: UI Mockup and wireframing tool for Mac OS X app UI's I'm looking to get some input from experienced designers, since my main job revolves around coding and not so much designing... What good

@Rivera951

I just tried using Omni-Graffle (version 5) and I have to say there are some major obstacles if your doing screen design:


Font sizes are not in pixels, nor are they correct: If I enter some text in OmniGraffle and give it a size of 12, then export the screen as a PNG and open it in Photoshop, the text size is in reality 9 pixels. If I enter 18, in Photoshop it's 15, etc.
Colors: the way OmniGraffle handles colors is not good. It relys on apples built in color picker which gives inaccurate results. For example: example, I create a Red with 255 0 0 or #ff0000 . If I now use the color picker tool in OmniGraffle and click on the red I just created it is now 242 0 0.
Screen size: you can't set a screen size in Pixel, only in points (pt).


I'm now also searching for a reliable wireframing and mockup tool. I can't really blame OmniGraffle though. It's actually a flow-charting tool and not really intended for wire frames.

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@Fox8063795

Have you tried using xCode Storyboards? Can't get too much more Apple-app-looking than that and xCode contains every kind of element that can ever be put into an OSX app.

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@Sent7350415

I think this question has been asked before but I haven't found it yet and if you do a google search for wireframing tools or mockup tools you will get a huge list to go through. That said some people use Omnigraffle for mockup which if I had to use I would.

Other tools:


balsamiq
pidoco
justinmind
framebox (which is online)
Mockup Builder


Depending on what you are doing and have a decent amount of design skills I would create your own mockup in Illustrator or Photoshop.

Edit per your comment


Thanks Gramps. The reason I asked was because of the overwhelming
amount of these tools available, I'm trying to find the best one used
my most designers. Much as Photoshop and Illustrator are the defacto.


Some would say Onmigraffle or balsamiq are the most popular but if you are worried about the design I would consider you implement designing in the browser because it would result in the best possible output and would be easier when transitioning from the mockup to a working site. Just be aware there will always be some variance from design on paper to actual code. Dont worry about the CSS or visuals something along this line that works on the intended device:

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