Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review Given the versatility and diversity of the diagrams that can be created with Microsoft Visio, we use this tool for the most diverse activities. With our students, we use it to organize group activities and manage the tasks that everyone has to complete. In research groups, we use it to divide tasks and create organization charts. For research activities, especially the more complex ones carried out, for example, in PhD programmes, the diagrams allow us to display all the work phases graphically.
Read full review Pros 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 Read full review Visio comes with icons that can help differentiate processes within a map. These can be used to be a legend and helps create a visually appealing flow. Visio is user-friendly and allows the user to easily navigate through the different creative options that can be used. Because this is a Microsoft product, Visio works well with other Microsoft products for easy translation. Read full review Cons 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. Read full review For me personally I cannot highlight anything specific that has any bearing on how I use the product. Everything is very straightforward and clearly signposted including template desgins and categories. The layout is easy to navigate and as it's part of the MS Office ecosystem means there is less to learn as I'm used to a lot of the cross product functionality. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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
Read full review We use Microsoft Visio to keep our diagrams updated and to that end we will need the subscription to keep using the software. Otherwise we will be left with PDF versions of the diagrams.
Read full review Usability 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.
Read full review Some things that I think should be easy to do are not, at least not for a beginner user. I'm sure it's easy once you get the hang of it but the two main issues I have with Visio are the connecting of different states and searching for graphics/icons after you have chosen a starting template.
Read full review Support Rating We haven't had to use the support feature yet
Read full review Overall, I feel that Microsoft's support is weak. They are now such a behemoth that their model of putting documentation online for their users to sift through is totally outgrown. Given the amount of money you pay for these licenses, Microsoft should provide easy one-on-one support for their products via email or chat. The idea of paying their rates for support incidents is ridiculous. If you have an enormous amount of time on your hands, use their support websites and you will eventually find a solution most of the time.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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
Read full review Even though it’s a more expensive solution, Vizio is built for the enterprise. Therefore, it integrates perfectly with our existing Microsoft stack, and quite frankly, because it’s such a more mature product, it provides exactly the functionality we need and expect.
Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review Visio diagrams have help us streamline processes that reduce costs and improve efficiencies. It is a very complete program, it allows you to make industrial and civil works diagrams. It also allows you to design 3D graphics. It is a very reliable program. Its ability to work with vectors is a big plus. It can easily import SVG graphics, edit their individual lines and then being able to export the edited SVG again. Read full review ScreenShots