Balsamiq

Balsamiq is very well suited for mocking up / prototyping UIs for systems or apps. The really good thing about it is that the wireframes it produces do not look like real screens but all the same do look nice, neat and tidy. This allows you to express and design how your interface will looks and even work, but it also expresses that these are just wireframes. I have had problems throughout my career when I have mocked up UIs with HTML, often users and stakeholders think that the system is ready to be used or not far off, they can't seem to grasp that there is nothing behind it. Balsamiq helps here because the wireframes are in a hand drawn style, so they can't be confused with a near-ready or working system.

Anytime you have a process to map out to show others we think it works well. It is easy for multiple people to get in, review, and add their thoughts. The look and feel is nice and even the marked-up version with notes looks presentable enough to show management to get approval/buy-in. We still use Visio for things like swim lanes.

Balsamiq is excellent for creating low-fidelity wireframes where the designer is trying to communicate a general, loose idea of how the design should look. Because of this, it should be used early in the design stage, when there are still many decisions to be made about how the final design should look like. However, it is less suitable for situations where one wants to communicate a more final-appearing version of a design. There are limited functionalities (which appear intentional, as the Balsamiq website says that the tool "has 'just enough' prototyping capabilities, but not more”). Because of this, it is likely wise to choose a more high-powered tool, such as Axure, to create a fuller design toward the later stages of the design process.

Balsamiq is great if you're a non-designer and want to share ideas with people who will be executing design or front-end development. It's also good for getting feedback from non-designers as well - the fact that you can only create "crude" mockups helps the people you're sharing with give comments on fundamental issues like content and layout and avoid getting bogged down in fine design details.

Balsamiq is the easiest way to lay out a design without pen and paper. Quick ways to design without having to get into the nitty gritty of UI design. The ability to turn around designs quicker and with ease.

Balsamiq is great for non-designers or less-sophisticated users. It's great for creating quick mock-ups, and it's great for focusing on user-flows and content prior to the design phase. However, I think that most designers will find this program too elementary for their needs. In my opinion, there's not a compelling reason for a skilled designer to use Balsamiq over Sketch for wireframing, since Sketch can so easily be parlayed into a complete design whereas Balsamiq cannot. If you need a software for creating quick mockups and you are not a designer, Balsamiq is for you. If you're a graphic designer, go somewhere else.

It is well suited to create mockups/wireframes and to present the mockups to stake holders.
Sketch-based wireframes allow designers to focus on functionality.

It is very good to present, clarify, approve and modify the screens of the application to the client. In addition to this, it helps developers to have a clearer idea before starting to program.

It is probably the best option for people who need to move fast and don't care about the aesthetics of the mockup.
It is also very good for a presentation as it has a special cursor that points out easily parts of the design.
It is great when you care most about layout and functionality and less about the final look.

It is probably not the best option for a high definition mock, even though you can do it.
I would not suggest this for a sales/marketing/PR presentation as it is not as good looking.

Balsamiq is best suited for early mockups and interface prototyping where you are trying to define the general layout of your screen as opposed to particular aesthetics. It's great for scenarios where you want to get a lot of feedback from stakeholders and integrate the feedback quickly into a new design. Balsamiq is less useful for final designs or designs that require a large amount of custom and interactive features to be displayed on the prototype as it will not allow for this functionality.

Because it is simple to use, it adapts very well when you want to present, clarify, approve and adjust with a client the models of the product that you request. In addition to this, it supports the developers when starting the code to have a clear idea of ​​what the client wants and to minimize rework or scope changes.

Balsamiq is a great tool for any product and project managers, UX designers, and development teams in general. It helps to communicate ideas and flows. It can also be used to create clickable prototypes that later could be used in user testing. Thanks to Balsamiq a product manager doesn't have to wait for a proper design, they can simply create something themselves and get the user feedback. This way time, effort and money are saved.

I always start with a fast and furious white board drawing to get the basic flow and concept down, then sharpen it up with Balsamiq to run up the chain for management review and approvals. It works really well on single screen designs that are typically printed out for manual mark-ups. One team I'm on uses JIRA and there is a plug-in, but I haven't used it yet as that team sits together so the need to explain stuff to others is pretty minimal.

If you are creating a lot of screens and would like to develop some consistency and clarity in your final sketches Balsamiq can help overcome/streamline things like font size, aspect ratio of the device etc.

Balsamiq is built for software engineers and their development teams if they don't want to invest in a graphic designer or a UI/ UX designer from the beginning, as there isn't too much room for creativity. I have used it for simple wireframing and the software teams understand it really well, however those wireframes aren't going to sell any investor to invest in the project as the full vision of the software can't be recognized.
I really love how easy it is for beginners to get started on this without any prior training. However the more you use it, the more you want the fancier, more elaborate options to be there.

Balsamiq is a great tool for getting mockups put together quickly. Its focus is on speed and so it's fairly simple. If you need a low cost and lightweight tool to just get up and running, this is where Balsamiq makes an excellent choice. If you're looking for a robust UX tool to create interactive layouts, then there are probably better choices available.

Balsamiq is best suited for creating rapid prototypes or wireframes within the team for collaborative work. It is also suited for getting approval from the clients for the initial design phase. It is not suited or is less appropriate if you have a high fidelity prototype and need to add more interactions. If you have the need to create more robust prototype I would not recommend Balsamiq

Balsamiq is well suited for:

• Sketchy, low-fidelity wireframes which focus on rapid design conversations and functionality.
• 75 built-in user interface components and 187 icons, plus a whole lot of community-generated components.
• Linking lets you generate click-through prototypes for demos & usability testing.
• Share or present mockups with embedded links using PDF export, or use a 3rd party tool to export to code.

It is very well suited for rapid, simple prototyping. If you just need to demonstrate where a certain component should be on a page, this is a great tool for you.
If you want to show exactly how something is going to look (color scheme, styling, etc.), build an interactive prototype, iterate on existing tools, or use a lot of custom/non-standard controls in your design, this will not be a great tool for you.

Balsamiq is definitely used on a case-by-case basis by my team. I will use it when:

• My development team has worked with UX a lot and is very in tune to our visual language--when they just don't need as many details to pull off the design properly
• I need a quick design to communicate an issue or solution
• For internal tools, where the overall UI is going to be less important than the interaction

I do not use Balsamiq when

• I need to communicate to customers who are not very knowledgeable of UX or its processes
• My development team needs a lot of guidance and detail
• A full UI layout with colors, styles, measurements, etc. us required

Balsamiq is great for rapid prototyping of ideas. If inserting items automatically did a reflow, I could probably see myself using it in meetings where we are typing to prototype. As it is now I need to use it to capture the ideas after the meeting. It does work well for getting consensus on the ideas discussed.

Balsamiq works great for mocking up screens where precise, exact replica type mock-ups are not necessary. Otherwise I find Photoshop to be more appropriate for mocking up screens that require specific graphics or that need to look as much as real-life as possible.

If you're looking for a final mockup, Basamiq will not look as pretty as Photoshop. For displaying a basic concept or idea it is perfect. Now if only I could do full use cases in one smooth motion it would be perfect.