Item: Balsamiq
Rating: 8
Author: Ben Seigel

Overall Satisfaction with Balsamiq

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Balsamiq for low fidelity wireframes early in the design process. Because of its intentionally ugly approach (Comic Sans, anyone?), it allows us, and the client, to focus on layout and not get distracted by colors, fonts, or other design elements that come later.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Speed. Whipping up a wireframe takes very little time.
Ease of Use. The product works intuitively and as expected.
Covers common elements. Many of the common elements you need on a website are already built in, just drag and drop.

Cons

I can't think of any negatives for this product. It does exactly what it's intended to do.

Return on Investment

Balsamiq has saved us time in the early phases of projects, where we want to show layout without distracting the client with other elements.

Other Software Used

Craft, ExpressionEngine, Google Drive

Likelihood to Recommend

Quick, rough wireframes that show layout without getting into the weeds of colors, fonts, or exacting element placement. In the vendor's own words:

Split the problem in small chunks > make a quick wireframe of key screens > tweak wireframe > incorporate feedback > build working screen as quickly as you can > iterate until solid.

Comments

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Great wireframing tool