Book Image

Balsamiq Wireframes Quickstart Guide

By : Scott Faranello
Book Image

Balsamiq Wireframes Quickstart Guide

By: Scott Faranello

Overview of this book

<p>Balsamiq Mockups is an easy to use, engaging tool for anyone looking to strategize and brainstorm ideas around product design and information architecture. With Balsamiq, you can strategize, create, prototype and present your ideas clearly and effectively to audiences large and small.<br /><br />"Balsamiq Wireframes Quickstart Guide" is a fast paced and easy to follow instructional book that gets you up and running quickly while challenging you to be the best you can be using the tool. With this book in hand, it will take only minutes to present an idea on screen.<br /><br />Wireframing is one of the key steps of effective user interface design and architecture. Finding the right tools to get your thoughts onto the page quickly and clearly is vital to your success. This book will have you on your way in no time. "Balsamiq Mockups Quickstart Guide" will walk you through the entire application in a fast, simple and engaging way. You will be presented with wireframe samples, exercises and real-world examples that will engage, challenge and enable you to become an expert wireframer and Balsamiq user. Whether you are looking to communicate ideas to your team, a client, a product manager, an IT developer, or if you are wireframing for the fun of it, this book is for you. By the time you are finished, you will have mastered the tools to do whatever your mind can think up. The rest is up to you.</p>
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Prototyping


Prototyping is the method for testing your ideas, user flows, navigation, design, and overall usability for the product that you have created. Prototyping also allows end users to interact with your designs and to provide valuable feedback before anything is ever coded. It is also an opportunity to present your work to stakeholders and/or clients before spending long hours skinning your design in Photoshop or finding that you may have missed a few important details along the way, requiring some extensive rework as a result.

As you can see, prototyping is a valuable communication tool. To give you a better idea of just how effective it can be, let's turn your wireframe project into one.

Symbols revisited

We will begin by opening all of your project files in Balsamiq. If you have been using the files provided with this book, they will be in your balsamiq_project_files folder, as shown in the following screenshot:

With the files open, check that all the page headers are symbols. You...