What is the most designer-friendly and intuitive wireframing and/or UX app?
Omnigraffle, because it's the one that gives a huge amount of tools in a very efficient, fast and cost-effective package, with an impressive flexibility:
- You can use it for IA
- You can use it for Wireframes, from high-level to detailed ones
- You can use it for prototypes
- You can use it for presentations
- You can use it to draw diagrams and graphs
- You can import seamlessly data into Keynote
- You can export do clickable PDF
- You can export to hierarchic HTML (and then you can add note-taking javascript)
- You can build your shapes, patterns, stencils
- You can use it to build any PDF
Basically, any User Experience Designer or Interaction Designer need is covered with just one tool. ;)
However, even if I usually suggest this to every UXD/IxD, sometimes other tools are better for the environment they are put in:
- Balsamiq: great for collaboration and integration of early prototypes, it's harder to go into details
- Axure: great for quick sketches, it's harder to build custom interfaces outside the "normal" widgets
- Keynote: very effective for visuals and interactive demos, it's harder when you need to move on from its constraints and you need to keep somewhere the stencils you keep using
- HTML/CSS: very effective when there's a strong knowledge of programming within the team, it's slower than a proper prototyping/wireframing tool when comparing two experts head-to-head
- Illustrator: great for its flexibility, but it's harder when you need to create long and exhaustive documents.
- Fireworks: excellent tool for moving from prototype to visual, works marvels if the same person is doing these two phases, good support for symbols abstraction, adherent to the Adobe UI, it a little complex exactly because it covers a wide range of tasks and has the risk of making "too good" visuals.
Each one of these tools is usually preferred to Omnigraffle when there's already some kind of proficiency: if you already know a software, you usually work in that software.
I'd however suggest to any UX designer to get skilled in Omnigraffle too (and maybe a couple more) to have always the best alternative. ;)
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