From kde-usability  Wed Jan 23 13:08:27 2013
From: Thomas Pfeiffer <colomar () autistici ! org>
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:08:27 +0000
To: kde-usability
Subject: Re: [KDE Usability] myBalsamiq for KDE (for free)?
Message-Id: <50FFE0CB.1050402 () autistici ! org>
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-usability&m=135894652509341

On 23.01.2013 13:03, Heiko Tietze wrote:
> Balsamiq has IMHO the big advantage of being fast usable with the little
> disadvantage of rather static mockups with limited standard UI controls.

Since Balsamiq's purpose is primarily to create rough sketches, I don't 
think the fact that they are mostly static is much of a problem. The 
limited standard controls are a problem, but the newer versions allow to 
create your own reusable components pretty easily (without any 
programming needed), which is a big big plus for me.

> There are a lot of other tool with more, or rather 'special', features. For instance
> parallel collaboration (Pidoco [1]), interactivity (ForeUI [2]) or open-source
> based (Pencil [3]).

I haven't used myBalsamiq yet (only Balsamiq Desktop), so I don't know 
if it allows parallel collaboration as well (but probably not), so 
that's a plus for Pidoco. However, we can't get Pidoco for free, can we?
ForeUI looks nice, but is really expensive and I can't see a free option 
for FOSS there, either.
Pencil is nice and I've used it extensively as well, but it has several 
disadvantages:
- It doesn't really draw "sketchy" mockups, thus leading people to think 
that you're doing a detailed visual mockup instead of an early sketch, 
and the results don't exactly look like Oxygen. This is a problem, 
because it leads to people complaining about somthing not being 
perfectly aligned or a few pixels too far up/down/left/right. There is a 
"Sketchy GUI" stencil set available, but even that looks by far not as 
sketchy as e.g. Balsamiq
- The UI components shipped with it are even more limited than 
Balsamiq's. It is possible to create new ones, but you need programming 
skills for that. If we put in the effort necessary to recreate all 
Plasma Components in Pencil, then it would be pretty useful. But do we 
have the resources for that?
- It doesn't allow online collaboration.
Being open source is a huge plus for Pencil, of course.

Since I don't think we really need advanced interactive prototyping 
functionality, I'd go for either myBalsamiq or - if somebody wants to 
create stencils for Plasma Components - Pencil. Or a combination of 
myBalsamiq for early sketches and Pencil for more detailed wireframes.

> By any means I agree with you that wireframes and mockups should not be build
> and discussed based on tools like QT Designer.

Yes. So I think we should get a sketch/wireframe/mockup tool and I'd go 
for a free (at least as in free beer) solution.

> Heiko.
>
> [1] https://pidoco.com/
> [2] http://www.foreui.com/
> [3] http://pencil.evolus.vn/

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