Prototyping and creation tools wireframes

Inspired by the long search for various prototyping systems and the desire to share this experience. In this post, there are no complex systems such as iRise or IBM Rational Rose, since they are not only and not only simple prototyping systems, and the cost of these solutions suits enterprises of considerable scale. This post is about something more earthly.



A bit of theory. Experienced data:
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Each project has its own customer. This could be a director of a large campaign, a developer, a digital agency manager, a designer ... but who many. In each case, this imposes certain restrictions on how much the prototype should be worked out.
I mean the following things:

• The number of prototypes and evidence (on click, visually schematically) transitions between them
• Presence of states of one type (example: a block of contacts that looks differently depending on whether the owner of this list is looking at him or a guest)
• The presence of comments on the elements
• Banal "beautiful" in the prototype - beautiful forms, ikonochki, pictures and stuff. By experience - one of the most useful things to convince the customer that the idea will work

Efforts for each project / task must meet their complexity. If your project is a small, internal subsystem in the backend, and you are given one developer to help, then to find a common language with it in the framework of this project for a few weeks is enough of the most basic capabilities of a particular system. There is no need to buy something expensive and complicated.

Below I will give a list of tools that I somehow found, and, some of them, I used.

Online tools

Cacoo

Type: Online
Price: have a free account
Link: http://www.cacoo.com/

iPlotz

Type: Online
Price: there is a free version
Link: http://iplotz.com

Mockflow

Type: Online
Price: have free accounts
Link: http://www.mockflow.com/

Mockup Builder (beta)

Type: Online / Silverlight
Price: currently free
Link: http://mockupbuilder.com

Creately

Type: Desktop / Online
Price: $ 5
Link: http://www.creately.com/

Lucidchart

Type: Online
Price: $ 5
Link: http://www.lucidchart.com/

Mockingbird

Type: Online
Price: $ 9 / month
Link: https://gomockingbird.com

Pidoco

Type: Online
Price: from $ 9 / month
Link: https://pidoco.com

Hotgloo

Type: Online
Price: $ 14 / month
Link: http://www.hotgloo.com

ProtoShare

Type: Online
Price: from 49 $ / month
Link: http://www.protoshare.com

Desktop tools

Pencil

Type: Firefox Addon
Price: Free
Link: http://pencil.evolus.vn

Serena Prototype Composer

Type: Desktop
Price: Free
Link: http://www.serena.com

Creately

Type: Desktop / Online
Price: $ 5
Link: http://www.creately.com/

Balsamiq mockups

Type: Desktop, Adobe AIR
Price: $ 79
Link: http://www.balsamiq.com

Flairbuilder

Type: Desktop, Adobe AIR
Price: $ 99
Link: http://www.flairbuilder.com

Omnigraffle

Type: Mac OSX App
Price: $ 99
Link: http://www.omnigroup.com

Antetype

Type: Desktop
Price: $ 289
Link: http://www.antetype.com/

Adobe Fireworks

Type: Desktop
Price: $ 299
Link: http://www.adobe.com/products/fireworks.html

Axure

Type: Desktop
Price: $ 589
Link: http://www.axure.com/

The list does not claim to be 100% complete and will be replenished with your help. Well, in the end - what to use each of us must decide for himself.