![]() Over the years, as Mockups became mainstream, we have heard the same argument from many of you: you love Mockups and want to use it on every project, but sometimes its playful character didn't help, your awesome wireframes weren't being taken seriously by your boss / your graphic designer / your client. I think his criticism came mostly because we used Comic Sans as a font back then (we've since switched to our own, hypoallergenic font), but his point was valid, the playful look and feel didn't fit all situations. The first person to raise the issue was famous British designer Andy Budd, back in 2009! In his My First Impressions of Balsamiq article, he argues that our skin had TOO MUCH character, it distracted stakeholders from looking at the structure of the wireframe. We love our sketch-like skin and are very proud of it, but over the years we've heard from many of you that it doesn't fit every situation. ![]() It also has an instantly-recognizeable, playful character that makes everyone who uses Mockups a little happier at their job every day. It makes it obvious to everyone that the design is NOT final, and encourages people to give honest feedback, which is what it's all about. The fact that wireframes created with Mockups look hand drawn has been one of our best ideas yet. It makes working in Mockups for hours and hours an even smoother and fun experience. We think Mike did an amazing job with this new look, it's truly gorgeous and does its job extremely well. Since we run on Windows, Mac, Linux and the Web, we needed a look that didn't try to mimic the native look and feel of the controls, but also one that didn't scream "Look at me, I'm a Flash application!" Our goal with the new look and feel was to make something that is beautiful, professional, incredibly intuitive, all the while staying out of your way as much as possible. In fact, it's making me appreciate how important graphic design is, even early on. Mike started by redesigning myBalsamiq while still in beta, and now we're taking his gorgeous, minimalistic design sensibility to Mockups itself, and it feels great. We have a world-class graphic designer on our team, and it's time we start using his skills to the fullest. It's been four years now, and it's time for Mockups itself to grow up. Just like a wireframe, I wanted to make sure the app worked well before spending time and money making it pretty. I did my best to make the Mockups skin look OK, but I clearly never made the look and feel a top-priority. When I started Balsamiq, I was on my own. When I was back at Adobe, my friend and colleague Nigel Pegg would spend hours tweaking the speed of an animation tween and working with our designer Tim Allen to make sure that everything looked beautiful and pixel-perfect. ![]() The new release sports an updated look and feel, and a new "wireframe" skin for you to use in your mockups, and lots more! A new editor look and feelĪs a programmer, I have always cared more about making my software SOLID rather than having it look pretty. It is with great excitement and pride that I present to you our biggest release yet: Balsamiq Mockups 2.2!
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