Software Review: ForeUI Prototyping Tool
I was looking for a good prototyping tool the other day and I came across ForeUI. This little gem packs quite a punch. Whether you want to create mockups of a desktop application or a web application, ForeUI has everything you need. A six minute demo of the application is available. ForeUI is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, or Solaris.
The canvas where all the work is done is called a plot. Each plot can have 1 or more pages of mockups, similar to Microsoft Excel workbooks. To assist with prototyping of cross-platform applications, the mockups can be drawn in four different modes – Hand Drawing, Wire Frame, Windows XP, and Mac OS X. The canvas width and height can be adjusted and can even be made to look like wrinkled paper for that real hand-drawn prototype look.
Just about anything your imagination can come up with, can be mocked up. The palette comes with over 40 widgets and whatnots that can be used to mockup anything from a simple windows application to a complicated web site. Frequently used mockups such as dialogs and navigation panes can be saved as custom widgets in the palette. Go check out some screenshots and samples of the software in action. Anything placed on the canvas can have an action associated with it. This allows for the creation of an interactive mockup that can be used to simulate what the application will do in a real environment.
Plots can be exported as an image, PDF, or DHTML. A plot can be ran as a slideshow. In slideshow mode, the mockup can be marked up with a red pen. This mode is good for demonstrations and team discussions. Plots can also be run in a simulation mode. In simulation mode, a new window is opened in the default web browser. If any actions were setup for the mockup, such as clicking buttons and activating menus, those things can be interacted with in the browser window.
At $79 for a single user license, ForeUI is a great deal. There are also pricing plans for multiple users. A 7 day trial can be downloaded for evaluation.
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Can you create your own templates to give a group of mockups a certain look?
Like Windows XP mode or Vista mode? No, I believe that is all hard coded into the application.
Hi Adam, I’m Xavier from ForeUI product team. Thank you so much for the great review!
If you have any comment or suggestion, welcome to post on our support forum, so that we can make ForeUI better and better: http://getsatisfaction.com/easynth/products/easynth_foreui
Yes the UI themes are provided by ForeUI application, you can not modify them (at least for now). However you can still create customized element with some basic elements (such as rectangle, line, ellipse etc) and fully control its style. One of my colleague has created a set of iPhone elements, I think she will share them in the ForeUI user community (which is coming soon).