Comparison of common prototype design tools Balsamiq Mockups, Axure RP, and Pencil

Ruby on Rails focuses on rapid and agile development, which is very suitable for rapid development under high intensity. At this time, documents or something must be saved. However, there are two documents that absolutely cannot be omitted. Not only can they not be saved, but they must be done as best as possible and kept updated. These two documents are: database model and interface prototype made with Power Designer. There are more options for making interface prototypes. I have tried a few and let me know my feelings.

一、Balsamiq Mockups

Let's start with a few pictures to appetize :)

Features:

Saveable: Say goodbye to those piles of paper wireframes…
Ease of use: UI controls support automatic drag and drop, and can achieve automatic alignment;
Beautiful: hand-painted style, simple and refreshing;
Rich: From buttons to input boxes, from navigation bars to pages, forms, and even the most trendy Iphone elements;
Convenience: In addition to the toolbar, you can also use the hidden edit box to modify elements, and support shortcut keys;
Compatible: XML language can be used to save elements, and PNG images can also be exported, which can be inserted into any project;
Cross-platform: Based on Adobe air. Available for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and versions that integrate with Confluence, JIRA, and XWiki. If you don't have time to download the desktop version, you can also directly use the web version of Balsamiq Mockups

Balsamiq Mockups is best used for low-fidelity wireframing or sketch design in commercial web product design. Compared with paper and pen, it is not flexible enough; compared with Axure, it is not precise enough; its advantages are also obvious, compared with paper and pen Faster, simpler than Axure, and easy to use.
In fact, the most crucial thing is that it costs $79, but you can try it for free.

2. Axure RP

If you think Balsamiq Mockups is more expensive at $79, then Axure is even more luxurious. Many Axure training fees are much higher than this price!
Axure is pronounced "Ack-sure" and RP is short for "Rapid Prototyping". Axure RP Pro is the meticulous masterpiece of Axure Software Solution in the United States. It can be said that Axure is the best prototyping software on Windows, and it is also the first choice for the pre-design of web products. , Quickly and easily create prototype documents, function descriptions, interactive interfaces and annotated wireframe web pages based on catalog organization, and can automatically generate web page files and word documents for demonstrations to provide demonstration and development;
Axure RP six-in-one function : Website architecture diagram, schematic diagram, flow chart, interaction design, automatic output of website prototype, automatic output of word format specification file;

3. Pencil

A firefox plug-in, a relatively small tool, basically enough to draw a simple interface. And it's open source and free.