Best tools for designing web: 1) sitemaps, 2) wireframes, 3) flow charts (for interaction & software design)?
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M$24 Answers
For very functional (application) sites, I recommend Axure (www.axure.com) but a nice lower end wireframing tool is Balsamiq (www.balsamiq.com).
Personal experience.
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M$
If you are a software developer person - Visual Studio 2008 and Photoshop are a good combination.
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M$
A free alternative is DIA http://dia-installer.de/index_en.html
(the installer is the first link to the exe file in the downloads section)
It can handle a wide spectrum of charts. I use it to make functional charts for my own personal projects.
You could use any graphics program but that's the same as using a piece of paper.
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M$If what you are looking for is a way to deliver rich content to the web in a flexible and media rich way, I would suggest using Microsoft Silverlight and WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) within Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Blend. This integrated toolset allows you to use all of the traditional tools of software development to design sound applications that can serve rich content to the web or any other UI for that matter.
Rather than extol the virtues of said technologies, I will point you to some existing Silverlight, WPF, and Visual Studio resources at the end of this comment. I have over ten years in software development and no tools allow you more power or flexibility than these. You will need some strong coding and development experience though to take full advantage of what they have to offer. Hope this helps.
http://windowsclient.net/
http://silverlight.net/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/default.aspx
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M$Sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear, but it is the truth... VISIO
12 years of doing presentation and making flow charts on every program imaginable
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Adobe Creative Suite 4 contains most of the programs you want and work on Windows and Mac. It sounds like you need Fireworks or and or Dreamweaver.
There are some free things out there, but probably not worthwhile.
Personal experience
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M$
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$I've noticed that some people also tend toward Microsoft tools like Visio, but coming from a graphic design background Visio is not my preference.
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M$M!
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M$
2. wireframes -PowerPoint / Keynote. / Photoshop
3. Flow -charts- mind-map (http://comapping.com/)
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M$
If it's a dynamic website that has database connectivity, then flowcharts are good for defining process flow (e.g member logs in -> goes directly inbox etc).
Check out this tool http://www.balsamiq.com
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M$Having much experience in this area, I am comfortable suggesting these items:
1. Sitemaps
If the intention is to let the customer create their a sitemap for you to integrate, they need to use their own tools. That means pen and paper most likely. If you are creating the sitemap based on sparse data you collected during requirements gathering, I suggest a simple collaborative document - Google word doc.
2. Wireframes
Assuming you are creating the wireframes, and they are collaborating on them with you, Google presenter is the top choice. Another professional option, which looks promising, but slightly bulky, is balsamiq.com . It's interesting enough for me to try an another project
3. Flow charts
Interaction design
Still my favorite way to collaborate on interaction design is mind-map (http://comapping.com/)
Software flow charts
If we are talking about software development charts (state diagram, use case, object and class diagrams and the like) Violet Uml is a neat tool. If you need more robust tools you should stick with Dia or Visio.
Good luck,
Adam Temple, Bixly.com
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M$
Thanks, Adam. Nice answer. And some new tools to me: http://www.horstmann.com/violet/ looks especially interesting. So does http://www.comapping.com Also good to hear the endorsement of Google Docs and Presenter (have tried Docs, but not convinced, will try Presenter).
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M$I would say if you do a lot of any of those, it may be worth your time to move to a Mac if you're not already on one.
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M$
2 - XML sitemaps (dot) org
3 - Dreamweaver
4 - Dreamweaver
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M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Best,
Ben
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M$For the 'non-coder', Microsoft offers a newer option called Web Expressions or there's always the old standby, Adobe Dreamweaver: nice too as it displays your HTML code as you go for detailed editing.
Google 'CSS web templates', 'flash templates', 'DHTML tutorials' and you'll be amazed at the wealth of information and pre-designed layouts you can use. They're like pre-built containers you just fill with your own custom content.
Good luck and Cheers!
BB
Cylink Studios
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M$
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M$
1) Sitemaps and Flowcharts: OmniGraffle - it's easy to use and very flexible and reasonably priced.
2) Wireframes: This is totally based on the UI designers preference. The two tools that are most popular with our team are Fireworks and Keynote. Fireworks makes very attractive wireframes. The use of frames and layers allows for building an entire app in one file. Templates are easily created too, which can be used to start new projects. Also, by creating the UI wireframes in Fireworks, the visual design team can easily begin their designs using the already defined screen structures and naming conventions. This saves time and helps with consistency. Keynote is used also used by some of our UI designers. It makes for very nice presentations of the UI wireframe designs to the client. It takes more time for the visual designers to translate the UI into their structure, but it is very fast and flexible.
Hope this was helpful!
Source was many, many, years of experience.
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M$
Thanks for your answer. I've been checking out the links below and Fireworks looks very robust, actually best suited for after rough and dirty work. Your answer has me curious. If you're ok with it, ping me at http://buzzpal.com/contact I would be interested to learn more about you, what you do, if there might be any potential project work now or in the future. Thanks, Chris
Some Fireworks links:
Adobe Fireworks Development Center
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/
Adobe TV: Learn Fireworks CS4: Creating Interactive Prototypes for Reviews
http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1594v1015
Adobe TV: Fireworks Tips and Tricks: The Complete Design Process
http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1498v1658
Adobe TV: Fireworks Tips and Tricks: Information and Interaction Design
http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1498v1661
Adobe TV: Fireworks Tips and Tricks: Rapid Prototyping
http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1498v1659
FireworksZone.com
http://www.fireworkszone.com/
Some Other Links (thanks to those of you for submitting):
Comapping: An online mind mapping tool
http://www.comapping.com/
Violet: A free, easy, cross-platform UML editor
http://www.horstmann.com/violet/
OmniOutliner: A program for creating, collecting, and organizing information
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/
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M$
Thanks for the additional info. It's funny you should mention http://boxesandarrows.com as I was actually on the site earlier today.
Well, I guess I better select a "Best Answer" now. It's kind of hard because you, msrocket, and most others, added a LOT of value. Thank you all :) I really can't figure out who to award the "Best Answer" to. Mahalo should have a way for the tip to be split. Oh well, here goes.
Thanks again for taking the time to read, think about, and answer my question.
Happy holidays!
Thanks for that additional endorsement. Jut to make sure, you don't have any potential conflict of interest with Axure, do you? I'm sure you would have disclosed if you did, but this will just make it explicit for me and anyone else reading this thread. Thanks again. BTW, if you're ok with it, ping me at http://buzzpal.com/contact I would be interested to learn more about you, what you do, if there might be any potential project work now or in the future. Thanks, Chris
I have no affiliation with Axure, was just a user at a prior job with a business services company. We were developing a business system for processing of tax HR files and used Axure to help sell the idea.
Also, it's worth checking out the website http://www.boxesandarrows.com/ for more ideas.
Although the Axure option is pricey, when I've used it in the past it paid for itself. It is able to take sitemaps and wireframes and make a clickable/navigable demonstration that makes it very easy to demonstrate. I used it in the past to get funding and to sell concepts to customers with great success. It easily paid for itself on the first use.
Thanks for answer. That http://inkscape.org is new to me. The http://axure.com looks interesting, but relatively expensive. The Balsamiq has been getting a lot of fluff on the Web. He sure did a great demo, but it seems more like it should be freeware or $10 or something, not $80. Cheers!