Good GUI Design Tool to mock up iPhone & Android applications

Question

I am about to embark on developing a mobile application for both the iPhone and the Android based phone. I have most of my gui mock ups written down on a white board and some in my head. I need to put them down on paper so I can relay my designs to others in my team. I was wondering what the best on-line gui mockup tool I could use?

I have a lot of experience with Visio and I truly like it. I want a tool that would be web based so I could collaborate with others on the team.

Does anyone have a suggestion for an easy gui mockup tool that I could use?

Answer 1

The Photoshop set of GUI elements from 320480.com is definitely worth checking out.

Answer 2

Everyone at my work uses Balsamiq, quick and easy to use.

Answer 3

I once found this tool here unfortunately it is still alpha and has not all gui widgets there.

http://iphonemockup.lkmc.ch/

Answer 4

For iPhone I tend to use xib files and Interface Builder - to just sketch out the ideas - it even has an option to try it out on the phone simulator and interact with the layout. The best thing is that it is easy to then take these screens and build stuff behind them. The biggest negative is that you cannot sketch TableView screens using it as you can't mimick a TableViewDataSource etc.

I looked at Balsamiq and it seems great for early stage sketches too and may be a good solution for both platforms - not many Android controls in there though!

Answer 5

I've used OmniGraffle for iPhone apps mockup. There are community generated stencils for iPhone and there might be also for android.

I found OmniGraffle to be helpful in creating mockup although not my ideal mockup creator.

OmniGraffle website - http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/ iPhone stencil - http://graffletopia.com/stencils/413

There's also a PSD file for photoshop available and one for fireworks if you use adobe products for design, which you might helpful.

Answer 6

I use these design templates for hand drawing

Answer 7

For Android based apps, DroidDraw is best tool I tried.

http://www.droiddraw.org/

Answer 8

For the iPhone this site has a list of 21 tools - installable, web based and plugins/psds. Here's a selection of them:

Notepod

Notepod is a notepad shaped like an iPhone. Each notepod is 100 pages of 60 x 110mm double sided paper. The front has 52mm x 77mm blank space (the iPhone screen), the back is a 6mm grid.

(You could just print off this template onto A4 card and save $10)

iPhone Mockup

iPhone mockup is a web based tool that is currently in Alpha release only. You can design your mockup as a hand sketch or illustration, and mockups can contain user-uploaded images and user-entered text

(It's missing navcontroller and tableviews)

iPlotz

With iPlotz you can create clickable, navigable wireframes to create the experience of a real website or software application

This is the best of the bunch in my view, and has a decent free package and demo. It is missing having the entire iPhone/Cocoa Touch set of controls though.

Answer 9

Take a look at mockflow.

Answer 10

StencilsApp is an iPhone app for creating mockups. You can even create transitions and triggers between screens using gestures and actions in a multi screen mockup. Its got the complete iPhone UI library, a large icon library and great 2D drawing tools. Its free to download.

Answer 11

You can also build interactive iPhone mockups with FlairBuilder. Check it out at http://www.flairbuilder.com

Answer 12

you could use this tool:

http://andrdev.blogspot.com/2010/01/gui-designer.html

its based on the eclipse emf project and you can design your gui by easily write text like:

Window "Demo"

SeperatorLine 1
One-Column-List +color=orange
Label "Login Screen" +color=white +centered
SeperatorLine 1

Two-Column-List
Label "E-Mail" EditText ""
Label "Password" EditText ""
Label "Stay logged in?" CheckBox [+] ""
Button "Cancel" Button "Login"

SeperatorLine 1
One-Column-List +color=orange Label ""
SeperatorLine 1

with the xpand language you can generate any text (code) from this input, so it would be no problem to get the gui code for the iphone parallel to the gui code for the android version

i know that it will need a little time to understand the emf structure but its worth it :)

Answer 13

WireframeSketcher lets you mockup iPhone and Android applications. iPhone and Android stencils are available in Mockups Gallery:

http://mockupsgallery.com/updated-iphone-stencil

http://mockupsgallery.com/android-stencil

Answer 14

"Developer Toy" let you mockup iphone application on iphone http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/developer-toy/id369714655?mt=8

Answer 15

If you like the NotePod idea of having a notepad shaped like an iphone to do you mockups .... I've made a template with which you can make your own notepod. Just print one in good quality on standard A4 legal paper and go to the copier and make a bunch of copies. Each page prints 6 pages for the notepad. There are guides that will help you use the roller-cutter to slice up your pages. Download the file here : http://cl.ly/083e64184bfd69db2640 Its a PNG. I used photoshop to print it

Answer 16

I used Mockingbird, which I found to be very helpful! And best-- it was free to use!