As a huge Balsamiq user, I'm definitely pulling for you guys because I'm not completely happy with them.
The basic functionality is great, but having the ability to make clickable online demos where I could send links to people would be a killer feature that would make me switch very quickly.
Having said that, a few UX notes:
-You have incompletely applied the tab metaphor on the left-hand panel. For a while, I was trying to figure out why a label was a stencil but a paragraph was an image. At the very minimum, your "shaded" tab should extend under the other one to show that it applies to both columns.
-Categorizing your stencils, even a little bit, would help. Balsamiq screwed this up, and now they have a bunch of nonsensical categories (quick, what would you expect to find under media?)
-I would recommend grouping your stencils by things that tend to be used together. For example, form elements should be all together, mobile stuff too.
-I know you're not native, but the right-click context menu on Balsamiq is much better than putting the align/arrange/lock at the top of the screen. I use this stuff a lot, and the extra distance is a pain
-Also, I don't see the capability to have some sort of templates. That's definitely a must for any decent size project
/edit I just discovered the context menu (double delayed click is a good solution). Still think at least the lock button belongs on the menu and not at the top
A lot of these items are on our plate already and we'll address them as soon as we get some bandwidth.
- We'll try to improve the Stencil/Images tab usability
- Stencils are already using tags/aliases when searching them. Categories will be extremely beneficial as well.
- Templates are on our plate too.
Yes rapid online sharing of prototypes is increasingly crucial. Every tool I've used that does this has some clunky flaw. If this were combined with a quick shortlink based share tool it would quickly become my goto wireframe app
The basic functionality is great, but having the ability to make clickable online demos where I could send links to people would be a killer feature that would make me switch very quickly.
Having said that, a few UX notes:
-You have incompletely applied the tab metaphor on the left-hand panel. For a while, I was trying to figure out why a label was a stencil but a paragraph was an image. At the very minimum, your "shaded" tab should extend under the other one to show that it applies to both columns.
-Categorizing your stencils, even a little bit, would help. Balsamiq screwed this up, and now they have a bunch of nonsensical categories (quick, what would you expect to find under media?)
-I would recommend grouping your stencils by things that tend to be used together. For example, form elements should be all together, mobile stuff too.
-I know you're not native, but the right-click context menu on Balsamiq is much better than putting the align/arrange/lock at the top of the screen. I use this stuff a lot, and the extra distance is a pain
-Also, I don't see the capability to have some sort of templates. That's definitely a must for any decent size project
/edit I just discovered the context menu (double delayed click is a good solution). Still think at least the lock button belongs on the menu and not at the top