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Making Website Mock-Ups in Linux?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the web-site-storyboards dept.

The Ubiquitous Web Designer asks: "I am trying to design a rather complex web page and am wondering if there are any tools which will allow me to make non-functioning mock-ups of each page so that a programmer can work from them. Obviously, it's hard to use the GIMP to make radio buttons, check-boxes, data entry fields, and so on. Can something help me design a page without much knowledge of HTML, or am I better off just doing it with paper and pencil by hand?"

8 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Nvu by Sodki · · Score: 5, Informative

    Try Nvu, it's good enough.

  2. just the thing by greenguy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Inkscape is perfect for this sort of thing. I've used it many times.

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    What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
    1. Re:just the thing by SpectreHiro · · Score: 3, Informative

      I agree with the parent. Vector is by far the easiest way to produce mockups, and Inkscape is an excellent program. However, I'd also like to throw in a recommendation for Xara Xtreme which got slashdotted a couple days back. I'm quickly falling in love with it. I initially started using it because I couldn't get the newest release of Inkscape to run... Now, I don't think I'll be going back.

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      You can't win, Darth. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
  3. Paper Prototype instead by kognate · · Score: 4, Informative

    Please do not do what you've asked about doing. Instead, pick up a copy of Paper Prototyping at http://www.paperprototyping.com/ then read it, and then you will save yourself a huge amount of time (much more than the time you take to understand the concept).

    Your users will thank you.

  4. Sounds like a job for denim by afd8856 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Java tool, optimized for tablets though. http://dub.washington.edu/projects/denim/

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    I'll do the stupid thing first and then you shy people follow...
  5. Whatever works . . . by Evardsson · · Score: 2, Informative

    When I worked as an HTML code slave, I would get mock-ups done in Photoshop, GIMP, pencil and paper, Dreamweaver, Word, Publisher, Open Office, whatever. What it all boils down to is that you need to work the way you work best and leave the coding up to the coders. If you are most comfortable doing your mock-ups in crayon, then do them in crayon. The important thing is to be sure that you have gotten your ideas across clearly and plainly, and have a little faith in your coders to do the job. If you can't trust them, then maybe you need new coders. o_O

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    Death looks every man in the face. All any man can do is look back and smile. - Marcus Aurelius
  6. why not use xfig? by belmolis · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you just want to show layout and don't want to draw by hand on paper, why not use xfig or some other diagram-drawing program? If you do a lot of this and want higher quality drawings, you can create a library of objects.

  7. Re:A Constructive Observation. by dhasenan · · Score: 2, Informative

    He's looking for fast prototyping, and he doesn't need functionality. He can ostensibly do the work in HTML, though that isn't his job; he just doesn't want to spend a week or two developing a prototype when he might be sending out a dozen for a single job. It's inefficient.