IPhone Mock-up Creator | Hacker News Reader

IPhone Mock-up Creator

iphonemockup.lkmc.ch

39 pointsslater19 comments

Balsamiq Mockups recently added iPhone elements, I think I prefer it:

http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=957

Nicely made for a webapp though! :)

This is a cool app but why not just muck around with the iPhone App interface builder that comes with the SDK. It is basically a much better version of this web app.

Two reasons:

First, those mockups are not supposed to look "real". The idea is to give somebody something that very obviously is not anywhere near a finished product so as not to give the wrong impression of how "finished" the product is.

Second, it's easy to share my mockups since you can simply share the URL, and all changes will be synchronized live. So you can collaborate over the phone and see each other's changes (which is why I've made the thing).

+ Uses Canvas + Javascript + Loads faster than flash based solutions ( balsamiq or IPlotz ) + I like the hand-drawn look - not enough tools such as align , snap.etc - no multiple pages

Really nice work though!

I've been looking at these mockups tools lately and none really does 100% of what I want. Maybe I'll write one.

I've been putting this together for myself in a few hours, so there are not too many features yet. Automatic snap-to is certainly something on my to-do-list, align probably too. Not sure about multiple pages since it's easy to just create additional mockups.

A more low tech way:

http://graffletopia.com/stencils/437

I highly recommend Omnigraffle Pro to anyone trying to diagram their app ui's, flows, etc. It's way better than Visio. The site cyunker is linking to is a goldmine of stencils.

A pencil and some sheets of paper are all I need to do my mock-ups... Still don't get these services :/

Especially when you're manipulating something that looks like you drew it with a pencil anyway.

As a designer, I couldn't agree more, it's absolutely essential to get your thoughts down visually as quickly as possible (when you've got an idea for a UI and need to capture it) or even more importantly, to work out your ideas in the first place.

Also, paper is a very shareable medium. Both in terms of being able to pass around, whether in the office or by scanning in, and also because it's so amenable to collaboration, which is really important for me and getting participation from a wide range of people. No one's going to be intimidated by some sketches on a piece of paper, so it's great for creating conversations with programmers, marketers, etc.

If anyone's interested in a longer explanation, I gave a presentation on prototyping at Adobe last month and a good chunk of it was about how much I love paper:

http://tr.im/gMJ9 (slideshow + audio)

You're absolutely right, and for people in the same office, I'd use paper, too. But I have to collaborate with people who live far away from me, which is why I created this web version of pen and paper for myself.

The idea is that several people open the same mockup and move stuff around on the screen while they're on the phone, talking about the mockup, similar to what you would do with plain old paper when sitting next to each other.

I like that you're trying to tackle the specific problem of real-time remote collaboration and made a tool to address that - that's great! The difference for me is that I rarely see value in it, compared to just scanning in a quick sketch and then collecting input via IM or email, or even with getting other scanned sketches back in return.

For example, here's a quick sketch by Jason at 37signals to get across the overall layout of their new home page:

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1629-preview-of-the-new-3...

We do the "moving sketches around" way of collaborating, and it works, but it tends to be a bit slow. There are some ways to get around the slowness: plasq's skitch makes it easy to share the things on my screen with other people, for example, and sometimes we just skype psds to each other. And I'll certainly keep using those tools.

The iPhone mockup tool I've created is a very specific tool for a very specific issue I have: I'm thinking about the layout of an iPhone screen and I want to quickly throw some ideas at somebody who's far away, and let them give live input. I don't even think that the mockup tool is the best solution for that specific problem, it's just the first idea I came up with :-)

I find it useful, but I can totally see how it's not for everyone.

What I like more than anything is that you're 1) creating your own tools for collaboration and 2) trying to solve design problems. It makes me think of 37signals and how basecamp was born, and also makes me a bit jealous because I fall into the mindtrap that programmers have more fun problems that they can hack on.

So yes, even if it's not for me, well done!

Great way for them to steal your great next killer app idea. I would never use a tool like this.

If you still think it's all about a "killer app idea" and not timing, execution, marketing and a million other things, you're doing it wrong.

Of course there is more to it. But every app starts with a (unique) idea. Think of it as a stealth startup. We do that for a reason too ...

'Killer' ideas don't necessarily have to be unique. Just better, so they disrupt the existing market enough to get ahead.

[edit - removed extra word]

Look, I created this thing for myself and figured it would be useful for others, too. I don't intend to steal your "great next killer app idea", and I already have more ideas than time anyway. Ideas are essentially worthless, everyone has an infinite number of them :-)

Furthermore, the mockups on my site are not password protected, so they're essentially public (although there is no easy way to find them). In other words, yes, don't use the site for secret stuff.

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