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Storyboard mode

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I am sure we all use Balsamiq to design and demonstrate user flow. I would love to see a capability to manage and create a storyboard.

You would start by creating a new storyboard in which it displays a grid on the screen. You could right click a cell in the grid and pick "Start new Mockup" or "Import Mockup".

If you click “Start new Mockup”, Balsmaiq puts you into the “create mockup screen”, but when you save it goes back to the storyboard. Of course you can drag and drop to change order, and/or double click to open/edit.

Saving the storyboard just saves an XML file, but you can also export the storyboard to PNG and choose a scale.

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Wernight September 16, 2010 16:35

I believe the way to make it simple is by allowing Balsamiq to define the connection flow at the GUI screens overview level like on:

User Interface Flow Diagrams (Storyboards)

By simply being able to move UI screens around and connecting them.

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Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni (Founder and CEO) August 23, 2008 19:41

Hi Michael, thanks for the idea. I have something similar planned for the feature. Could you maybe post a link to a bigger version of the image? It seems that GetSatisfaction shrinks images down and doesn't provide a link to the original size.

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- joegrant413 February 10, 2012 19:33
  
  Great! Keep it simple as always ;) I've been using Balsamiq routinely with PowerPoints, and perhaps you'll come up something better.
  
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Hi Michael, thanks for the idea. I have something similar planned for the feature. Could you maybe post a link to a bigger version of the image? It seems that GetSatisfaction shrinks images down and doesn't provide a link to the original size.

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Michael August 25, 2008 14:11

Can you elaborate on your "something similar planned"? I would be interested in helping you define it.

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Can you elaborate on your "something similar planned"? I would be interested in helping you define it.

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Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni (Founder and CEO) August 25, 2008 14:34

Hi Michael, I'm not ready to share my plans as they are not fully formed, but what I have in mind makes me pretty excited. Once I have something more detailed, I'll drop you an email - I'll probably want to assemble a small private "advisory board" for this topic.

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- natobasso July 28, 2009 19:34
  
  I'd love to be on the "advisory board" as I've starting doing a lot of storyboarding lately. My workaround was importing a storyboard png file (squares for images with lines under them for text).
  
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Hi Michael, I'm not ready to share my plans as they are not fully formed, but what I have in mind makes me pretty excited. Once I have something more detailed, I'll drop you an email - I'll probably want to assemble a small private "advisory board" for this topic.

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Michael September 17, 2008 08:44

Today I gave a demo of Balsamiq desktop to my development team. One request came up was to provide an html export option:

This would produce an html file with the embedded png image inside of it. Even better would be able to export all as single html file.

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- Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni (Founder and CEO) September 17, 2008 08:48
  
  Can you tell me a bit more about the scenario? I fear that a simple HTML file won't suit anyone's particular needs, people will want the HTML to be styled, add their comments, add a way for viewers of that html to add comments, etc...in other words, they'll have to open the generated HTML in Dreamweaver anyways, so how much time would this be saving them? But maybe I'm missing the scenario entirely.
  
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Today I gave a demo of Balsamiq desktop to my development team. One request came up was to provide an html export option: This would produce an html file with the embedded png image inside of it. Even better would be able to export all as single html file.

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Michael September 17, 2008 09:10

Peldi,
Great question.

It came from a desire to link the mockups together. The developer thinks it will be valuable and important to string mockups together in such a way that when you click somewhere on the mockup, it opens another mockup. We was hoping to then edit the HTML and hook-up the pages with link or image maps.

Example:
Say we were designing a wizard UI with many steps and alternate paths. It would be helpful to provide a single file format that can be distributed over the web with hyperlinks that piece the mockups together in order.

I can see its usefulness, but worry that if implemented as is, it could add too much complexity and dependence. Also it requires someone to edit the html files. So I am not sure he has the right idea.

But the goal is still the same as my story board mode idea. Which is why I posted it.

Idea:
Maybe you could create some kind of page/layer option in Balsmiq. It would be another page in your notebook.

You work on a single BMML file, but you can put whole UI mockups on different pages/layers. Maybe a presentation mode (my earlier request) would show the first page, and you could click somewhere to progress to the next mockup page/layer.

These are just some ideas, but I do think a lot of us need to mockup user flow, not just single UI screens.

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- Jason Smith March 27, 2009 20:39
  
  I hadn't considered it, but that's a really clever way to hand-roll storyboarding, at least for now. A simple script could take a list of mockup filenames and output a series of simple HTML files which embed the PNGs and link from one to the next. I see that I am very late to this party, but if it's still not implemented (I haven't tried the prerelease) and you are interested in something like this Michael, (*and* you are using a Mac or Linux or the word "cygwin" doesn't scare you) then I can open source a script like that as I basically can't live without it for my current project.
  
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- cbmeeks October 04, 2010 16:54
  
  This is an AWESOME idea.
  
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Peldi, Great question. It came from a desire to link the mockups together. The developer thinks it will be valuable and important to string mockups together in such a way that when you click somewhere on the mockup, it opens another mockup. We was hoping to then edit the HTML and hook-up the pages with link or image maps. <strong>Example:</strong> Say we were designing a wizard UI with many steps and alternate paths. It would be helpful to provide a single file format that can be distributed over the web with hyperlinks that piece the mockups together in order. I can see its usefulness, but worry that if implemented as is, it could add too much complexity and dependence. Also it requires someone to edit the html files. So I am not sure he has the right idea. But the goal is still the same as my story board mode idea. Which is why I posted it. <strong>Idea:</strong> Maybe you could create some kind of page/layer option in Balsmiq. It would be another page in your notebook. <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/8744/next_page.jpg"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/8744/next_page_inline.jpg" alt="" /></a> You work on a single BMML file, but you can put whole UI mockups on different pages/layers. Maybe a presentation mode (my earlier request) would show the first page, and you could click somewhere to progress to the next mockup page/layer. These are just some ideas, but I do think a lot of us need to mockup user flow, not just single UI screens.

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Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni (Founder and CEO) September 17, 2008 09:31

Ok, glad to hear this is about storyboards again...I have some exciting plans for it, I'll definitely include you in the planning and development of them. Image Upload comes first though :)

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Ok, glad to hear this is about storyboards again...I have some exciting plans for it, I'll definitely include you in the planning and development of them. Image Upload comes first though :)

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Geoff Bowers September 17, 2008 12:47

This is an important feature request for me too. We need some sort of mechanism for "presenting" a series of mockups in an interactive fashion. Ideally making a specific element clickable, and directing you to another mockup file would be great.

It probably all boils down to sorting out a good "project format" for managing collections of mockups on the desktop version of the tool.

Mind you, interconnecting mockups on a wiki like Confluence actually works quite well. Gives you the chance to annotate the mockups too.

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This is an important feature request for me too. We need some sort of mechanism for "presenting" a series of mockups in an interactive fashion. Ideally making a specific element clickable, and directing you to another mockup file would be great. It probably all boils down to sorting out a good "project format" for managing collections of mockups on the desktop version of the tool. Mind you, interconnecting mockups on a wiki like Confluence actually works quite well. Gives you the chance to annotate the mockups too.

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Brian Gilbert September 17, 2008 22:07

I look forward to seeing this functio0nality in Mockups if it is to come, however it does seem like a big thing to implement to me.. I used to use Axure RP, which allows a lot of this sort of functionality, albeit at an expense.. I just used trial of it, but it was quite good..

However I like Mockups for it's simplicity and sketchy graphics, I think they are better for initial stages to stop people visualising them as how the app will look and focus more on functionality.

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I look forward to seeing this functio0nality in Mockups if it is to come, however it does seem like a big thing to implement to me.. I used to use Axure RP, which allows a lot of this sort of functionality, albeit at an expense.. I just used trial of it, but it was quite good.. However I like Mockups for it's simplicity and sketchy graphics, I think they are better for initial stages to stop people visualising them as how the app will look and focus more on functionality.

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Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni (Founder and CEO) September 17, 2008 22:12

Brian, you nailed it. Adding interactivity is a slippery slope, and the trickiest part IMHO is how to offer such powerful functionality without tainting the simplicity of the tool for every-day use. I have some ideas on how to do it. When I'm ready to discuss it (give me a month or two), I'll email everyone on this thread privately to see if you could help me with the design/alpha/beta, etc.
I hope you will want to!

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Brian, you nailed it. Adding interactivity is a slippery slope, and the trickiest part IMHO is how to offer such powerful functionality without tainting the simplicity of the tool for every-day use. I have some ideas on how to do it. When I'm ready to discuss it (give me a month or two), I'll email everyone on this thread privately to see if you could help me with the design/alpha/beta, etc. I hope you will want to!

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Adam B. September 23, 2008 00:41

Once you have figured out a "collection" of mockups, I think the simple functionality of allowing a button or text item to "link" to another mockup in the collection would get me to 90% of what we need.

The concept of a presentation mode or output to HTML would be needed to allow people to click through. I'd be fine with straight HTML with no adornment as we could put it in a frame or add some header code somehow quickly.

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Once you have figured out a "collection" of mockups, I think the simple functionality of allowing a button or text item to "link" to another mockup in the collection would get me to 90% of what we need. The concept of a presentation mode or output to HTML would be needed to allow people to click through. I'd be fine with straight HTML with no adornment as we could put it in a frame or add some header code somehow quickly.

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Randhir November 05, 2008 18:38

Definitely love the idea of interactivity. It is one of the things I miss from Axure.

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Definitely love the idea of interactivity. It is one of the things I miss from Axure.

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The Eclectic Angler November 13, 2008 14:07

Michael and others, Peldi posted a link on the balsamiq blog about a technique I developed for creating storyboards/demos from Mockups. I have complete directions and a 48 page storyboard demo on my blog, There are several posts as I refined this technique. Here they are in order:

http://eclecticguy.com/2008/11/06/ass...

http://eclecticguy.com/2008/11/07/upd...

http://eclecticguy.com/2008/11/10/upd...

And yesterday I summarized the entire thing along with a description of my learnings from the demo I developed using this technique:

http://eclecticguy.com/2008/11/12/shr...

You can check out the demo (and the application I am working on) at:

http://www.shrugh.com

One advantage of this technique is it only requires a Web browser to view - it can be distributed as files or served from a Web server.

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Michael and others, Peldi posted a link on the balsamiq blog about a technique I developed for creating storyboards/demos from Mockups. I have complete directions and a 48 page storyboard demo on my blog, There are several posts as I refined this technique. Here they are in order: http://eclecticguy.com/2008/11/06/assembling-demos-from-balsamiq-mockups/ http://eclecticguy.com/2008/11/07/update-assembling-demos-from-balsamiq-mockups/ http://eclecticguy.com/2008/11/10/update-2-assembling-demos-from-balsamiq-mockups/ And yesterday I summarized the entire thing along with a description of my learnings from the demo I developed using this technique: http://eclecticguy.com/2008/11/12/shrugh-status-update/ You can check out the demo (and the application I am working on) at: http://www.shrugh.com One advantage of this technique is it only requires a Web browser to view - it can be distributed as files or served from a Web server.<a href="http://www.shrugh.com/images/01-ShrughHomepage.png"><img src="http://www.shrugh.com/images/01-ShrughHomepage.png" alt="" /></a>

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sfmatthews November 16, 2008 15:03

Please include me in the e-mails when you get to that point. Thanks, Steven

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Please include me in the e-mails when you get to that point. Thanks, Steven

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Michael November 16, 2008 17:12

Been thinking more about this:
I think you could still satisfy much of this requirement by allowing a new property with each UI component that lets you link mockups together.

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Been thinking more about this: I think you could still satisfy much of this requirement by allowing a new property with each UI component that lets you link mockups together. <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/17832/11-16-2008_12-11-35_PM.png"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/17832/11-16-2008_12-11-35_PM_inline.png" alt="" /></a>

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ramses November 22, 2008 22:52

any ideea how long aprox. will take the implementation of storyboard feature in balsamiq?

anybody working on some external solutions like this from Michael Hackney?
i am asking because i have some ideeas regarding an external editor for his workaround, but i don't want to waste my time if a better solution will be a generic one or another existing external one. The manual editing of html and css files is not very convenient for me.

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- Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni (Founder and CEO) November 23, 2008 08:23
  
  Hi Ramses, I still don't know. This is the one last big remaining feature for Mockups, and I want to take the time and do it right. I am going to ship 1.5 in the next few weeks, then deal with bug fixes if necessary, then focus on this. So it will be at least a couple of months before I have anything testable. I'd love to hear about your ideas if you're willing to share them!
  
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any ideea how long aprox. will take the implementation of storyboard feature in balsamiq? anybody working on some external solutions like this from Michael Hackney? i am asking because i have some ideeas regarding an external editor for his workaround, but i don't want to waste my time if a better solution will be a generic one or another existing external one. The manual editing of html and css files is not very convenient for me.

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Michael November 23, 2008 12:03

Peldi,
Can you let us know how this might be implemented? If you see my post above, I think this would mostly satisfy what people are looking for:

http://getsatisfaction.com/balsamiq/t...

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- Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni (Founder and CEO) November 23, 2008 12:19
  
  Hi Michael, what I have in mind is pretty close to your proposal. I'll start a thread about the design as soon as 1.5 is out (I really want to get this out, it's been taking too long).
  
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Peldi, Can you let us know how this might be implemented? If you see my post above, I think this would mostly satisfy what people are looking for: http://getsatisfaction.com/balsamiq/topics/storyboard_mode#reply_667263

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Eugene Mirotin December 23, 2008 11:33

I could suggest looking at DENIM (http://dub.washington.edu/projects/de...) with it nice idea on different scaling levels

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I could suggest looking at DENIM (http://dub.washington.edu/projects/denim/) with it nice idea on different scaling levels

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Rory Clarke January 06, 2009 13:03

Fantastic.

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Fantastic.

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Pete January 06, 2009 17:20

I've been using Easy Prototype on Mac to post my mockups on the web. Then I use Protonotes to add some javascript to it so that people can add postit notes on the fly. Works great. I recommend implementing something close to this in Balsalmiq.

www.getiquality.com/prototype/admin

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- Randhir January 22, 2009 01:26
  
  Pete, I can't seem to find a product called Easy Prototype on Mac. Is that what it's called? Can you please post a link to it?
  
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- Pete January 22, 2009 13:51
  
  The link to Easy Prototype is http://www.extremeplanner.com/easypro.... It basically gives you the functionality to quickly link image files together and embed links within them.
  
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I've been using Easy Prototype on Mac to post my mockups on the web. Then I use Protonotes to add some javascript to it so that people can add postit notes on the fly. Works great. I recommend implementing something close to this in Balsalmiq. www.getiquality.com/prototype/admin

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Alex N June 17, 2009 20:19

Storyboarding and user flow diagrams are the main thing missing for me. In fact, I'm going to a competitor (gliffy) for this portion, which doesn't even really solve my problem, since I can't really link multiple documents into a story. I need to be able to send something to my developers that actually shows what happens, and for them not to need balsamiq (they are overseas and not internal). Right now I send them a set of png images which does not tell the story. I need a flow diagram, with the ability to label the links between mockups.

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- Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni (Founder and CEO) June 17, 2009 20:23
  
  Hi Aliix, thanks for the feedback. We are working on this feature, first as part of the hosted version (weeks away from beta), then we'll port it to the Desktop version somehow. We want to take the time to get it right, so I hope you'll be pleased with the results when they're ready.
  
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Storyboarding and user flow diagrams are the main thing missing for me. In fact, I'm going to a competitor (gliffy) for this portion, which doesn't even really solve my problem, since I can't really link multiple documents into a story. I need to be able to send something to my developers that actually shows what happens, and for them not to need balsamiq (they are overseas and not internal). Right now I send them a set of png images which does not tell the story. I need a flow diagram, with the ability to label the links between mockups.

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Jon Boardman September 21, 2009 13:02

I have used the pptplex add-in to PowerPoint to create storyboards. Using this I can have each screen on a separate slide and use a custom background to stitch them together with the flow. Looks pretty smart when you can zoom in and out of the flow to each screen.

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- Jon Boardman September 21, 2009 13:03
  
  Forgot the link
  http://www.officelabs.com/projects/pp...
  
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I have used the pptplex add-in to PowerPoint to create storyboards. Using this I can have each screen on a separate slide and use a custom background to stitch them together with the flow. Looks pretty smart when you can zoom in and out of the flow to each screen.

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Jamie Press September 21, 2009 15:19

The last reply on this thread is several months ago, though most comments from the Devs seem promising.

As the concept of 'Storyboarding' in some fashion is the only feature that is missing in Balsamiq (in my humble opinion), is it possible to get some feedback on when this might be forthcoming?

By the way, I'm defining 'Storyboarding' as the ability to somehow manage the already existing feature of linking between mockups. Not sure if that completely fits with OPs concept...

Thanks.

Update: Ok, looks like I'm a bit late with this, and the existing 'linking' feature seems to be the RESULT of this thread.

In that case, can anyone recommend a tool they've used to manage the myriad of different mockups necessary for a fully working mock-UI? Is Balsamiq planning on offering one? Should this be a new thread?

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- Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni (Founder and CEO) September 21, 2009 15:38
  
  Hello Jamie, Peldi here. I'm terribly behind on replying to GetSatisfaction threads, my apologies. Allright, storyboarding: I think what you mean by it is what others call "a free viewer", for which I have a FAQ here: http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mock...
  - In the web app version, you'll just be able to send people to a link and they'll be able to click around your prototype.
  - For other versions, the first thing I plan on doing is letting you export a mockup (and all the ones linked from it) as a multi-page, internally-linked PDF, which you could then send around.
  - There's a couple of tools that might help you today. See Napkee and the Vi.to image map exporters here: http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mock...
  
  I hope this helps! I realize this is an important feature, and we'll get to it, have no fear. :)
  
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- Jamie Press September 21, 2009 15:53
  
  Not quite what I meant Peldi, though thanks for the reply. Looking for a tool that will help me manage the hundreds of bmml files and links between them really. What I REALLY want is a flowchart that lets me rename links and files, but that's likely outside the scope of what Balsamiq is.
  
  You see, with the ability to link between mockups and the more interactive a mockup is, the more hundreds of .bmml files there are. If I spend days creating a fully functional mockup for a client, but then they want a slight change, I have to remember every place I put a link to that page and change them all individually (just an example problem, but you get the idea).
  
  Was looking for advice on a tool to track all of that, if anyone knew of one. (Visio is a bit 'dumb' for this purpose, though the idea is right).
  
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- Ian Webb April 12, 2011 15:49
  
  Jamie - you can actually do this with a mass search and replace on the .bmml files directly. You're changing the filename within the MAP tag inside the CONTROL tag for the elements.. but it is enough to just do "replace -v new_destination.bmml old_destination.bmml -- *.bmml", that should change the destination file name everywhere. I'd guess/hope that this will be more comprehensively addressed when Projects are added to the desktop version; for now it's possible to workaround by editing the BMML files directly though.
  
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- Ian Webb April 12, 2011 15:49
  
  Jamie - you can actually do this with a mass search and replace on the .bmml files directly. You're changing the filename within the MAP tag inside the CONTROL tag for the elements.. but it is enough to just do "replace -v old_destination.bmml new_destination.bmml -- *.bmml", that should change the destination file name everywhere. I'd guess/hope that this will be more comprehensively addressed when Projects are added to the desktop version; for now it's possible to workaround by editing the BMML files directly though.
  
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The last reply on this thread is several months ago, though most comments from the Devs seem promising. As the concept of 'Storyboarding' in some fashion is the only feature that is missing in Balsamiq (in my humble opinion), is it possible to get some feedback on when this might be forthcoming? By the way, I'm defining 'Storyboarding' as the ability to somehow manage the already existing feature of linking between mockups. Not sure if that completely fits with OPs concept... Thanks. Update: Ok, looks like I'm a bit late with this, and the existing 'linking' feature seems to be the RESULT of this thread. In that case, can anyone recommend a tool they've used to manage the myriad of different mockups necessary for a fully working mock-UI? Is Balsamiq planning on offering one? Should this be a new thread?

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Jas September 21, 2009 15:33

I am using the Fogbugz version of Mockups and it tells me the linking is not available in that edition :( Hopefully this is a short term thing, the Fogbugz integration is fantastic.

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- Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni (Founder and CEO) September 21, 2009 15:35
  
  Hi Jas, Images and Links are the last 2 remaining features that we need to bring into FogBugz. We're starting the work on images tonight, linking comes right after.
  
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- Jas September 21, 2009 15:56
  
  Peldi, Can't wait!
  
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I am using the Fogbugz version of Mockups and it tells me the linking is not available in that edition :( Hopefully this is a short term thing, the Fogbugz integration is fantastic.

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Paul September 21, 2009 16:51

Re: Links
This has allowed me to show an almost feature complete interactive storyboard ( > 50 screens) to my client - but with a couple of gotchas.

I note: that we can't link off menus.
Also we can't link off row selections in DataGrids (or link off cell selections within a selected row. IMHO - cell selection link overrides row selection link if cell selection link defined).

I also note that performance decreases significantly as number of screens increase. I think some internal caching of off-screen (but loaded) mockup screens is required. (I'd suggest some form of LRU cache).

Love the product btw. !!

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Re: Links This has allowed me to show an almost feature complete interactive storyboard ( > 50 screens) to my client - but with a couple of gotchas. I note: that we can't link off menus. Also we can't link off row selections in DataGrids (or link off cell selections within a selected row. IMHO - cell selection link overrides row selection link if cell selection link defined). I also note that performance decreases significantly as number of screens increase. I think some internal caching of off-screen (but loaded) mockup screens is required. (I'd suggest some form of LRU cache). Love the product btw. !!

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turnkey November 08, 2009 21:41

The internally linked PDF export would be a great way to send a "viewer" to clients for review for us desktop users. Is that option near completion?

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- Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni (Founder and CEO) November 25, 2009 23:09
  
  Hi there, it's live in fact! http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/2009/11/...
  
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- turnkey November 27, 2009 14:04
  
  Thanks Peldi, looks great!
  
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The internally linked PDF export would be a great way to send a "viewer" to clients for review for us desktop users. Is that option near completion?

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Duke December 08, 2009 00:32

The PDF rocks!

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The PDF rocks!

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Martin January 04, 2010 20:23

I like Michael's idea and would love to be able to develop it further. My issue, as raised earlier in this thread, is that I often try to 'storyboard' a mock-up that shows the same small set of dialogs in various states (e.g. as a user fills data in).

Prior to using Mockups I made use of layers in Illustrator to make use of a common base dialog and turn layers on one-by-one to show how the dialog is filled in or responds to other external stimulus. This helped in two ways:

1. I was able to keep the complete design for a dialog in one file
2. A significant number of dialog changes could occur on the base layer and would thus be propagated to the other views very quickly

Unfortunately I never found a way to automate the export process so it can be a time consuming job but it was manageable.

Thus I'd love to see an ability to define a mockup as a template that was linked to and not modifiable within a frame of the storyboard. I could then add any new controls on top where required. However, if I changed the template then it would propagate to those mockups that were created based on it.

I've actually achieved a mashup between Balsamiq and Illustrator in a similar way by exporting a BMML as a PNG and using that as my base layer but it still requires the manual export of each layer.

Please let me know if you need more information on this.

Thanks!

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- Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni (Founder and CEO) January 06, 2010 14:41
  
  Hi Martin, please look at these three links: http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mock...
  http://community.balsamiq.com/balsami...
  and http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/2010/01/...
  
  In other words, we're working on it! :)
  
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What's the status of this idea?

I like Michael's idea and would love to be able to develop it further. My issue, as raised earlier in this thread, is that I often try to 'storyboard' a mock-up that shows the same small set of dialogs in various states (e.g. as a user fills data in). Prior to using Mockups I made use of layers in Illustrator to make use of a common base dialog and turn layers on one-by-one to show how the dialog is filled in or responds to other external stimulus. This helped in two ways: 1. I was able to keep the complete design for a dialog in one file 2. A significant number of dialog changes could occur on the base layer and would thus be propagated to the other views very quickly Unfortunately I never found a way to automate the export process so it can be a time consuming job but it was manageable. Thus I'd love to see an ability to define a mockup as a template that was linked to and not modifiable within a frame of the storyboard. I could then add any new controls on top where required. However, if I changed the template then it would propagate to those mockups that were created based on it. I've actually achieved a mashup between Balsamiq and Illustrator in a similar way by exporting a BMML as a PNG and using that as my base layer but it still requires the manual export of each layer. Please let me know if you need more information on this. Thanks!

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Wernight September 16, 2010 16:35

I believe the way to make it simple is by allowing Balsamiq to define the connection flow at the GUI screens overview level like on:

User Interface Flow Diagrams (Storyboards)

By simply being able to move UI screens around and connecting them.

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I believe the way to make it simple is by allowing Balsamiq to define the connection flow at the GUI screens overview level like on: <a href="http://www.agilemodeling.com/artifacts/uiFlowDiagram.htm"><img src="http://www.agilemodeling.com/images/models/uiFlow.JPG" alt="" /> User Interface Flow Diagrams (Storyboards) </a> By simply being able to move UI screens around and connecting them.

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mark.nixon October 15, 2010 06:07

Hi, I think the linking of screens is terrific. Just wondering if a function could be developed to enable screens to be ordered quickly and efficiently (eg for publishing)?

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Hi, I think the linking of screens is terrific. Just wondering if a function could be developed to enable screens to be ordered quickly and efficiently (eg for publishing)?

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pierrelud October 18, 2010 14:57

Guys if this story board idea can work/look like http://prezi.com/ it will be super!

What do you think?

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- Hugo January 17, 2011 17:36
  
  Just getting the elements and functions already available wired up and combined with the famous "Project" holy grail would be so much better than to add a new philosophy (albeit prezi is a nice way of organising presentations and stuff).
  What I mean is having a dedicated storyboard mockup, drawing all the mockups, connecting them with arrows and links and having a possibility to organise a "Project" that way including solving the issues with printing, PDF-sorting and alike.
  Should not be to difficult for a bunch of geniouses as you are (not sarcastic because I really think you guys are fab!)
  
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Guys if this story board idea can work/look like http://prezi.com/ it will be super! What do you think?

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gjankowski February 10, 2011 15:55

any progress on this?

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any progress on this?

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Joelle Benvenuto September 08, 2011 03:54

I'm so in need of this scenario type of view or screen flow view as well and it seems that you can't really decide to just developer it...
I'm spending my time exporting to PNG or more rapidly screen shooting each pages and replacing screen by screen using omnigraffle to have a screen flow... can't you use the linking ability to simply create this screen flow automatically?
It should be fairly simple to do... thanks... JOELLE check out what I need in attachment...

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- Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni (Founder and CEO) September 09, 2011 08:04
  
  Hi Joelle, this is on our roadmap, hang in there!
  P.S.Thanks for the screenshot, they always help! :)
  
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I'm so in need of this scenario type of view or screen flow view as well and it seems that you can't really decide to just developer it... I'm spending my time exporting to PNG or more rapidly screen shooting each pages and replacing screen by screen using omnigraffle to have a screen flow... can't you use the linking ability to simply create this screen flow automatically? It should be fairly simple to do... thanks... JOELLE check out what I need in attachment... <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/575342/Screen_shot_2011-09-07_at_8.49.55_PM.gif"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/575342/Screen_shot_2011-09-07_at_8.49.55_PM_inline.gif" alt="" /></a>

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Josh September 09, 2011 20:59

I'm hoping that a side-effect of this work is the ability to store the list of mockups in a project in an order that's reproducible. Specifically, I tend to output a lot of mockup flows to PDF for publishing, and when you have 20-30+ mockups in a project, it gets very tedious trying to maintain the correct order. Prefacing the names with the numeric order is ok up until you have to insert a new mockup near the beginning and then have to rename every mockup that comes after it.

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I'm hoping that a side-effect of this work is the ability to store the list of mockups in a project in an order that's reproducible. Specifically, I tend to output a lot of mockup flows to PDF for publishing, and when you have 20-30+ mockups in a project, it gets very tedious trying to maintain the correct order. Prefacing the names with the numeric order is ok up until you have to insert a new mockup near the beginning and then have to rename every mockup that comes after it.

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Tom O'Dea November 09, 2011 15:24

Just wanted to add my vote to this as well. We are using Google Drawings right now to create and share site-maps/storyboards that show user-flow. It's a less than ideal solution but it's working for us right now. I'd love something integrated with Balsamiq so that our clients could see everything in one place and access mockups from a sitemap/storyboard.

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Just wanted to add my vote to this as well. We are using Google Drawings right now to create and share site-maps/storyboards that show user-flow. It's a less than ideal solution but it's working for us right now. I'd love something integrated with Balsamiq so that our clients could see everything in one place and access mockups from a sitemap/storyboard.

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Brek February 17, 2012 12:17

I'd love to have an overview area where each page as a small box (ideally an image of the page itself) with it's name underneath and all of the links connecting up to the other pages with the label/name of the object that links displayed on the connector. (Should probably allow the user to edit the name of the connector independantly from the object so that it can show the connector name on this page where there is more room.)

You'd also need to be able to drag the individual screens around and have the connectors update, to allow the user to 'unfold' the links.

Then if I could export that as an image... Well, that's the flowchart done. :)
It shows an overview of the screens, shows the connections between them.

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I'd love to have an overview area where each page as a small box (ideally an image of the page itself) with it's name underneath and all of the links connecting up to the other pages with the label/name of the object that links displayed on the connector. (Should probably allow the user to edit the name of the connector independantly from the object so that it can show the connector name on this page where there is more room.) You'd also need to be able to drag the individual screens around and have the connectors update, to allow the user to 'unfold' the links. Then if I could export that as an image... Well, that's the flowchart done. :) It shows an overview of the screens, shows the connections between them.

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