It’s the year 2010.  Weren’t we supposed to have jetpacks and flying cars by now? I mean come on, no hoverboards?  No teleportation??

Well, at least UI design is slowly catching up.  The demand for a user interface that delivers a rewarding experience and is aesthetically pleasing has never been higher.  Fortunately, the tools and methods for building a well rounded UI are now very numerous.

Wireframes and Mockups have become a standard in the design process, and tools keep popping up specifically for wireframing.  I recently tried out Cacoo, a new web-based wireframing tool.  I have been using different wireframing/mockup tools for the last few years, like Adobe Fireworks and Balsamiq Mockups, so I had an idea of what I was looking for when using Cacoo.  Here are my main likes and dislikes (besides their pastel based theme… just kidding):

Like: Extensive Library - Cacoo has pretty much every general type of UI component you would want to include and then some in it’s “Stencil” library.  Everything from wireframe components (buttons, text inputs, etc…), to UML diagram assets and flow charts, to user icons (good for story boards) . It also has grouping capabilities like in Balsamiq or Fireworks, which essentially allows you to create your own components from 2 or more simple components.  And, like Balsamiq, it features a “Freehand Wireframe” Stencil, which gives your wireframe an unfinished sketch look… useful for keeping visual design out of the conversation until appropriate.

Like: Web based, Collaborative - It’s nice to be able to access your wireframe projects anywhere, and since Cacoo is built in Flash, it’s highly interactive and doesn’t suffer from browser related inconsistencies (does require Flash Player 10).  They also added a feature that I would have never thought of: real time collaboration.  An entire team can discuss and edit the same wireframe in real time.  I haven’t fully tested this feature out, but it looks very promising.

Dislike: Limited Export - As far as I can tell, Cacoo only exports to a flat PNG format (does not have any layer information), so you essentially just get a screenshot of your wireframe.  Comparatively, the latest version of Balsamiq Mockups has the ability to export to XML as well as PNG.

cacoo

Overall, Cacoo falls in between Fireworks and Balsamiq Mockups in terms of features.  It has a far better library of UI components than Balsamiq, but not quite as extensive set of features as Fireworks, especially the lack of a real free hand draw tool.  It has nowhere near the learning curve of Fireworks, which is a huge plus and I would even go as far as to say that it is as easy to use as Balsamiq Mockups.  The one big thing that Balsamiq has that Cacoo doesn’t is an extensive online community of users and contributers.  There are a ton of free add-ons that can be downloaded at http://mockupstogo.net/.  Also Rich Internet Application gurus , the Midnight Coders have provided a conversion service that creates a full blown Flex application from your Balsamiq mockup.  Pretty sweet idea!

So all things considered, Cacoo is a very solid wireframing tool, and if some of the unique features – like the real time collaboration – prove as useful as advertised, I may be making the switch in the near future.  In the mean time, I’m still holding out for my damn jetpack to show up in the mail!!