iPlotz: Goofy Name Belies Powerful Wireframe Tool
Anyone who has ever built a Web site for a client knows the painful process of gathering feedback on page layout and navigation. That's what makes sketching wireframes such a valuable technique for eliciting those responses - before spending time and energy on design and coding. But trying to capture critical feedback on Photoshop wireframes can be arduous in its own right. iPlotz promises to make the entire wireframe process much easier - and more affordable.
iPlotz offers a Web-based tool for quickly sketching wireframes of Web sites and demonstrating navigation between pages. Using the straightforward interface, designers will be creating rough sketches of Web pages and linking them together in a matter of minutes.
There are a number of things to like about iPlotz.
First, it's incredibly easy to use. With its drag-and-drop funcitonality, we were able to quickly recreate wireframes of current ReadWriteWeb pages right out of the gates.
Second, unlike other diagramming tools which offer everything from org charts to electrical schematics, iPlotz is focused on Web site wireframes. In fact, one of the best features of the product is the limited number of objects from which you can select. There's just enough available to build a semblance of a Web page.
Third, those objects are very rough - as if hand sketched. Why isn't this a detractor? In this case, rough is better. Representational elements enable wireframe designers to focus clients on concepts and functions without getting into design specifics. Need to move beyond the standard components? iPlotz allows users to import other media - like specific images - to incorporate into the wireframe.
So what's not to like? Given that the communication around the wireframe is critical to this portion of the Web design process, we had hoped for more from the commenting features. In our testing, there was a clear division between the design interface and the comment interface. To make a change based on a comment, users have to toggle back and forth between those two screens. Worse yet, the comment pointers don't adhere to objects on the design screen. We were able to move one object out from under a comment and replace it with another - destroying the context of the original comment.
But while the "collaboration" features may be lacking, there's a great deal to like about what iPlotz offers for wireframing. Enough so, that we'd consider using iPlotz as a simple sketch tool without even touching the comment features.
If you're interested in test driving iPlotz, you can open one project with up to 20 pages for free. That's plenty to give you a feel for the tool. If you find it useful, the subscription price is $99 US per year.
And try to overlook the name. Remember "Yahoo!" and "Google" sounded goofy the first time you heard them, too.
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Nice article about iPlotz. As a very regular user of Axure I have to say that the simplicity is rather interesting and appealing for a user who wants to focus on the simple elements of wireframing.
I am missing the option to create specification and write an overall comment/description about a page/element that is developed/wireframed.
Needless to say that every now and then it would also be good not to rely on online connection and work in the "offline" world.
We've only just released the product 3 weeks ago, so it's early days. We are adding many new features over the coming days and weeks, including masters, better commenting features, annotation, import and export of stencils to share sets of commonly used elements, and a few more design objects. We are also creating an offline Adobe AIR version for desktop use, and over time we will add in the requested features while still keeping it simple. On top of this, we will shortly have it in about 12 different languages..:-)
cheers
mark vernon
iplotz.com, vtc.com
What a lousy video tour. Come on guys, i was on the verge of passing out. Product looks interesting though if you survive the video tour. good luck.
If you're interested in iPlotz, it would also be worth checking out Balsamiq. No collaboration features, but very simple, very easy to use wireframing tool written in Adobe Air. I've used it for a few months and absolutely love it.
http://www.balsamiq.com/
Full disclosure: I'm just a happy customer and have no other connection with Balsamiq.
I'd happily second the recommendation for Mockups (from Balsamiq).
ok ok...I'll redo the video tour since we updated the features tonight, and we have to do it anyway...
Just gave it a whirl and think it needs work before it'll impress.
Slow-fading animations on dialogs are irritating, and it took too many clicks to make a project I had to 'save' (I haven't done anything yet!). When I finally got a canvas in front of me, I couldn't close the annoying dialog and start playing.
Just this small handful of irritations meant that impatient and busy people like me, who need to make mockups fast, will be switched off.
Still waiting for the perfect non-Adobe Air native application...