Our web app Balsamiq Cloud and our integrations all come with a FREE trial period. You can also download Wireframes for Desktop for FREE. The application is fully functional for 30 days, but you'll need a license in order to save your work after the evaluation period is over.
Balsamiq Wireframes is a user interface design tool for creating wireframes (sometimes called mockups or low-fidelity prototypes). You can use it to generate digital sketches of your idea or concept for an application or website, to facilitate discussion and understanding before any code is written.
Once you've linked together your Balsamiq, you can use fullscreen/presentation mode to demonstrate the click-through prototype. If you export the project to PDF, you can also present the click through prototype in a PDF reader on any desktop computer, readily available and free.
Linking wireframes together is as easy as choosing a wireframe name from a drop-down menu. Simply click on a control that supports linking (most do, and here's a workaround for those that don't), and you'll see a "Link" drop-down in the Property Inspector (click the "Show Links Inspector" link if you don't see it).
In Dreamweaver, insert the whole GIF wireframe into the page, just as you would insert an image. You can then draw hotspots (clickable regions that you define) on top of your navigation and link them up to go to your various pages. Voilà: a quick, clickable wireframe prototype that's ready to share with your clients.
How to make your wireframe in six steps
19 Best Practices for Faster UI Mockups
Balsamiq Wireframes is a rapid low-fidelity UI wireframing tool that reproduces the experience of sketching on a notepad or whiteboard, but using a computer. It really forces you to focus on structure and content, avoiding lengthy discussions about colors and details that should come later in the process.
A mockup is a static wireframe that includes more stylistic and visual UI details to present a realistic model of what the final page or application will look like. A good way to think of it is that a wireframe is a blueprint and a mockup is a visual model.
A mockup is a full rendering of your design on one or more of the client's products like labels, business cards, stationery and signage. A more complex mockup might show the client's book on a bookshelf or in a reader's hands, showing the world the product will inhabit.
It is used by people in a wide range of roles in the software industry, such as Product Managers, Designers, Developers, and Entrepreneurs. Here is an example of a "wireframe" created in Balsamiq, shown in two different "skins" (more examples here).
The best wireframe tools