Balsamiq - Good for your rapid prototype.
March 08, 2016

Balsamiq - Good for your rapid prototype.

Prakarn Nisarat | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Balsamiq

We use Balsamiq to mock up prototypes for web design and app design front end. The software is being used after initial spec gathering and paper sketches - sometimes after the paper prototype stage. We use this in our department but I have heard others are using them too. And this is to show to the client and approve of the user flow and basic interaction on the app or web.
  • Quick mockup. The speed of how I can put things together using Balsamiq is impressive.
  • Good add-ons such as iOS mockup assets
  • Balance between "sketch" feel and "functional" prototype.
  • More assets please - especially icons.
  • When export out the PDF, the page doesn't fit as well. Our clients seems to get confused and tried to scroll the PDF from Balamiq instead of clicking.
  • More "skin" would be great. The 2 they have are a good start, but maybe one more sketch feel but less "childish" style?
  • The software is cheap enough. Giving the hourly rate we pay the UX designer, it pays for itself in one session.
  • Negative would be the first impression of the client. Be sure to set the expectation that they won't see final product.
  • I would love the team discount if possible.
Like I mentioned, Balsamiq does well to be in between "sketching" and "high-fidelity" while keeping the speed. Sketch is good but it doesn't feel as "sketchy" enough so client tends to give comment on design. Photoshop is big and slow and designer tends to go overboard with the design and typography. Pen and Paper would be the other choice I made if I need a rapid prototype. But having digital copy is much nicer.
Balamiq is well suited for the prototype stage where you DO NOT want client to care about the actual design or branding - basically the wireframe stage. You can sit down with a client or users to do testing pretty quickly. I would not use it outside of that stage though. I would use Photoshop or SKETCH 3 for that.