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My favorite professor was
discussing such a tool in the Academic SIG inaugural newsletter...Â
"This semester we used
Balsamiq to create the site structure by choosing a âContainer,â the browser
window, and simply dragging and dropping
shapes into a frame. Using Balsamiq, students then created a series of mockups,
or wireframes, that show how each of the
pages will look."
Â
She was discussing how an academic
use is free, so I have to assume a commercial use isn't, but it may not be
overly expensive.
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>
>Message: 8
>Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 09:48:36 -0700
>From: "Elissa K. Miller" <emiller -at- doubleknot -dot- com>
>To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
>Subject: Rapid prototype tools?
>Message-ID: <002601cf3d49$bf3b1160$3db13420$ -at- doubleknot -dot- com>
>Content-Type: text/plain;ÂÂÂ charset="us-ascii"
>
>Every so often, I have to mock up a user interface and I lament the passing
>of HyperCard, which was free, and very good for quickly creating "stacks"
>that had basic navigation features to show how something would work. And
>then I remember that I'm in a Window environment and I couldn't use
>HyperCard even if it still existed.
>
>
>
>My greatest need is for clickable buttons that display new pages or reveal
>additional information on the same screen. I can usually make PowerPoint do
>something close to what I want, but that's certainly not what PowerPoint is
>best at.
>
>
>
>I'm not a U/I designer and I understand that it's not a technical writing
>topic, but I can't be the only technical writer who occasionally gets the
>opportunity to show development how changing the interface would make things
>easier for users (and save me from writing procedures that are completely
>bonkers because accurate documentation can't fix a crazy interface-it can
>only give the user a fighting chance.)
>
>
>
>Does anyone have suggestions/recommendations for free or cheap prototyping
>tools?
>
>
>
>Thanks for any light you can shed.
>
>
>
>--Elissa
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 9
>Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 13:08:08 -0400
>From: "Rick Quatro" <rick -at- rickquatro -dot- com>
>To: "'Elissa K. Miller'" <emiller -at- doubleknot -dot- com>,
>ÂÂÂ <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
>Subject: RE: Rapid prototype tools?
>Message-ID: <00db01cf3d4c$7bd96f90$738c4eb0$ -at- com>
>Content-Type: text/plain;ÂÂÂ charset="us-ascii"
>
>There are free versions of Microsoft's Visual Studio tools. It is pretty
>easy to drag and drop interface elements onto a "form" so you can show how
>you want the interface to look.
>
>Rick Quatro
>Carmen Publishing Inc.
>585-366-4017
>rick -at- frameexpert -dot- com
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 10
>Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 10:17:47 -0700
>From: Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>
>To: "Elissa K. Miller" <emiller -at- doubleknot -dot- com>,ÂÂÂ TECHWR-L Writing
>ÂÂÂ <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
>Subject: Re: Rapid prototype tools?
>Message-ID:
>ÂÂÂ <CAN3Yy4DpaZJyV7UQMN3Jw5_x+YZM4LnKF6p3CzMTyzV3OBF=0g -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
>Not free, but if you already have Excel:
>
>http://chandoo.org/wp/2010/06/23/ui-prototyping-in-excel/
>
>LibreOffice probably has something similar.
>
>
>
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