There are a bunch of rapid prototyping tools out there. So why bother with MockApp? Here are 3
main reasons for that:
Like a good pair of slippers
A prototyping tool should help you create great apps. So if you’re not comfortable using the tool, chances are people aren’t going to be comfortable using your apps either. That’s why a good prototyping tool should be like that pair of well worn slippers you’ve had for years and would not trade for the world. And what’s the graphic software equivalent to that pair of slippers to most people? That’s right: Powerpoint (or Keynote if you like extra fuzz in your slippers). Everyone owns PowerPoint or Keynote and most business people use them daily as a weapon of choice to put co-workers to sleep. And that’s precisely why I chose PowerPoint and Keynote to create MockApp’s templates (not the sleep part, just the familiarity).
Wireframes never get anyone excited
When I first started doing UI/UX in 1997 at AGENCY.COM, the school of thought was that you should always do your mockups in wireframes. And man… if a designer caught you putting the slightest hint of color in your wireframe, were you in trouble! Of course, wireframes are better than no UI/UX design at all but there are 2 big issues with them: 1) they don’t get me excited enough about the user experience to get really creative. 2) they don’t get clients, investors or even my mom excited. So from then on, I started doing high-fidelity mockups and never looked back (mostly by by fear of sharp projectiles thrown by angry designers).
MockApp helps you produce iPhone mock-ups that are so freaking high-fidelity that your clients, investors, and your mom will not only get it; they’ll start searching the app store thinking it’s already live. An added benefit is that you can do some realistic usability testing with MockApp mockups too.
What makes MockApp so high-fidelity? In short, vector graphics. I took the time to re-create most of the iPhone interface elements such as buttons, menus, toolbars, etc. all in vector graphics. Sometimes even re-drawing them entirely by hand (I heard that: “doesn’t this guy have something better to do?” by the way). The benefit to you is that you can make them yours: the buttons can say whatever you want them to say, the menus can be resized to the size you want. If you’re familiar with gradients in ppt and Keynote, you can even recolor the UI elements. Is that high-freaking-fidelity or what?
Static mockups suck
If you want your audience to sound like they’re watching 4th of July fireworks (Ohh, Ahhh, Wow, Ohhh), you’re going to want to make your mockup interactive. It’s amazing how much more convincing an idea is when people can click around and play with the interactive prototype. The problem is that up to now, unless you were using expensive and/or hard to use prototyping tools (think $500 S&M slippers), you probably couldn’t easily create an interactive demo out of your mockup. Photoshop for example, is very limited in this area. PowerPoint and Keynote on the other hand both have native features that are great to create an interactive prototype: you can make your UI buttons and links clickable and have them go to any slide you want. You can create “push” transitions that look like the real deal on the iPhone. You can even create some animations. I’m not saying it will perfectly replicate all the functionality of your app but it will definitely make the point a lot better than a static Photoshop mockup or worse, a static wireframe.
