Balsamiq Rolls Out Mockups

Balsamiq Studios, LLC is a little start up with big ideas. They recently rolled out their first of several planned plug ins meant to make the web office a better place, called Mockups. I had the chance to speak with Balsamiq creator Giacomo "Peldi" Guilizzoni, and his big ideas for his start up impressed me, as well as his implementation plan.

That's right, Balsamiq is a company with a clear eye for how much they can accomplish, when they can get it done and how to monetize it to keep themselves in business. I was impressed by that before I even had a chance to play with the software, it has become such a rare thing in this world of social media superstars. Peldi brings a variety of experience to the table, not the least of which was his most recent stint as Adobe's Senior Software Engineering Lead.

So what is Mockups? Mockups is the first plug in released by Balsamiq in a planned series of them, all designed to make your life easier. Mockups is designed to help you create a better UI, managing the project more efficiently. Think of it as a fast tracking prototyping tool for developers, designers and project managers.

Balsamiq plug ins are designed to work in Mac, Windows and Linux and this one is no exception. It is built using Flex and offers versions for Atlassian Confluence and Adobe Air, with a Jira-compatible version and a Twiki compatible version in the works. You can see a demo of the Confluence version at this link.

Designed to work how you need it to work, where you need it to work, Mockups gives you a way to take your design and development work offline or online. I had a chance to play with the desktop version over the course of the last few days and love it. I was concerned that my lack of development experience would make it difficult to use, but in fact that couldn't be further from the truth – even this developer newbie was able to figure out how to use Mockups in record time.

Some may be put off by the friendly design of the application's tool bar, but I liked it. It has a white board look and feel to it that conveys what Mockups is all about. The spiral notebook look of the work area was a nice touch as well. It came off as a very low-key and easy to use, which contribute significantly to my comfort level with the plug in.

Another thing of note is the Balsamiq Mockups pricing plan. It follows the Atlassian Confluence model closely. More important for some of our readers, if you are a blogger or a "do-gooder" you can use the desktop application for free. Details on how can be found here. You have to love a start up with a plan for sharing their application with people who'd love to use it and would benefit from it but may not have adequate funding.

When I asked Peldi to tell me what problem he saw Balsamiq solving, he had this to say:

I think I will focus on vertical solutions (like Mockups is a solution for the software industry). This is for a number of reasons: to avoid competing directly with the Web Office vendors who focus on horizontal features and to address unsolved problems with each vertical. It is not worth it for large software vendors to solve problems with verticals, but for a one-person company like Balsamiq it creates huge opportunities.

Mockups is a solid platform for UI testing and creation that software types will love. As I discovered, even non-software types will love it. Meanwhile, Peldi has plans to work on a number of other plug ins in future once Mockups is standing on its own. With a solid plan and interesting products, Balsamiq should be around for quite some time. I can't wait to see what they put out next to enhance the Web Office experience.

Edited to fix logo image issue 6/25/08