Kevin D. White - Comments

Idea for a useful webapp: A tool for doing web page mockups that's better than Photoshop because things actually look right (because it's rendered by the browser). It doesn't need to generate good html, so absolute positioning, etc is ok.

September 4, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Daniel Rowley, Laura Norvig, April Buchheit and 25 other people liked this

FrontPage? DreamWeaver? http://refreshingapps.com/showcas... - Her Lindsay-ness

22 more comments

Totally brilliant idea. I write my own bad html mockups in a text editor or whatever IDE I'm playing with at the time, but a tool to ease this process would mean I could get on to abandoning the half-finished project much sooner than usual. :-) - Slippy "Threadsbane" Lane

Um, isn't that what Balsamiq does?? - Cyndy

Please god no, don't create another "doesn't need to generate good html" code generator. srsly - Jason Wehmhoener

Well, as for the mockups, there is really great Firefox extension called Pencil. You should try it. - Mladen Srdić

using Cappuccino, an open source framework that makes it easy to build desktop-caliber applications that run in a web browser? - huixing

Paul, have you checked out Axure http://www.axure.com/? I've typically used Visio or resorted to whiteboards/paper as they are easier to edit. - Jauder Ho

Jason, I would be fine with it not generating html at all. As for Balsamiq and some of the others, the idea is actually that it would look more like the final product instead of less. Photoshop gets fonts wrong and stuff because it isn't a web browser, and yet people still keep using it, so it seems that it must have some advantage over the other tools. - Paul Buchheit

Photoshop has two major advantages, multiple uses and precision. Photoshop can be used for more than just web mockups. One person can achieve multiple goals with Photoshop while a mockup tool just makes mockups. The second advantage is the mockups look great in presentations because the author has complete control. Photoshop mockups aren't real they're hyper-real. - Kevin D. White

Are mockups that look exactly like the finished product even desirable? I'm reminded of the "Napkin Look & Feel" (http://napkinlaf.sourceforge.net/#Overvi...) - Laurence Gonsalves

Depends whether your goal is to sketch and idea or create a final design. For the latter, you really do want it to be pixel perfect. For the former, you want a "wireframe" or whatever the cool kids call it these days. - ⓞnor

What ⓞnor said. For "wireframes" a whiteboard is fine, but eventually you want pixel-perfect designs. - Paul Buchheit

Paul, you should check out Denim, http://dub.washington.edu:2007/denim... - imabonehead

Paul have you tried Fireworks, that's what our designers use. - Michael

http://www.balsamiq.com I got this link from Cooper U boards a while back, and a lot of my co-workers have found it very useful. While it's not pixel perfect, it allows for really quick mock ups with the idea that the design of the end product will be done by actual designers. - Sam Ee

http://www.balsamiq.com/product... That's a better link. The demo video sold me on the idea. - Sam Ee

Second attempt: http://friendfeed.com/e... - Paul Buchheit

I've been looking for something like this for years. Balsamiq is definitely a good start, but I feel like there's not quite enough depth yet. Has anyone had luck with stencils like the ones found at http://graffletopia.com/ (for Omni Graffle)? - Sutee Dee

pixel perfect? The web isn't print. Complete control over the rendering environment is an illusion. Don't submit to it! - Andy Bakun

Paul, have you checked out Axure RP? - Jauder Ho

http://gomockingbird.com/ - Neil

Vi is pretty good. You just write some text and point a browser at it. - Cliff Gerrish

Try wireframing and prototyping apps - I am not sure if output is rendered at browser level though. Protoshare.com, jumpchart.com, productplanner.com - TrafficBug

Done, already - Ozkan Altuner