We have released another minor update for PowerMockup. Here’s the changelog:
You can update to the new version by downloading and running the installer from this link.
An update for PowerMockup is available, bringing the following changes:
We strongly recommend that everyone update to the new version. Click here to download the installer.
We are excited to announce the availability of PowerMockup version 4.0. In this post, I will introduce you to the major changes as compared to version 3.2, the last release of the 3.x cycle.
When upgrading to version 4.0, some of the first things you will notice are the redesigned wireframe shapes and icons that are included by default with PowerMockup. These shapes are much cleaner and clearer than before.
Also worth noting is the increased amount of included icons, which have more than doubled in this version. The icons, which are grouped into 19 categories, have been designed by our friends at VisualPharm.
In another change from previous versions, all included categories are fully editable–you can rename shapes, delete the ones you don’t like, or move them around (more on copying and moving items later).
The most common request we received from PowerMockup users was for additional shape collections. We heard you and built a download feature right into PowerMockup. Simply click on the large “Download More Shapes” button, browse through the available shapes, and download what you like.
We plan to continually expand the list and provide wireframe and mockup shapes for all major platforms.
Another addition to version 4.0 is the ability to nest shape categories in a hierarchy. For instance, you can create a root category “Windows Shapes,” then add a subcategory “Icons” and, below that, a category “File Type Icons.”
A category hierarchy can be up to 15 levels deep.
For each category, you can now configure the size of the icons as they appear in the shapes panel. Four different icon sizes are available: 16 x 16, 32 x 32, 64 x 64, and 96 x 96 pixels.
Also new in version 4.0 is the “sort key” setting. This setting can be used to control the order in which categories are displayed in the shape library. By default, categories are ordered by their titles, but if a source key is configured, this key takes higher priority in the sorting logic.
If you wish to reorganize the items in your shape library, you can use PowerMockup’s copy and paste functionality. Just select a shape or a category, choose “Copy” or “Cut” from the context menu, and paste the shape or category in your desired place.
Some of PowerMockup’s shapes offer additional customization options, which we call “Smart Options.” They allow you to easily add a section to an accordion shape, select an icon for a message box, change the checked state of a checkbox, and so forth. While in PowerMockup 3 these Smart Options were displayed on a separate Ribbon tab, they now appear in a floating window right next to the selected shape. As a result, options are much more accessible and comfortable to use.
PowerMockup 4.0 makes it easy to create central shape libraries that can be accessed by multiple users. These shape libraries are stored on the PowerMockup servers and synchronized across all users. You can explicitly configure who is allowed to access the shape library and what access rights (administrator, read/write, read-only) each user has.
Please note that a shared shape library requires a separate subscription in addition to a standard PowerMockup license. Pricing for a shared shape library starts at US$9.99 per five users per month.
If you have purchased a PowerMockup 3 license after October 1, 2014, you are entitled to a free upgrade. In this case, your license code remains valid. You can download the installer from here.
If you purchased your license before October 1, you can upgrade at a 50% discount. Please check the Upgrade page for all the details.
Creating wireframes is an effective way to kick off a development project and get a quick outline of its intended layout and functionality. Many developers know this by now, but exactly how many? In order to get an answer, we conducted a survey and asked 501 software developers the following question:
Have you ever heard of wireframes as a way to plan the layout of a user interface?
Out of 501 respondents, 61.3% said they had never heard of wireframes.
Interesting to note is that more men than women responded that they were familiar with wireframes.
When the survey results are broken down by age, it becomes apparent that developers between the ages of 25 and 44 are more likely to know what wireframes are than developers in other age groups.
We used Google Consumer Surveys to conduct the wireframe survey. The following screening question made sure that only participants with experience in software development were considered:
Do you have experience in software development?
According to Google, the survey results were obtained for a representative sample of the U.S. population. Those interested in the raw data can download the results in Excel CSV format here.
The survey revealed that the majority of developers is unaware of wireframing as part of the software and web development process. This will probably change in the next few years as wireframes increasingly find their way into university courses and gain acceptance in the developer community.
If you are new to wireframes and need a software tool to get started, take a look at PowerMockup, a wireframing add-on for Microsoft PowerPoint.
Rapid prototyping means quickly producing and evaluating working models (prototypes) of a software system before starting actual development. The rapid prototyping process consists of quick rounds of the following three steps:
The above steps are repeated until an acceptable solution is found.
When developing a desktop or web-based application, user interface (UI) prototypes can do a great job of testing if the proposed solution actually meets the requirements of the end users. A UI prototype clearly illustrates the functionality and usability to expect from an application and thus provokes feedback and discussion. In the prototyping phase, changes are easy and fast; later on they will be painful and costly. “Fail often, fail fast” is the mantra here.
A great tool for quickly creating and refining UI prototypes is PowerMockup. PowerMockup is not a programming utility; it’s more like a drawing program that lets the user sketch the screens of an application in the form of wireframes. It provides numerous UI stencils for buttons, headers, tables, and so on that make it a breeze to prototype and validate different design ideas.
When creating wireframes, we often use Lorem Ipsum text as placeholder content. This is fine as long everyone involved knows that this is just dummy content with no meaning other than to show where real content will be displayed later. Unfortunately, many clients have never seen Lorem Ipsum, resulting in irritations like “This looks great, but why is everything in Latin?”
To address this confusion I have created FILLR, a free dummy font that replaces actual characters with squiggly lines (heavily inspired by BLOKK, which uses blocks instead). FILLR makes dummy content immediately identifiable without distracting anyone with fake Latin.
Download FILLR Font Files (.ttf, .otf)
License: Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)