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Hi everyone.

After months of working nights and week-ends, reading nearly every post on BoS and getting great website feedback from some of you, today I am launching my first microISV and product (Balsamiq Mockups, a tool to create GUI mockups)

http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups

There's a free demo that works on the web and another for your desktop.
I also donate licenses to the desktop app away to bloggers and do-gooders.

I appreciate all your feedback and suggestions.

Wow, I have never been blown away in the first five minutes like I have with this software. Very, very impressive. I absolutely love how the mockups look like sketches instead of trying to emulate the look and feel of a specific platform.

There are a few nitpicky things I don't like about the app; I don't know if they are a limitation of Air or a design choice. The menubar, for example, has a rather non-standard behavior.

All in all though, magnificent!

... but it consumes CPU like nobody's business. The desktop app is, on average, using over 75% of my cpu even when the app is idle.

Really? I'll look into that ASAP. What OS are you using?
Thanks for the kind words btw, you made my day already.

Brilliantly executed site and software. Best of luck.

Giacomo approached me when I started the Sprint about me using Balsamiq to do Mockups for my application, and between persistent work-related delays and working directly face-to-face with my designer I haven't done as many as I expected to do. 

That said, his software is *amazing* and I hope to get a chance to show it off in the future.

Very cool, good luck.

PS Website is wonky in IE6 (it's used by a third of your customers.)

Congrats. Very nicely done!

I like it.  My only suggestion would be to get a sample mockup "above the fold", in that dead space in the upper right.

Great application (I've been thinking about it since you first posted the movie link) ... unfortunately I don't seem to be able to buy it.  While your demo movie plays fine, the flash download button doesn't load in my browser.

Ubuntu Linux "Feisty"
Firefox 2.0.0.14

Using the on-line version works fine (except for the nag) and I can import/export just fine.  The PNG file created by the on-line version is listed as corrupted by several different graphics programs and won't even load in Firefox.

Can't wait to get it ... I predict GREAT success:)

I saw your movie demo... I believe you should redo the audio part.... it gives no informations about what you are trying to do, just "move this here, here...."...

Switched to my desktop, which has current versions of the OS and browser:

Ubuntu Hardy
Firefox 3.0

This time the download button states "Adobe AIR is not available for your system", but the "INSTALL NOW" message is displayed.

I also have the same problem with the PNG downloads from the on-line version.

Very nice!

One small misspelling: "turn the nob to 11" should be "turn the knob to 11"

I like the casual feel of the demo video, but the lip smacking and mouth noises seem amplified and annoying. Maybe clean up the audio track and republish...

I see the desktop version costs money but are you getting any money from the flash version? Sorry if I'm missing anything obvious...

Hi Peldi,
Website update looks great.

I was using your application last night.  The new installation routine that you provided worked flawlessly.  I did not notice any CPU issues while using Balsamiq.

Some suggestions/problems that I did have, in the spirit of continuous improvement;

1. I felt like I had to click 3-4-5 times in order to get my cursor positioned to edit text.  Annoying.

2. Being able to type directly into a text enabled object would be awesome

3. Had some trouble using the Table/column object.  Sometimes extra characters would appear three in a row (example: EEExample). This seemed to be related to the commas.  Also don't think copy and paste from outside the applicaton (e.g. requirements doc). Pressing special keys like control may cause part of my problem.  Let me know if you want me to do some extra testing and provide a more specific report on these items.

4. Minor difficulty lining objects up either vertically or horizonatlly, although I saw the software was trying.

5. I don' t know if it would defeat the purpose, but if you could import your own images (such as an existing screen) to be a background or generic object, that would save a lot of time.  Sometimes I just want to say, this is the screen we have, and this is the screen I want.  Might even be through notations or drawing arrows.

Great work.

I'm glad you turned this into a full product. I really liked the web only version you did a while ago.

(I liked it so much I considered making something similar myself for the desktop if you didn't! But now I don't have to)

Wait, I can't figure out how to buy and how to download the desktop version.

Help?

Improve your navigation?

http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups/desktop#download

Thanks everyone for the kind words and the feedback, keep it coming! I'll be incorporating it into the app and site as soon as I can.

Looking very good, unfortunately the desktop version doesn't install on my system (Ubuntu 7.04, FF 2.0) as Adobe Air is not available. On the online system, when I try to export a png I just get a 'broken' style image i.e. a bit like when a browser fails to download an image for a webpage.

Excellent app.

Just one comment on the web site. It took me 5 minutes of navigation to find your price and purchasing page. Do you want to sell or no?

Hey there, thanks again for all the great feedback.

I have started incorporating it into the website and application, and have just released an updated build. Details here: http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=78

Peldi:

I can provide instructions for installing Adobe AIR and Balsamiq Mockups on Ubuntu Feisty, Gutsy and Hardy.  It's not terribly hard, but must be done from the command line (only about 10 commands).  Since this forum doesn't support code well, where would you like these to be published.

Unfortunately, it appears that the demo desktop version isn't really useful for evaluation.  My main concern is whether the AIR version properly exports a PNG file, since the on-line version seems to only generate corrupt ones (I haven't booted into Vista yet to test it there).  Since there are no menus in the demo desktop version, there's also no way to tell whether the PNG export works.

Your website also states "Some of the features of the app, like saving and loading multiple mockups, can only get unlocked using a license key.", but it looks to me like the re's no way to save or load even one mockup, so I haven't done anything very complex with the program.  It would be great if your web-site was more specific with regards to the demo version versus the unlocked version.

On the bright side, I'm absolutely convinced that this application is what I need for my software specifications.  The ease of use is fantastic.  In any case, I'd be happy to help you debug the PNG problem if you have any questions (I had even considered buying a license key and returning it if the PNG didn't work, but I didn't see a money-back guarantee ... I suppose I could charge it back, but that's pretty mean).

As I mentioned above, I think you have a winner here ... If I can get this working for my consulting company, I suspect a lot of my clients will also want it (do you have an affiliate sales program?).

ciao,

Steve, "make it work on linux" is next on my todo list, so thanks for volunteering your help in this area. Email me at peldi@balsamiq.com and we'll take it from there ok?

Looking forward to it!
Peldi

Hi there. Just a quick note to let everyone know that I fixed the linux version of mockups (the menus are back in there) and added a section to the help page on how to install Mockups on linux: http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups/help#linux

I also link to it from the download page for Balsamiq Mockups for Desktop.

Let me know if you spot any error or if you think this isn't enough information.