Sketch is a lightweight MacBook based UI/UX design tool for modern app designers. Sketch is more like Adobe Photoshop but it’s built mainly for app prototyping and has one of the highest share in the wireframing and prototyping space. On-premise app designing tool for building animated and interactive prototypes using real-time preview, video layers & drawing tools. Learn more about Flinto for Mac Learn more about Flinto for Mac. Responsive prototyping. Create wireframes for websites and web apps that adapt to multiple screen resolutions for desktop and mobile. The UI elements in your screens will also adapt automatically. One free prototyping tool to rule all devices! Design and test website responsive prototypes.
Last Updated on March 13, 2020
Designers use wireframes, mockups, and prototypes for a variety of purposes. The three names are often wrongly used. They are not one and the same thing. A better understanding of each one may help ensure that the tool you pick will match your intended use.
Building a prototype is typically a three-step process. First, navigation flows of individual pages are sketched out. Then, low fidelity versions of these pages are then tested for usability. In the end, a high-fidelity, interactive prototype is built based on the lessons learned.
One or more of the following top prototyping tools should be just right for you.
Table of Contents
Prototyping Tools That Can Make Your DayEdraw Max
Edraw Max is the easiest and best-looking way to create and share interactive wireframe diagrams. Whether you’re designing into a new windows UI, planning an iPhone interface or reorganizing your website, Edraw has the right tools for you. With Edraw you can recreate website ui, mac ui, ipad ui and iphone ui in just a few clicks and furnish your plans with thousands of ready-made symbols.
InVision
InVision is an ideal choice for uploading design files and adding animations and transitions to transform static screens into clickable, interactive prototypes. This can usually be accomplished in mere minutes, it does not involve any a coding, and it offers a fast and economical way to set up and test your web and mobile product designs.
Forbes recommends this tool, and the company behind it, referring to InVision as one of the premier cloud companies in the world – right up there with Dropbox, MailChimp, Slack, and a few other notables.
What is there to like about InVision? For starters, this always-on prototyping platform speeds up the entire prototype building, testing, and collaboration process. How to re-download imovie on mac. Version control tools are there too, so your design won’t get lost in a flurry of feedback and changes.
It’s not difficult to create a prototype that has the exact look and feel you’re designing to either, and you can conduct an unlimited number of usability tests on your prototypes for free. Sign up for a no-obligation, free trial today!
Pidoco
With Pidoco in your toolkit, you can not only be productive from day one, but from minute one. This powerful prototyping tool is that easy to use, making it a good choice for web and mobile design teams looking to transition to something better. You can do low-fi prototypes, wireframing, and sketching with Pidoco too, which will likely come in handy from time to time, but where this tool really shines is in creating fully-interactive UX prototypes.
You’ll like Pidoco’s smart template system, as its building block approach helps to make your prototyping activities move along at a rapid clip. Pidoco can even be used to create specifications that your team members can use as design blueprints, or your clients can use to sign off on your projects. https://hotlinetree211.weebly.com/download-414-macos-1012-sierra.html.
Pidoco’s collaboration features are easy to use as well, as they allow collaboration in real-time, and include versioning features.
Proto.io
Proto.io is for everyone: designers, entrepreneurs, developers and students. It manages to cover the entire design process, letting you create anything from early wireframes and mockups, all the way to interactive high-fidelity prototypes that work, look and feel like the real app should.
To prototype in Proto.io you don’t need to be an expert designer, nor do you need to know how to code. The intuitive interface helps you easily build exactly what you want. Interactions are super easy to create with the Interaction Wizard and sharing is just a click away. You can create beautiful animations in no time, preview on the actual device and capture user feedback in text or video form!
Designers will be thrilled to see that they can import their Sketch and Photoshop designs into Proto.io and magically view them as screens and assets.
You can experience all of this during their 15-day full feature trial, at no charge.
PowerMockup
PowerMockup is used by thousands of professionals, many of whom work for global companies like Intel, Barclays, Siemens, HP, etc. PowerMockup is a PowerPoint add-on. Its purpose is to give PowerPoint users additional capabilities for building wireframes, mockups, and screen prototypes, by combining elements from the PowerMockup library with PowerPoint’s slideshow and animation functionality. The library pane contains over 800 UI elements and icons, and you can even add your own, plus, PowerMockup’s simple drag and drop operation is easy to use.
Webflow
Top antivirus for mac 2018. What can you do with Webflow? The answer is quick and to the point: you can design, prototype, develop, and launch. The reason behind this is simple. Anything you create on Webflow is powered by production-ready HTML/CSS and JavaScript.
Once you’ve built a prototype, tested it, and refined it, so it has the exact look and feel you’re looking for, Webflow lets you move from prototype to a fully-developed, responsive product, seamlessly. Just think of the potential time savings this all-in-one package can provide, and you can get started for free! Just sign up.
Lucidchart
Many web and app designers don’t realize how important professional-looking flowcharts and diagrams are until they have to present them to others, including team members.
Lucidchart will make a handy addition to your design toolkit, since it makes it so easy to create the diagrams and flowcharts you need, and do them right. Lucidchart is an online application that can only be used for diagraming, but its library of design elements and device types offers a solution for your website and mobile app wireframe and mockup requirements as well.
HotGloo
It can take lots of experience to get UX design down to an art form, and more than a few web and app designers feel they are somewhat UX-challenged in that regard. Creating a prototype that will emulate the UX you’re hoping to achieve can also be a challenge, but there’s a solution – it’s called HotGloo.
This wireframing/prototyping tool practically breaths UX. HotGloo was developed with team design activities in mind, which means it has a very shallow learning curve. It’s yours to try out for 15 days at no charge, so why not give it a try?
A few ending words
These prototyping tools offer quite a range of capabilities. Most provide excellent solutions for those looking to build high-fidelity prototypes. They will also fulfill their collaboration and usability testing needs. A few are oriented more towards creating wireframes or mockups. Several are multipurpose tools.
Whatever you’re in the market for, you will find in this list. Each of these tools is tops in its class. You won’t be disappointed.
Wireframing is a big part of every UX/UI designer’s daily job. There is an overwhelming number of wireframing tools out on the market that promise to make creating wireframes quick and easy.
But finding which ones will work best for your designs can be a bit like searching for a needle in a haystack, and finding a wireframing software that fits your price range can add even more stress to your search. But don’t worry—we’re here to help!
We’ve rounded up our top picks for the best wireframing tools that won’t break your budget.
Our top eight wireframing tools include:
We’ll give you a price breakdown, the pros, the cons, and a glimpse into what other designers are saying about each tool (all quotes taken from Capterra and G2).
Ready to learn about some amazing wireframing tools? Let’s get started.
1. Mockplus
Mockplus is a rapid wireframing tool for designers to create interactive wireframes for websites and mobile apps, which enables you to share and test design ideas across PCs and mobile devices from an early stage in the design process.
Price breakdown
Why should you use Mockplus for faster and easier wireframing?
With a large number of ready-to-use components, icons, UIs and templates pre-installed, Mockplus goes beyond simply providing you the tools to create your wireframe and lends you a hand with your designs. A full set of interactions and animations also make it easy to create more realistic wireframes. It’s also a collaborative tool: Your entire team can work on the same project.
What’s not so good about Mockplus?
Mockplus is much suitable for you to create low- and medium-fidelity wireframes, mockups and prototypes. If you are looking for tools to create high-fidelity designs, it may not be a good option.
What users are saying about Mockplus?
2. Balsamiq Wireframes
A wireframing tool for creating quick designs, running user testing, and sharing mockups with a design team.
Price breakdown
Why should you use it for wireframing?
One of the many Balsamiq Studios products, Balsamiq Wireframes is a Flash-based wireframing software with an extensive library of UI elements and templates that make wireframing a breeze.
The complexity of the Balsamiq Wireframe library can be a source of great inspiration for designers when producing desktop and mobile wires. Not only does it have many diverse elements, but it’s also easy to learn and use. Most designers describe it as being as simple as dragging, dropping, and arranging elements from the menu onto your canvas until you have the interface you desire.
Balsamiq Wireframes also has built-in presentation tools that make presenting your designs to clients a seamless process.
Where Balsamiq Wireframes falls short
Balsamiq Wireframes is not the best for building larger prototypes and lacks animations or interactive features. Designers wishing to simulate the UX of their software must be able to program interactions themselves and export as an interactive PDF.
This wireframing software is unique in style as the design elements have a hand-drawn appearance to them. This gives your designs a bit of a cartoony feel that may not be desired. Also, it’s important to note that once your free 30-day trial is up, you’ll have to purchase a license to save any of your previous designs.
What other designers are saying
3. Wireframe.CC
A simple, minimalistic wireframing tool for mobile apps and websites that’s easy to learn.
Price breakdown
What does Wireframe.cc offer?
If you need a quick and efficient tool for putting together some simple wireframes then Wireframe.cc is your best choice.
This web-based wireframe tool is super intuitive as the layout is a bit like drawing items on pencil and paper and cutting and pasting them on to your design. Wireframe.cc made it very easy to turn your mouse into a multipurpose tool. Simply draw your shape on a blank canvas and select what you want it to be from the 9 options on the appearing toolbar.
Wireframe.cc’s design templates are simple with the ability to choose from the mobile landscape, mobile vertical, and webpage. This focus on the basics makes Wireframe.cc a great option when you just need something rudimentary done quickly.
What doesn’t it offer?
Some see the simple nature of Wireframe.cc to be a downside—especially if you are looking to create anything mid-fidelity and up. No animation or interaction options are provided and it also lacks mockup creation, presentation tools, prototyping, screen capture, and feedback management.
It also doesn’t allow for the creation of more than one wireframe at a time so comparing various iterations side-by-side can be difficult. So while this wireframing tool is quick and easy to use, it is a bit limited in features and complexity.
What people are saying about Wireframe.cc
4. Figma
A cloud-based design platform great for sharing and collaborating among team members.
Price breakdown
Why is Figma good for wireframing?
Not all designers would associate Figma with wireframing as many people use it solely for its wonderful prototyping and graphic design features. However, this design tool gives you the freedom to create pretty much any design you want, including wireframes all the way from low- to high-fidelity.
Its open and expansive layout gives you the ability to create many designs within one project. It also gives you the ability to produce many iterations side-by-side, making brainstorming exercises and redesigns super simple. Figma’s design-centered approach makes it a wonderful tool to get your wireframing ideas out quickly by making usually tedious tasks quite easy.
Are there downsides to Figma?
To be honest, it is difficult to find reasons why Figma wouldn’t be good for wireframing. However, it’s not a tool designed explicitly for creating wires as it has multiple design purposes and functions. So if you are looking for something more specifically designed for wireframing, you might want to look elsewhere—especially if you and/or your design team will need to upgrade to paid versions. You might be paying for more than you really need.
What other people are saying
5. Pencil Project
An open-source graphical user interface tool great for wireframing, mockup creation, and prototyping by both solitary designers and big businesses alike.
App Prototyping ToolsPrice breakdown
Totally free!
What is Pencil Project good for?
Pencil Project is a downloadable wireframing tool for both Mac and Windows and is also available as a Firefox add-on. Pencil Project has loads of templates to choose from for both mobile and web so you can create many different low-fidelity wires of your interface.
This diverse UX tool has a good amount of interactive elements and is especially noted for its diagramming capabilities. Linking shapes, wireflows, and other flowcharts is made quick and easy with Pencil Project’s “connector” tool and page linking.
Free of charge and intuitive to use, Pencil Project is a great choice for basic wires or beginner designers.
What does Pencil Project lack?
Pencil Project is not the best wireframing tool for big design teams as collaboration features are a bit limited. Users have also noted that the variety of available shapes is a bit light and many designers are left needing to hook up to a more extensive online shapes library.
Other users have noted that Pencil Project feels a bit out of date and could use better-looking features. Furthermore, designers looking for mid- to high-fidelity wireframing capabilities will most likely want to use a different software.
What users are saying
6. NinjaMock
Collaborative mockup and wireframing application for designing and testing mobile apps and web pages.
Price breakdown
Why is NinjaMock great for wireframes?
NinjaMock lives up to its name by making wireframe creation super fast and efficient. It’s simple, quick to learn, and includes many interactive elements for both mobile and desktop.
The speed and intuitiveness of NinjaMock means you can spend less time learning how to work the software and more time getting creative with your wireframes. It’s also available for many platforms including IOS, Android, Windows phones and web.
Sharing and editing designs with clients is also made easy by the ability to produce unique links that can then be shared with customers allowing for real-time collaboration and editing.
Issues you may encounter with NinjaMockApp Prototyping Tool Mac Shortcut
If you’re a smaller company working on multiple projects that require various elements, NinjaMock’s pricing may not be feasible for you. Furthermore, users have reported issues with navigation between mockups and have requested more interactive layouts.
What users are saying about NinjaMock
7. FluidUI
An intuitive wireframing tool for supported on a wide variety of platforms including mobile Android and iOS.
Price breakdown
How FluidUI can help you make great wireframes
FluidUI is all about making great-looking high-fidelity wireframes. The free version offers up to 10 pages of workspace and even allows transitions and gestures between them.
FluidUI is unique among most other wireframing softwares in that it offers a wide variety of interaction elements and animations. Not only that, but it also comes equipped with over 2000 icons, widgets, and design elements that you can customize and drag-and-drop onto your page. Fluid UI puts everything you need for an awesome wireframe right at your fingertips.
What’s not so great about FluidUI
Although FluidUI does its best to give you great wireframing tools for free, their unpaid version is still a bit limited and many designers feel the need to upgrade. Another frustrating aspect to FluidUI is that multiple image upload is not supported, leaving you uploading images one-by-one.
What are FluidUI users saying?
8. Mockflow
On-premise and cloud based wireframing software equipped with template library and drag-and-drop editor.
Price breakdown
Why should you wireframe with Mockflow?
Mockflow is kind of a one-stop-shop for wireframing and web and mobile app development. Not only does this software have amazing tools and presets for fast wireframing, but it also has website building, banner design, collaboration tools, and a timeline manager. All of these extra features make sharing your wires a breeze and moving forward in the design process a lot smoother.
Mockflow is especially great for beginners as their design presets save you the time it would take to create your own shapes and elements.
What are the drawbacks to using MockflowFree Online Prototyping Tool
The basic package is a bit limited and most users feel the need to upgrade to the paid package. Mockflow is pretty specific to wireframing and mockup creation so if you’re needing something for prototyping and user testing, you might be better off with a different software. Users have also reported issues with the software lagging when they try to work with multiple pages.
What people are saying about Mockflow
9. Cacoo
A diagramming software for designers, freelancers, and students to brainstorm flowcharts, mind maps, mockups, wireframes, and more.
Price breakdown
What’s great about Cacoo
Cacoo is a great wireframing tool for creating both low- and mid-fidelity wires. It’s cloud based and heavy on team collaboration with quality presentation tools and ways to share your ideas with colleagues. There’s a good amount of templates to choose from as well as other features for creating user flows, prototypes, and diagrams.
Free Prototyping Tools
The free trial is on the shorter side but it offers unlimited users and up to 25 pages or projects— pretty generous! Especially since Cacoo can be a great tool for design tasks other than wireframes, such as flowcharts or user testing.
The downsides to using Cacoo to wireframe
The free version is a bit more limited than the subscription and you can only export projects as PNG files. You also can’t access your work once your free trial ends so you must back it up elsewhere in order to save it. Some users have reported its cloud-based nature to be a bit frustrating as it can lag or malfunction if they’re not using a very up-to-date computer.
Furthermore, there is a bit of a learning curve to using Cacoo as the keyboard shortcuts are not as intuitive as desired.
What are other designers saying about Cacoo
A final word
So there you have it, our picks for the top 9 free wireframing tools. Each software has its own unique features to help you produce professional-looking wires quickly and efficiently. And while they all have their downsides, finding the right wireframing tool will depend on you or your team’s individual needs.
If you’re about to start creating your very first wireframe, I really recommend watching this video tutorial by CareerFoundry’s Head of Design, Jeff Humble.
If you’d like some inspiration as you create your wireframes, check out our favorite examples of website and app wireframes.
And if you’d like to learn more about UX design and wireframing, check out these articles:
Comments are closed.
|
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |