Balsamiq - great wireframing tool

I have spent the weekend playing with a great wireframing tool called Balsamiq.  It’s a very neat app that simplifies the process of creating wireframes for websites and web apps.  When were in the planning stages for ProofHQ we used Powerpoint to create wireframes.  I just wish that we had Balsamiq back then.  Things would have been so much easier.

I tested Balsamiq using the Adobe AIR desktop version.  Balsamiq works by giving you a design palette and a big selection of UI components that you can drag & drop into the palette, resize and edit to create your wireframes.  You can easily reuse groups of components to create wireframes for multiple pages.

I used Balsamiq to create my wireframes.  I then exported my wireframes as a series of PNGs and then uploaded them to ProofHQ to share with the team and get feedback.  Once I had comments from the team I was able to make changes and then upload to ProofHQ as a new version to get approval.

Giacomo “Peldi” Guilizzoni was at Adobe before setting up Balsamiq.  He runs the business from Italy, where he relocated after working in Silicon Valley for several years.

“got up on the table and mooned the startled client”

I came across a great series of posts by Mark McGuiness on how to give and receive creative feedback.

He referenced a classic quote from Paul Kitcatt, Creative Partner at Kittcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw, about why agencies keep creatives away from clients:

Old-fashioned ad agencies keep their Creatives away from clients. With good reason. I know one who, having presented his work and had it rejected, got up on the table and mooned the startled client. They’re animals, you see, and keeping them hidden adds to the mystique.

So is this true.  If you are a designer, what’s the worst you’ve done?

By the way, I thought that this post should go in the “Best Practice” category.

When clients become designers!!

Enough said…


Cliente designer from Mauricio Campos - COMMO design on Vimeo.

New release on 20 November 2008

We launched quite a few new or improved features yesterday.

We have already covered the following in earlier blogs:

In addition, we are pleased to announce the following additional improvements:

Converting Files to Proofs

If you receive a file from someone via the File Send function, you can now create a proof from that file with just one click.

This is ideal for working with freelancers where a freelance designer could send you a file and you can then convert that file into a proof.  File sends do not count towards your monthly proofs.

Go to the Proof tab and select the Files Received view.

Then click on the Craete Proof button in the list.

Add multiple People to multiple proofs in a Workspace

You can now bulk-add People to multiple proofs in a Workspace.  You can select one or more people and add then as reviewers to one or more proofs at the same time.

Go to a Workspace and select the Add People button.  This will take you to a page where you can select the people and the proofs in the Workspace.

New filters on the Proof tab, new default view

We have upgraded the filters on the Proof tab.

If you have a high level profile (Admin, Super profile) you can filter to view just your own proofs, or proofs in the whole organisation.

There is a new default view of Open Proofs.

We have added Comments as a column.

Upload pages - People no longer mandatory

You can now create a proof or upload a file without adding people.  This lets you check a proof before adding a review team.

Managing your “People” list

The original incarnation of the People tab was fairly confusing, so we have made some changes to improve usability.

we have added a Type field so that you can see at a glance the type of person in your People list:

  • Colleagues:  People in your own organisation.
  • Members:  ProofHQ users in another Organisation.
  • Contacts:  People who are not signed up with ProofHQ.

You can delete anyone from your People list.  If you are an Administrator and delete a Colleague, this will remove them from your organisation completely.  If you delete a Member or a Contact, this will hide them from your People list, but not from the system.

People are now shared in an organisation by default.  If you add a person your colleagues will see that person in their People tab as well.

There is also a new filter on the People so you can filter to people in one Organisation.

Proof “Roles” - Greater Flexibility for your Workflow

Today we launched a major new feature to give you more flexibility in your approval workflow.

Proof “Roles” let you set different permissions for people invited to a proof.

The Roles that we have created initially are:

  • Reviewers:  Can annotate (add comments and mark-ups), but cannot make a Decision (default Decision is Not Relevant).
  • Approvers:  Can make a Decision, but cannot annotate the proof.
  • Reviewers & Approver:  Can both annotate and make a Decision.
  • Authors:  Can annotate and make a Decision.  Can also use the Add People and New Version functions.  If they upload a new version the owner of the old proof will also be the owner of the new version.

Choose Roles

  • Start by clicking on the Create Proof, New Version or Add People functions.
  • Now, whenever you add a person to the page, there will be a Role drop down next to that person’s name.
  • Select the Role that you want to give each person.

Editing Roles

You can change Roles on the proof Detail page.  Just click Edit on any person and you will be able to select a different Role.

New “Groups” Feature

We have added a Groups feature to the people tab to make it easier for you to select review teams with just one click.

This means that you can create and save teams of reviewers as Groups.  When you are choosing reviewers for a proof you can select a Group and all of the people in that Group will be added to the proof as reviewers.

 Create Groups

  • Start by clicking on the “Groups” link on the People/Groups tab.
  • Click the Add Group to create a new group.
  • Add and delete people from your group in the Group People section.

Using Groups

You can select a group rather than a person by simply typing in the name of the Group in the chooser.  You can even type the word “Group” to just see a list of Groups.

When you select a Group, all of the people in that group will be added to the page.  You can delete or change any group members that you don’t need.

New ProofHQ “Version Compare” Feature

We are really pleased to announce a great new addition to ProofHQ’s version control features. 

Version control already streamlines how you manage proofs through several versions or revisions.  The new “Compare Versions” tool makes it even easier to keep track of changes that have been requested by reviewers.

 Compare versions side-by-side

The new “Compare Versions” feature lets you quickly check changes that have been made between versions of a proof.  You can click on comments on either version and both versions will be synchronised to show the same page and the same zoom level as you move from comment to comment.

Start by clicking on the “Compare Versions” function in the Versions menu.

Then select the older version that you want to compare with the most recent one.

Both versions will be show side by side on the screen. 

Click on the thumbnail to see a full screen view.

  • The latest version is on the left and the older version is on the right.
  • If you zoom, pan or change page, both versions will be synchronised - how sweet!
  • If you click on a comment on either version, both versions will move to the page showing that comment.
  • You can stop versions moving together by clicking the padlock at the bottom of the screen.

  •  To close the Compare Versions function, click the close icon in the top right of the screen, or uncheck the Compare Versions function in the Versions menu.

As always, we would really welcome your comments about this new feature.

ProofHQ adopts OpenID

 

We are pleased to announce that ProofHQ now accepts OpenID as a way of signing in to your account.

Existing clients can add OpenID by going to their Profile tab and adding one or more OpenID URLs to the OpenID table. Your OpenID provider will then authenticate you and you can use OpenID when you log in next.

New clients can register using OpenID. Choose the OpenID option on the sign-up form and enter your OpenID URL. You will still receive an email with a username and password, which can be used to login to the desktop Uploadr.

OpenID can be used when you login to the ProofHQ login page, or when you login directly to a proof.

To find out more about OpenID you can check out the OpenID web site http://openid.net/

Note: We currently comply with the OpenID 1.1 spec. We are working on implementation of OpenID 2.0. This means that some OpenID credentials such as Yahoo do not currently work.

Login with OpenID

Proof Login with OpenID

Update:  If you use OpenID to login to Basecamp, then Basecamp will give you a new username and password to use with third party applications like ProofHQ.  You can find that username and password in the “My info” section of Basecamp.  The screenshot below shows you where to find this information.

New ProofHQ Printable Summary

We have updated the print summary page in several ways.

  • Every comment is listed with its date and time, plus any replies
  • Every comment now shows a thumbnail of the page that it relates to
  • The thumbnail shows the mark-ups for that comment

This makes the print summary of each proof much more useful as a checklist for designers and proof creators.

To access the print summary from the proof go to the File menu and click the Printable screen option. To access the print summary from the proof details page just click the print icon at the top of the page.

Click on the thumbnail to see a screenshot.