Balsamiq vs. Cloudairy vs. Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite

Balsamiq is a great tool for quickly getting ideas into visual form. At first it seems like there are not that many UI assets, but this constraint actually adds to the speed. There are less things for you to fuss over, you can focus on getting your ideas down. This is a tool for lofi rough drawings not a tool for building beautiful prototypes for developers to code to. It is fantastic for ideation because you mostly just drag and drop components onto the canvas and move things around. It's great in a live workshop setting for that reason.

Incentivized

I personally think that Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite is the best visual collaboration software out there. I’ve used Canva, Apple Freeform, and Microsoft whiteboarding software, and none of them really measure up. If you want simple, easy, collaborative, and intuitive, then Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite is the best solution. At the same time, if you’re tight on budget, it’s probably not going to be a solution you can afford.

Incentivized

• Easy to use
• Produces good quality mock ups and prototypes
• Mock ups are obviously only just mock ups (this is important as if users see mock-ups in HTML, for example, they tend to think the system is ready to use or not far off)
• Has a good selection of standard shapes that mock real world fields / controls
• Allows not for profit organisations use it for free

Incentivized

• Large number of predefined charts, diagrams, flows
• A great repository of various symbols and objects
• The easiness of using and manipulating objects and shapes. There is a lot of auto-editing and adjusting which the software does for you which saves a lot of your time.
• Easy way of duplicating shapes.
• While working with the app everything feels organic and natural. You don't get the clunky/limited feeling which happens with some other similar apps.

Incentivized

• The sketch-like style can be off-putting to some stakeholders, and it’s not initially very clear that there is the option to turn this “off.” While I do think there is benefit to the default style, knowing from the start that this flexibility existed would have helped us be able to use this tool more often in the past and in different situations.
• There are very limited collaborative functionalities. When it’s early in the design process, it’s often really helpful to have a number of people in the design to offer in-app feedback so the designer doesn’t have the burden of collecting feedback from many disparate sources in order to incorporate the feedback.
• There are limited UI elements. As design evolves, there are more and more UI elements to consider, and many to stop using. Our Balsamiq wireframes would be a lot more effective in communicating design ideas to stakeholders if there was a wider range of UI elements to choose from.

Incentivized

• I have used the templates before and those are nice! I would like to see more
• The ONLY complaint I can come up with is that there has been several times that my screen will lock up and i have to fully refresh it, even when it is a fairly fresh load.

Incentivized

I'm not sure how else we would be able to complete our work without Balsamiq or another similar tool. All of my experience with Balsamiq has been positive and they continue to develop new features so that my job gets easier. I would be very surprised if we didn't renew Balsamiq

Incentivized

Very intuitive and easy to understand. It only takes minutes to get the hang of it and get back to work. For new analysts (like, brand new, fresh out of school) it's not difficult and they need minimal to no hand-holding. The training content that is embedded is easy to find and use.

Incentivized

The usability of Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite is bar none and incomparable to any other tool used in the past. There is such a vast offering that covers all the needs of any user in industries far and wide. It is no doubt that this is a firm recommendation for anyone and everyone to utilize this tool for all their needs.

Incentivized

We haven't had to use the support feature yet

Incentivized

I would rate the overall support for Lucidchart as a 9. The support provided is generally robust and responsive. Their help center, tutorials, and webinars offer extensive resources for users. The ticket-based support system is effective, providing timely resolutions to most issues. Moreover, they actively gather user feedback, demonstrating a commitment to continuous improvement

Incentivized

Creating digital wireframes in Photoshop is a nightmare. Photoshop was not really designed for this purpose. It doesn't have good collaboration options and it doesn't allow pattern libraries, which are essential for consistency and efficiency. We use UXPin and Axure for some time, but found that these platforms were a bit bloated. Balsamiq is much simpler than any of these options. It's a perfect wireframing platform for non-designers or for designers that want to focus on content and element-placement prior to design

Incentivized

Lucidchart is well beyond Microsoft Visio and is constantly improving. Visio is pretty much stagnant and hasn't been improved for several years, Lucid is constantly adding new functionality like AI powered functions and tools. We have no reason to pay for Visio licenses when Lucid can provide so much more for less.

Incentivized

• The product works very well for showing product owners and developers design ideas for purposes of discussion, debate and refinement.
• The products also works very well for specifying new designs for developers. This is best done in a series of screens that show various screen states and user interactions.
• I also use the products to document bugs in software products and websites we have developed. This includes outlining and documenting bugs and changes to user interactions and refinements to the usability of completed interfaces and user experiences.

Incentivized

• It sure has. It has saved me a lot of time. Think of all the time I could have wasted trying to learn a program that does the same thing, whereas Lucidchart just does it with ease, learn as you go, and be a boss at it.
• Lucidchart has increased productivity. My diagrams have helped co-workers find connectivity and helped them troubleshoot devices. This has saved time and increased productivity.

Incentivized