Design your way

Friday, July 11, 2014

Everybody now knows who Mark Zuckerberg is, everyone knows that Bill Gates is one of the wealthiest people on the planet and there’s quite an impressive number of people out there who view Steve Jobs as somewhat of a saint.

My point is that having a great idea for a software or a web-based service and having the dedication and perseverance to see it through, can earn you fame and fortune almost overnight.

But first, you need that great idea. And after you get that great idea, you need to make people around you see why your idea is that great. You don’t have to be some kind of a sales genius to do it.

All you have to do is be able to define the way your application will function and interact with users in a way that is both attractive and accurate. And in order to do that, you can use a wireframe tool that will help you create a blueprint of the functionalities your application will encompass before you set to work.

Creating a wireframe is the first step in the development process and it’s one that should not be treated lightly. If you are able to properly define a wireframe for your project, then you can share it with your entire development team and you can benefit from their feedback and ideas and work towards refining your final product. Also, having a well-built wireframe will allow you to have an overview of your entire project and also get a sense of the steps you have to take in your development process.

Pidoco is a neat web-based prototyping software that will offer you every tool you might need in order to create your wireframe. Using Pidoco you’ll be able to define wireframes and UI prototypes for web, mobile and enterprise applications. The best thing about this software is that it’s very easy to use to its full potential and yield impressive results.

Easy to use

Pidoco has a straight forward interface that makes it very easy for new users to get accustomed to this tool. Their start page helps you with keeping your projects organized and also offers you with an instant overview of each one.

Each project has the following categories of objects: Pages, Screenflows, Layers and Custom Stencils. Every item comes with a quick menu where you can define basic characteristics. For example, for pages you have: Page name, Parent Folder, Width, Height, Background and Notes.

Wide variety of stencils

The page editor has a varied array of stencils to choose from and all you have to do to add them to your page is drag and drop them wherever you need them. Also, each stencil that you use has its own quick menu that allows you to define its behavior.

Define interactions for your objects

The newest and most interesting feature provided by Pidoco is Interaction. This new feature allows defining simulations for touch gestures, device movements, location information, system reactions and more. Interactions can be defined for your page as well as for each individual stencil you. Every interaction comes with its own set of characteristics that you can define, like what movement triggers it, what delay you’ll have before the reaction and how the reaction will play out.

Simulate

It’s very important that you always have a clear image of how your screens look like. Pidoco offers the possibility to simulate your wireframe at any time, so you’ll always be able to have sense of what the overall status of your project is. You can choose from three types of sketches: Simulate sketched (Comic Sans), Simulate sketched (Arial) or Simulate plain. We chose Simulate sketched (Comic Sans).

Also, for developing wireframes for phone apps, you also have the option to send your sketch to your mobile phone and see the simulation there, so you get a better sense of how your interactions work on phones or tabs.

Feedback and collaboration

Pidoco offers a very useful feature that enables you to share your work with others, when working in a large team, you’ll find this very useful. You can either invite other developers and designers to work with you on your wireframe, send an invite for someone to review your project or ask someone to give you feedback on your work.

Every change is recorded with username and timestamp so you can always know who changed what and when. Also, in your projects page, you can quick view the collaborators on each project.

Export specification

Sometimes having to write a specification at the end of the wireframe development process can be difficult since you may forget something along the way. With Pidoco all items you define from pages, to stencils within pages have the Notes option in their quick menu. The information you provide there is automatically transferred in your wireframe specification that you can generate as a PDF straight from the Pidoco editor.

Conclusion

Pidoco is versatile, intuitive and a lot of fun to use. It’s very easy to create whatever type of wireframe you need and, then share your work with your colleagues.

After everyone has had their say and given their feedback, you can generate the specification with just the click of a button and then set to work. In addition to all of this, Pidoco offers you the option to create templates that can be reused in your future work. We don’t know about you, but we’ll surely be using Pidoco from now on.