A good and reliable deliverable is essential for every web designing and development program. The most important of all deliverable are the WIREFRAMES and MOCKUPS. The biggest advantage of using these deliverable is that these are easily understandable by clients and are action oriented. In addition to this, these help in communicating vision and expectations in the most realistic manner and help in easy collaboration and discussion. The progress being made can be easily tracked by making use of WIREFRAMES and MOCKUPS, thus inspiring change and action.
The difference between a mockup, a wireframe and a prototype?
A lot of people use these terms (Mockup, Wireframe and Prototype) interchangebly, however they are significantly different and have specific application in software requirements stage.- A wireframes is a skeleton. It doesn't include colors, typography, pictures or details and NOT a lot of attention is given to the exact layout. It does not convey the brand. Instead it just has description of the content, functionality and the hierarchy within which content is displayed. Wireframes are a good way to do requirements workout sessions, these can be used during requirements discussion with the end users or business analysts of the application.
- A mockup contains colors, typography, pictures and other details. A lot of attention is given to the exact layout and exact proportion of content elements. The common usage of mockup is for UI desgin using rich photo editing software like photoshop or GIMP.
- A prototype is something that demonstrates some functionality of the finished product. These are typically used in large projects to save cost by doing the simple feasibility before real project work is started.
Following is the list of the most awesome Wireframe Mockup Tools for developers:-