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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.

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!!

I recently retired my trusty dual G5 Mac aka “Old Ironsides” in favor of a brand spanking new 27 inch iMac. As I bask and possibly self tan off the glow of this incredible monitor and remind myself to blink as to not burn out my retinas, I can’t believe I’m actually about to type this, but the display isn’t actually my favorite part, I actually expected the display to be cool. I wasn’t expecting the new Magic Mouse to be all that magical, as I have a natural distaste for wizards, magicians, and that other magic spelled with a K.

Before I continue, I feel inclined to mention that according to one of the deleted comments in my last post, I “might possibly be on crack” but I assure you that the Magic Mouse is totally awesome, almost as awesome as crack.

The Magic Mouse looks slick and futuristic like everything else from Apple (unlike crack) and has a nice weight that makes it feel almost natural in your hand or as natural as something manufactured out of metal and shiny plastic can possibly be (unlike a crack pipe). Interacting with the Magic Mouse is more like using a touch screen iPod touch or iPhone, you can click or even right-click without any actual buttons (not sure how that is even possible) zoom the entire screen, effortlessly scroll up/down/left/right and you can even go forward and back in Safari or iPhoto with the swipe of two fingers. Using the Magic Mouse is what I assume being on crack is like, you get to do things that make perfect sense to you but is completely illogical to everyone else, you know the rest of the squares with their normal mice.

And now just like crack, using the Magic Mouse has become addictive to me. Unfortunately the monkey is on my back I can’t get it off and I’m going to be stuck using my old optical mouse when I get to work on Monday with it’s annoying red glow and clunky wheel. But when I get off of work, trust me, I’m going to run right back to my Magic Mouse and like the saying goes “you ain’t catching no crackhead!”

As I was getting ready for the trip a few weeks ago, I wanted to setup a blog so I could keep everyone up-to-date of my travels and whereabouts. I was going to go with either a new WordPress setup, or through Tumblr, but Russ suggested I check out a new popular micro-blog Posterous. I checked it out and was pretty pleased with its ease of use, but a little dissapointed with the features it doesn’t have. Here are some of my main likes and dislikes:

Like: Easy to Post – Posterous’ main feature is that it’s extremtly easy to submit new posts. All you really have to do is send an email or an SMS message, with or without media attachments, and Posterous will add a new post to your page.

Like: “Zero Setup” – You don’t even have to sign up for an account. You email post@posterous.com and they setup your account for you.

Like: Social Media Sync - You can easily setup Posterous to update your social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. You can even select which sites to update every time you send an update by changing the email address you post to.

Like: Image formatting - Posterous takes all your images and puts them together in a nice format, consisting of a main image view (one image at a time) and a collection of thumbnails for every image you added to the post.

Like: Overall Clean UI – The Posterous UI is easy to navigate, and your blogs are easily customizable.

Dislike: Lack of Post Formatting – Part of the problem is that users are most likely posting through email or text, so not having many options for customization through email or SMS is understandable. The real problem is that the Posterous online posting/editing is not very robust, which brings me to my next dislike…

Dislike: Online Posting/Editing – Sadly, Posterous is NOT WordPress, and therefore is a little bit lacking in the area of formatting. There is a rich-text editor, but you can’t actually import media. The other problem is that if you want to edit a Posterous post that you submitted through email and contained images, Posterous just inserts a single custom HTML tag to reference the all the images. Basically, you can move around the image area, but you cannot separate or annotate individual images. This part is a huge pain, but if you’re not expected WordPress, then you’ll be ok.

So overall, I really liked using Posterous for its ease of use, clean layout and ability to sync with social media sites. But Posterous definitely lacks in a few areas that may or may not be a deal breaker for your needs. If you’re looking for ease of use, Posterous is great. If you’re looking for WordPress, well… CRIKEY!!!  Use WordPress.  And while you’re at it, throw another shrimp on the barbie.   OK, I’ll stop with all the cliche Australian slang.