Hi, I’m Grace Smith

I was thinking about getting a Premium account, but I haven’t had a chance to try everything out yet. A free one would make that an easier decision.

WOW this an amazing service! I have been using dot paper form Behance Outfitters – http://www.creativesoutfitter.com/Products/Dot-Grid-Book/9 for a while but this looks like a pretty sweet thing. I have always done it with pen and paper and then transitioned to the computer after I hammered it out manually. I would love to have an opportunity to win a free membership in this Great post BTW.

I’ve always been a pen and paper man, but have recently been thinking a wireframe app is the way forward. So thanks for the great post and let’s hope this is my chance to give it a try!

Great stuff Grace! My tip is: start wireframing/ideation with clients using pencil and paper before using digital tools. It helps clients with their wireframing anxiety as it is sketchy and lowfi. Next, create the final sketch in a tool like mockflow and let yiur client ok this.

Hey Grace

Have you used mockingbird for wireframing at all? http://gomockingbird.com

I just started using it recently, after only using pen and paper and i love it. I’d be interested in a side by side of these two.

Use pen, make mistakes, and start over. Rinse and repeat.

It might seem slower than pencil, but redrawing often is when I get my best ideas.

Nice review Grace.

I only a question about it: is it possible to create HTML prototypes, like Axure?

I’m asking you this because every single client asks for HTML prototypes to feel the site’s behavior. Axure creates a very nice Word doc, with all screens, notes, priorities, etc. That’s a very valueable deliverable to sell.

Looking forward to get my premium account, hehehe! Just kidding

That app looks pretty amazing! My tip: don’t reinvent the wheel. =)

Wireframes have always been beneficial for me in organizing and develop the basic structure of my sites. This is also where I can show and get feed back from my developers. The hard thing with wireframes is that most of my clients can’t visualize how the site will ultimately look and work. They aren’t interested in how the site will work—just how will look. But I think with an interactive wireframe, they may be more willing to review the functionality then move on to the form. I’m going to give Mockflow a try.

Mockflow looks great and would have to be to drag me away from Hot Gloo, which I’ve been using for the last few months. Will give this a go, methinks.

I am kind of new to wireframing but I would have to say that my best tip is that the time spent doing it is much better than spending time do revisions after you have already started design and coding.

W00t!! Wireframing tools are my favourites, I never get tired of trying each of them, I would like this one too!!

I haven’t yet tested this app but I’ve been using another very nice AIR app (either thru a browser either thru their desktop app):
http://www.iplotz.com/

I’d say it’s main advantage is to have a large control gallery that allows users to also use the app for application wireframing.

Wireframes are such an important part of designing and development. Mockflow seems like a good app, but I’ll have to compare it to OmniGraffle Pro which is what I currently use.

Grace

Glad you are finding it such a great app and glad I decided to tweet you about it though I’m sure you would have come across it anyway you being a wireframe enthusiast and all

D

I came across this while looking at wireframing reviews, because of them being mentioned in job adverts. I always do mine on paper, and I find it quite a contemplative moment, being faced with an blank A3 piece of paper, (a pencil, ruler and an eraser). Kind of back to the basics really, and a nice chance to hold a pencil…. which is good practice (isn’t anyone else’s handwriting suffering?) Also a scissors is hugely useful to completely rearrange your ideas!

My tip about UX: don’t listen to the user, that was say by Jakob Nielsen and it makes perfect sense for me, user want something but they don’t know what until you put it on their front. Listen and learn but don’t do anything your users ask you to do.

I think this is a great site for everything related to wireframing:

http://wireframes.linowski.ca/ (wireframes magazine)

Most important tip: ALWAYS USE LOREM IPSUM. I still have nightmares presenting site mockups with real text. I didn’t get constructive comments on the design but I sure received a few “but… that’s not the right text!” comments.

This wireframing tool seems really really nice! Thanks for this great and very insightful review of Mockflow!

@mattMoring — Conversely, I’ve had clients quite distressed I put strange “languages” onto their website for design benchmark review.

Once the wireframe is done, the coding part is SO much easier.

People ask “why wireframe?” I reply “Would you build a house without blueprints first?”

My best tip for wireframing is simplicity. Keep everything as minimal as possible as the design stage comes later!

I’ve been playing with hotgloo.com for a while but will definetelly give a try with Mockflow.

Thanks for the nice review. I surely will be trying this out, whether I get it for free or not.

This looks incredible!

Wireframing takes some serious adjusting for a designer who is used to spitting out a “design” look for approval, rather than the initial frame…but BELIEVE ME (and a ton of others , once you get a handle on wireframing, it makes the rest of the process soooooo smooth.

A little like starting on table design, then shifting to CSS more of a headache that going table-less from the start…it will much less painful and a heck of a lot more productive to start off using wireframes.

Keep it vauge with WF…as someone mentioned, Lorum text, grayscale, and straight lines help when using. Keep the detail to a bare minimum.

I recently tried Mockingbird but it doesn’t have exporting capabilities. This looks awesome! I’d love a free account!

My best tip: Keep design out of it! color, images, and design-y typography belong on a design not on a wireframe. That took me a while to figure out

My comment: Err – halloumi cheese is really nice on a barbeque.

My favourite Wireframe or UX tip: Use a fat felt tip & a big plain pad you Muppet! At first at least

~ FIN

This looks like a great app. My #1 tip for wireframing would be to do it in black & white, no images, and lorem ipsum text. When showing it to clients or colleagues for feedback you don’t want them concentrating on any of those things at this stage. The layout should be the only thing up for review.

Hi Grace, thanks for the summary, I think this is probably the first wireframing tool that I’ll check out and try to use. Nothing before this looked appealing enough to replace my pencil and paper.

By the way, it’s difficult to tell between strong text and links sometimes as they’re both bold.

Dear Grace,

have you ever tried the wireframe tool pidoco on http://www.pidoco.com? This one looks very interesting and helpful to me. But have not worked with it, still using the cool tool “penandpaper” …

Martin