A great tool for evaluating Wireframing, UX Design, IA and Prototyping tools
Download this free Wireframes, Prototypes & IA tools comparison chart for web and software developers. Save hours by evaluating the best tools in the market in minutes – not hours or days.
Whilst this is not an exhaustive study of all relevant tools, it does offer a good comparison of 18 popular products against 20 criteria for those engaged in the business of creating professional Wireframes, UX design, IA and Prototypes. We hope it serves as a quick reference to help you short-list an appropriate tool for your needs.
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What criteria does the chart compare against?
In this first release (1.0) we’ve evaluated 18 well known tools for wireframing and prototyping against 20 core requirements. Some of these requirements will vary depending on your role and what you’re trying to achieve. The requirements we’ve used are those you would need when creating wireframes/ prototypes etc for large clients with multiple stakeholders.
20 key criteria for good Wireframing, UX Design, IA and Prototyping tools:
- Good library of pre-built widgets – (for rapid protoyping)
- Can build custom widgets – (for flexibility)
- Clickable prototypes within the application – (ease of use in design stage)
- Clickable prototypes from exported product – (allows user/stakeholder to click and interact with it)
- Links show rollover state on hover – (makes it intuitive, users don’t have to ask “is this a button?”)
- Multi-page clickthrough – (for demonstrating multiple page interactivity)
- Export docs/ specs to Word or PDF – (very useful for documenting the IA etc in large projects. You don’t want to do this by hand!)
- Export wireframe to HTML – (to help speed development once approved)
- Export IA/ Sitemap to Excel or Word – (similar to #7, useful for documentation)
- Online collaboration via vendor URL – (allows stakeholders to login, comment, amend, approve etc)
- Online collaboration via HTML upload to internal server – (similar to above but hosted internally)
- Templates/Master Pages – (useful for creating reusable parts, pages, headers, footers etc)
- Import IA from Excel, CSV, TXT – (a feature that could save a lot of time by importing existing IA)
- Client/admin can add comments – (similar to #10)
- Engaging look/ feel – (it shouldn’t be too bland or it won’t engage your stakeholders)
- Sketchy style available – (helps make it clear to stakeholders that this is a sketch/mockup, not a finished product)
- Clean/ non-sketchy style available – (some stakeholders may prefer clean lines over sketchy. Nice to have a choice to offer. Really nice when you can switch between both)
- Learning curve/ ease of use – (how easy/quick is it to start wireframing using this tool? If too slow to learn, it defeats the purpose of doing a ‘quick’ mockup. Better off skethcing on paper if it slows you down too much)
- Good for quick low fi mockups – (as above. Should be quicker than you could do it on paper)
- Good for clickable prototyping – (bear in mind; a wireframe is not a prototype. Some tools do one or the other. The great ones do both – and do them both well!)
Tools evaluated in this edition (1.0)
We’ve evaluated the following tools so far. The next release will go even further and capture most of the good, the bad and the ugly. Our aim is to fast track the task of finding the right tool for the right job. Personally, I wasted hours, nay, days doing exactly this, which lead me to create the chart with a matrix to help me decipher the glut of competing software in the UX/IA/Wireframing/Prototyping space. The end result I hope you’ll agree, is a good quick reference guide that will help point you in the right direction quickly.
(* not yet reviewed)
- Axure RP Pro
- Balsamiq
- Denim*
- FireWorks (Adobe)
- Flash Catalyst (Adobe) *
- Gliffy*
- iPlotz
- Just in mind Prototyper
- Just Proto
- Lumzy*
- Microsoft Sketch Flow
- MockFlow
- Mockingbird
- Mockup Screens
- Omni graffle
- Pencil Project
- Proto Share
- Visio 2010
** To be reviewed in next edition
(if there is enough demand/ comments/ feedback etc)
- Cacoo
- Concept Draw
- Creatly **
- Diagramo
- FlairBuilder **
- FlashCatalyst (Adobe) **
- FluidIA
- ForeUI **
- GUI Design Studio
- Hot gloo **
- iPhone Mockup
- iRise
- IxEdit
- Jumpchart
- Lovely Charts **
- Mindjet MindManager
- Pidoco **
- PowerMapper
- Prototype Composer
- QT Creator (Nokia)
- SmartDraw
- Website Wireframe Tool **
- Wireframe Sketcher **
Thanks for putting together this comparison chart, I can see already some features in various tools that I was previously unaware of until now; a useful guide for the many different options on offer out there in the wireframing arena!