However, participants who saw the Balsamiq sketches were slightly less concerned with the details and specifics of the design. The ResultsĪll participants were able to provide high-level feedback about both types of mockups. I then noted their feedback to see if there were differences between the two groups. I explained that the designs were still a work-in-progress and I was looking for high-level feedback regarding the concept and overall functionality, rather than the specific language, details, or look and feel of the page. In both cases, I told users to share their initial impressions about the design. (See images below with text blocked out for client IP reasons) Then, I showed half the participants the version one Balsamiq sketch the other half of the participants saw the version two HTML wireframe.
First, I mocked up the same high level design using two different methods: version one was created in Balsamiq, and version two was a very rough, grayscale, HTML wireframe created in Dreamweaver. To test my hypothesis, I conducted a comparison study to find out if the sketch-like quality of Balsamiq mockups had any effect on the type of feedback that users provide in the context of a study.įor the study, I used an A/B test format. I hypothesized that Balsamiq Mockups would be especially good for communicating early design concepts, to keep users focused on the high-level ideas, rather than on the details. Instead, Balsamiq takes an entirely different approach and deliberately uses a rough, hand-drawn look and feel - presumably to better communicate that these designs are just early ideas in-progress and are not fully fleshed out yet. However, the real strength of Balsamiq comes from the fact that the tool does not simply emulate other prototyping tools that make realistic-looking mockups (such as Visio, PowerPoint, GUI Design Studio, and MockupScreens). I also found it very easy to export my Balsamiq sketches as static files and add interactive behaviors on top of them using hotspots.
After only a short time using Balsamiq, I could create simple mockups just as fast (if not faster) than I could in Dreamweaver, the tool I use most frequently for rapid prototyping. I liked how quick and easy it was to drag and drop library items into the workspace and quickly adjust and rearrange them as needed. First impressions using BalsamiqĪfter demoing the tool for only a few minutes, I thought, “Wow, nice job!” It was fun to play with, drop dead simple to use, and required no tedious application tutorials or programming knowledge in order to just dig right in. After test driving this tool on my own, I decided to see how Balsamiq Mockups sketches compared to rough HTML wireframes in the context of a user study. It’s basically a lo-fi mockup tool with a built-in library of sketch-style UI elements that can be easily dropped onto a workspace and edited. Recently, I discovered a new prototyping tool for creating rough, sketch-style UI designs called Balsamiq Mockups.
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