I am not by nature a tech tools junkie. I tend to stick with what works for longer than my peers and database designs colleagues. That said, I am always on the lookout for something new that really works. Balsamiq Mockups fits that category for creating screen mockups as part of a design process.

I just stumbled on it from a passing mention by Eric Leland, fellow idealware.org blogger. Balsamiq Mockups is good for just one thing: creating mockups of database and web applications. Maybe like me, you spend a lot of time on this often tedious task. If so, then Balsamiq can replace simple or complex html tools, Gliffy (another passion), Visio, Word/Excel/Powerpoint, Google docs, Access forms, pen and notebook (love that too).

Here’s ten things I really like about Balsamiq:

1. Really easy to learn. I got going preparing mockups for an important web project with about 15 minutes learning time.
2. Has what you need. It has about 60 cool gadgets to drop on your page canvass: everything from full desktop or web browser frames, to date pickers and multi-media playback controls, to chart representations. Anything you might want to include in a project, you will find.
3. Fun: the gadgets and controls all look hand drawn, so your mockup really looks like a mockup and you have the same creative ease as if you were using a pencil or easel pad. Instead of feeling, oh, I got stuck after the design meeting with translating ideas into mockups, you'll think, oh, I got the fun task.
4. Fast: Once you get started, it should take 10-20 minutes per page. Try doing that in Excel or Dreamweaver.
5. Supports healthy planning: I can already see that drawings will invite comment and discussion and better getting to agreement than more formal looking things.
6. Collaborative: Even the off-line desktop version has a team orientation, by allowing you to send and receive diagrams from team members as XML files.
7. Easy to install: it is an Adobe Air application and installs on top of that in just a minute or two. Developer Giacomo Guilizzoni was a senior Adobe engineer (working on Adobe Connect, which we also value).
8. Nonprofit friendly: The web site offers free licenses to nonprofit and Open Source developers. Write to Mariah, Giacomo’s wife, partner, and director of Philanthropy, and she’ll set you up. (I purchased a first license of Balsamiq, but earnestly asked for a second if I wrote up our experience for this nonprofit audience. I probably would have done it anyway.)
9. Cross platform: Runs on Windows, Mac OS and Linux desktops and as an add-in to some higher-end collaborative tools. Paid desktop copies are $79.
10. Self-explanatory: you can also stick easily-distinguishable post-its, call-outs and other simple annotations on top of the mock-up so it becomes self-explanatory.

Is there room for improvement? Of course. Would love to see (in standalone version) easier way to group and order mockups in a project, some of the tools could use a bit more options, more annotation support. I'm sure these will come. Meanwhile...

Balsamiq has been love at first sight. Thanks for introducing us, Eric.

see also on idealware.org/blog