Pencil Project – open-source GUI prototyping tool
pencil.evolus.vn
pencil.evolus.vn
Similar to Sketch or Figma but Open Source https://github.com/penpot/penpot Have a try if you haven't! I wish one day I could replace my Figma workflows
Pencil is OK, but fiddly to use, lacking in stencils, and basically unmaintained. Figma is a really powerful tool, but is too expensive unless you're a full-time UI/UX person (in which case, it's actually a good deal).
It's so great to have a powerful OSS prototyping tool - and one that looks like it's had thought put into it's own UI/UX. Can't wait to try this out and see if it meets my expectations, thanks so much for posting this!
- Someone come up with what something should do when X
- Designers create the UX and UI to support that feature
- Developers start reviewing the UX/UI, create a list of things designers/product managers forgot to think of when doing the design/product requirements
- Designers finishes the design
- Developers manually try to copy the design into code. How this happen depends a lot
In 90% of the companies, this is how I've seen it being done. Some places are trying to make that last step automatic nowadays, but the progress and results are nowhere near production-ready yet.
Let me know if you have more specific questions :)
You probably can if you're making something with zero styling for one version of one OS on a 640x480 non-touch screen in one language that can't be deeplinked into from other applications for people with no accessibility requirements.
I'd also argue that "zero styling" means "standard controls" which often already have good accessibility, and everything (including accessibility?) can be added (re-written in?) after you have a winner.
At the start of a project, I generally have several workshop meetings with relevant people from the customer. After finding out a bit about what they want, I use Figma to start building UI mockups - I can adjust these on the fly during calls, based on the discussion. Being able to make tweaks in seconds (basically in real-time with the conversation) is really important. Having these visualisations always helps generate/foster discussion.
(Also because a company might up to three non-coding jobs being entangled in this mess before it even reaches a programmer.)
Giving non-developers a communication tool that lets them compile their needs into a form developers can work with rather directly is extremely valuable to organizations.
That said, portability and collaboration are important to me which has drawn me to cloud solutions like draw.io.
Their stencils and templates a _very_ old.[0]
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/02/13/the-iceberg-secret...
Hard to find fully convincing sketch only tools, but do have a decent set of sketch style templates and stencils for Omni Graffle on MacOS (such as Konigi's sketch stencils: https://konigi.com/blog/omnigraffle-sketch-stencils-now-avai... ) along with a subset of not-quite-architectural handwriting fonts.
With sketches the feedback from users, managers, stakeholders, and clients, is much more substantive and on track for iterating usability and flow.
// Flow feel requires clickable sketches, think Balsamiq at https://balsamiq.com/wireframes/, but sketchier.
It's a pity that the tool hasn't gained much traction in the mean time.
The project’s very rough looking website is not helping. It’s hard to take a GUI tool seriously when your features page includes 90s style “clip art” as one of its billet points. I hate saying something negative about an open source project since it’s usually someone’s unpaid work, but if they want more traction, they’ll need help from someone with some design chops.