported by Ben & Jerry's Joe, Ben & Jerry's new line-up of Fair Trade and frozen iced coffee drinks. Learn more about it here.
![Free Free](https://file.mockplus.com/image/2018/01/7879126e-8801-4f8e-b3c1-05defcf6847f.png)
Wireframing is a crucial step in web design and development as it allows for rapid prototyping and helps to pinpoint potential problems early in the process. It can be invaluable to have a visual representation of content, hierarchy and layout.
Wireframes make it easier to communicate ideas, reduce scope creep, cut down on project costs (due to fewer design revisions later), and enable greater upfront usability and functionality testing.
This post highlights 10 of the best free wireframing tools available, including standalone applications, web-based tools and browser add-ons.
If you're partial to a particular wireframing tool available for free download, let us know in the comments.
1. Mockingbird
Mockingbird is a web-based beta software based on the Cappuccino framework to create, link together, preview and share wireframes of your website or application.
It's a clean and user-friendly interface, with drag and drop UI, interactive page linking, smart text resizing and the ability to easily share mockups with clients or colleagues with a direct link, make Mockingbird one of the best wireframe tools available.
As it's web-based, it means you can create and share mockups from anywhere. It will be interesting to see just how good Mockingbird is when it comes out of beta and the full version is released. https://renewspaces650.weebly.com/video-repair-tool-for-mac.html.
2. Lovely Charts
Lovely Charts is an online diagramming application, that allows you to create flowcharts, sitemaps, organization charts and wireframes.
One of the key features is the application's ability to make assumptions based on the type of diagram you're drawing, and thus streamline the drawing process. The History management feature is extremely useful, keeping 20 states of your diagram in memory should you wish to go back to an earlier version or undo any changes.
There is a powerful yet simple tool set provided, with an extensive library of crafted symbols to suit most requirements.
3. Cacoo
Cacoo is a user-friendly online drawing tool that allows you to create a variety of diagrams, such as sitemaps, wireframes and network charts.
The drag and drop UI means creating diagrams is relatively simple; there are also a number of stencils to utilize which could make the process even more efficient. Unlimited Undo is a neat feature with the history of all modifications saved, meaning you can undo right back to the start.
Numerous users can also work on and complete the same diagram simultaneously with the application supporting real-time collaboration.
4. Gliffy
Gliffy is a web-based application which allows you to create process flow diagrams, org charts, floor plans, business processes, network diagrams, technical drawings, website wireframes, and more. It uses a drag and drop UI with the ability to add boxes, buttons, and lines from the tool shape library to anywhere on the page. Then you can easily add text to create a clear, concise mockup.
You have access to a complete library of shapes and can even import your own images, like logos and backgrounds, to complement your diagrams. You can share and collaborate with anyone, on any platform, in any location, while having the ability to protect and track changes.
The Gliffy API (beta) also makes it possible for developers to add Gliffy diagramming features to their existing web-based applications based on a simple to use framework.
5. Lumzy
Lumzy is a mockup and prototype creation tool for websites and applications. You can add events to controls, place controls inside other containers and emulate your project with easy page navigation triggered by user actions.
Real-time collaboration is one of the key features, with tools for team editing, a chat engine for deliberating over designs and file versioning. Lumzy is also the only mockup tool with a real image editor built-in — simply grab any picture from your drive and edit it, apply hue, saturation, adjust contrast, and so on, and then add it to your project.
The Pro version is white label and can be integrated into an existing platform or hosted on your own server which may be of interest to companies working with confidential information.
6. Mockflow
Mockflow is a web app based on the Adobe Flash Platform. It has a clean, minimalistic, organized interface and the editing feature-set set is extensive.
You drag and drop components into a mockup to create the wireframe with the ability to add pages and map out an entire site and it’s structure. The built-in components are extensive, from charts and ads to menus and dropdowns. The ability to upload your own images to use, as well as the option to choose from a set of stickers of common site elements, such as social networking and e-commerce images, make the process of ‘building’ the mockup pretty efficient.
You can talk over the real-time chat and invite others as editors or viewers, depending on the level of editorial power you'd like each member to have. Editors have the ability to make changes to the wireframes, while viewers are limited to reviewing and commenting.
The MockStore is a wonderful add-on service that provides third party components and templates shared by the user community.
7. Pencil Project
The Pencil Project is an open source tool for making diagrams and GUI prototyping that everyone can use. It's available as a Firefox add-on or as a standalone application (Linux and Windows only). Pencil essentially installs an entire drawing application into your Firefox browser and gives you the ability to display, save, and load an external canvas, together with a palette of shapes.
Of interest is the Stencil Generator which allows you to create your own collection of stencil shapes by pointing the generator to a folder of image files. The Clipart tool lets you search through the library at openclipart.org and directly drop the images right into your Pencil document. Pencil also supports the use of external objects; both raster and vector images can be imported using copy-paste or drag and drop.
The final prototype can be exported as a PNG image, web page, OpenOffice file, PDF or DOC file. If you're a dedicated Firefox user, then Pencil could be an essential tool for visually expressing conceptual ideas on the fly. It even won the Mozilla award for 'Best New Add-On' in 2008.
8. SimpleDiagrams
SimpleDiagrams is a small desktop application that helps you express your ideas quickly and simply with just enough functionality to describe a thought or capture a process. It's built on the Adobe AIR platform, so will run smoothly on Mac, Windows and Linux.
You can drag, drop and size symbols from libraries, add photos and post-notes and export your diagram to PNG.
It may not be a fully-fledged diagramming tool, but because SimpleDiagrams is so basic, you will be creating wireframes or diagrams within minutes.
9. Denim
Denim is a free multi-platform desktop app that supports sketching and allows design at various refinement levels. It's an efficient tool for early stage brainstorming and wireframing.
Two main features within Denim are Components, which enable you to create widgets that can be reused and Conditionals, which allow you to create transitions between pages depending on the end-users' actions, resulting in a more interactive experience.
It's a simple yet effective tool and allows for easy annotation using editing gestures.
10. Website Wireframe
Website Wireframe is a very simple web-based tool for building wireframes in a matter of minutes. A link to view the wireframe can be sent through email, instant message, or mobile phone, and then the wireframe can be easily updated based on feedback, discussion, ideas and suggestions.
The key to this tool is the simplicity of usage, lending itself to speed, both in wireframe creation and sharing. It is free to register and use and works in most modern web browsers.
Wireframe Tool For Windows
It may not be particularly sophisticated, however it's simplicity and efficiency is perfect for those who want an alternative to tools with a higher learning curve.
Are you currently using any of these tools? If so, please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
Series supported by Ben & Jerry's Joe
Wireframe Creation Tool
This series is supported by Ben & Jerry's Joe, Ben & Jerry's new line-up of Fair Trade and frozen iced coffee drinks. Learn more about it here.