Before you start creating a website it can be helpful to make a mock up to visualize how the final design will look. To do this there are software options available that allow you to add text, buttons, images and create links, between pages. In this article we’ll explore software tools that you can potentially use.
What is the purpose of a website mockup?
A website mockup serves as a blueprint for designing the interface of a website. It gives you an idea of how the final product may look. Creating a mockup primarily focuses on the graphic aspects of the website. During the process you set up a prototype based on your guidelines. With a website mockup you have the freedom to include elements such as text, buttons, images and page links.
What is wireframing?
Wireframing tools enable designers to quickly and efficiently create an outline for their designs. Designers can easily. Drop placeholders for images, headers and content, onto their canvas. Rearrange them as needed. This allows them to create a draft that can be further refined on.
What is the purpose of the wireframe?
Wireframe mockups allow designers to work out the basics of a page’s interface, such as space allocation, content prioritization, functionality, and behaviors.
Using a wireframe to plan the basic layout of a web page has a number of advantages, including the following:
- Connect a site’s information architecture to its visual design by highlighting the paths between pages
- Develop consistent methods for displaying information of different types on the user interface
- Determine planned features
- Prioritize content creation based on content location and total space allocated to that content type
What is a good wireframe tool?
Technically, you don’t need a dedicated wireframe tool, a flowchart app can work just fine. But some features of a good wireframe builder are very helpful to the web designer.
Here are a few :
- A built-in or downloadable UI kit: Ideally, you’ll want to choose a wireframe builder app that either has a library of built-in UI components or offers you the option to download your own.
- Scalable Mockup Fidelity: Good wireframing apps will give you the freedom to scale from a basic grayscale low-fidelity mockup to more graphically complex high-fidelity mockups.
- Collaborative work: The ability to share work digitally and allow others to make edits or leave comments is an increasingly important feature in any wireframe tool.
- Export options: Ideally, once you’ve completed your mockup, you’ll want to be able to export sections of it to HTML or have access to the base CSS code so you can implement development as quickly as possible.
Which software to make models?
We will see in this list the best modeling software to design the model of your website.
1) Adobe XD, the best wireframe software for beginners
While Adobe products are known for being feature-rich and complicated to learn, Adobe XD stands out for its ease of use for wireframe design projects. XD does everything from wireframe design to basic prototyping. And compared to other tools, Adobe is feature-rich, XD’s minimal interface is a real breath of fresh air.
As soon as you open the app, you’ll see a clean interface and quick start-up are great assets for beginners who want to use a professional wireframe design tool without spending too much time learning the software.
Basic vector wireframe design tools are easily found in the left navigation bar. User interface elements aren’t included, but you can find a variety of free options by doing a quick Google search. XD is full of responsive design aids, whether you choose to create multiple tables, overlay a 12-column Bootstrap grid, or use the responsive resize tool to create variations of each element.
As with the Sketch tool, Adobe XD is limited to desktop access, this restriction does not limit team collaboration. Since XD is part of Adobe Creative Cloud, all you need to do is save your creation to the cloud and invite your team. All of your collaborators can then view and edit the same design simultaneously in their own desktop applications.
In many wireframe design apps, interface design files need to be exported to another tool before you can create an interactive prototype. Adobe XD lets you create the wireframe, mockup, and prototype in the same design file, so you don’t have to integrate multiple tools or re-export dozens of times with each iteration. Then you can use XD to publish your prototype, whether it’s a basic wireframe or a full interactive prototype, and share the link with other people so they can view it and comment it.
As a bonus, Adobe XD also keeps track of the base CSS and HTML code for your designs, so you can type the code right into the interface when handing it over to the programming team.
Adobe XD price: Starting at 11.99 euros per month, the pack also includes unlimited prototypes and 100 GB of storage space.
2) Figma, the best free creation tool
Figma stands out as a powerful, cloud-based alternative to tools like Sketch and Adobe XD. Figma doesn’t shy away from free users, offering a suite of features that work well whether you’re a freelance designer or part of a larger team.
Figma as a great choice for those on a budget, it’s also a great option if your team needs a simple tool for the entire design process. Using Figma is very simple and very straightforward. Although Figma does not have its own built-in UI components, it offers the option to download your own or use a pre-built kit.
However, it is easy to create tables, add basic shapes and text, and do some level of prototyping.
All design organization is handled in a single panel, allowing you to quickly move between different boards, layers, and pages without getting overwhelmed.Built-in Figma constraints show you how each element will react on different screen sizes, which makes it much easier to optimize your user experience for mobile devices.
When it comes to collaborative work, Figma allows multiple team members to access the design, edit it, and leave comments. Once the mockup is complete, you will be able to access the CSS code and export the individual elements.
The process of creating a block diagram with Figma is quick and easy. You’ll have to design your own UI components (or add them from a separate pre-designed kit), but it’s easy to create your tables, add shapes and text, and even prototyping to to better understand the flow. The left panel helps you organize everything from layers to artboards to separate pages of a single design document. For responsive design, you can apply a column overlay or use Figma constraints, which tell each element how it should react when the design is resized to mimic different screen sizes.
Figma also stands out for its team collaboration possibilities. As it is a web-based wireframe application, multiple team members can log in and access the design file simultaneously, whether tweaking the design or adding content. The coolest feature is the ability for a team to have an entire conversation inside the design file, leaving comments as sticky notes that other team members can then reply to or mark as done.
When it’s time for your development team to take over, developers can grab CSS code inside the design file and export individual elements to use as needed.
Figma Pricing: Free for up to three FigJam projects (for whiteboard); starting at $12/user/month (billed annually) for the Professional plan which includes unlimited projects.
3) MockFlow, the application for organizing projects
MockFlow is another popular online mockup tool that prioritizes online and real-time collaboration. Even if you’re using the desktop version, you’ll be able to design in real time with your team.
MockFlow has an extremely clean and intuitive interface. The tool makes getting started with wireframing quick and easy, offering tons of UI packages and features without overwhelming the user. The design interface is very clean, when using MockFlow all the editing screen controls are on the left, which maximizes the space for your mockup design.
MockFlow’s design elements are also diverse and intuitively organized. If you’re new to wireframing, you’ll probably appreciate how easy it is to start using MockFlow, not to mention how modern the user interface is.
MockFlow has a very interesting organization feature. From your dashboard, you can create separate design spaces for each project. Uncategorized wireframes are automatically sorted into a “default space”, where you can easily find and categorize them later. And the export options are not limited to PNG and HTML formats, you can also share your designs in a Word or PowerPoint document for example.
If you’re looking for a mockup creation tool that lets you easily manage multiple projects at once or just stay organized throughout the design phase of a single project, MockFlow is a great option.
MockFlow Pricing: Starting at $14/user/month for the Wireframing plan which includes basic wireframing and integrations, starting at $19/user/month for the Product Design plan which includes organization and planning features like sitemaps, product research, design files, and style guides.
4) Sketch, for detailed and vector designs
Since its release in 2010, Sketch has maintained its place as a powerful, yet lightweight vector design tool for Mac users. On its own, it can be used for anything from mockup design to modern vector design of user interfaces and icons (on a pixel-based canvas) and interaction design. Its interface is much simpler and more intuitive than the others. With this simplicity, Sketch can be used to quickly create wireframes with a combination of artboards and vector design shapes.
When you go to download the Sketch app on your Mac, you will notice that there are no built-in UI components. While you can certainly design your own components to use as part of your wireframe design process, there is a large online community of designers who have created and shared many free wireframe design kits. Just one click to download and you’ll have tons of buttons, icons, and other design elements you can use in your Sketch file.
Sketch offers layout templates for Android and iOS app icons, and it also syncs with Unsplash to let you quickly find and use royalty-free photos for your designs without leaving the app.
Previously, Sketch’s limited availability as a desktop-only app limited its collaboration features. But Sketch now lets users collaborate in real time in shared workspaces, right from their desktop app. Just add your design to a shared workspace, invite your teammates and everyone can start working on the same design in real time which is a great advantage.
Overall, Sketch looks like an Apple app. The software is beautiful and has many features, but it can also have a certain learning curve. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll see that Sketch isn’t a household name in the design world for nothing.
Sketch price: $99/year for individual users (at the end of the year, you can continue to use the tool, but you will no longer receive software updates), or $9/month for members of a team using Sketch Cloud.
5) UXPin, to go from design to development quickly
UXPin is a wireframe software with a simple and intuitive interface with easily readable icons as well as a complete library of different elements. With UXPin you can also have the code of your different interface components.
UXPin is a favorite tool for interface designers. It’s usually one of the first tools recommended for anyone learning to wireframe. While its rich functionality can be a bit difficult for a new designer to grasp, the effort put into learning UXPin definitely pays off.
With UXPin, you can start your wireframes with a built-in library of UI elements that you can drag and drop directly onto the design interface. The benefit of this slightly more faithful wireframe is that you can fine-tune flow and functionality without spending a ton of time redesigning screen components. And since UXPin can read Sketch and Photoshop files, you can always use these tools to turn your basic wireframes into high-fidelity prototypes, before importing the polished design back into UXPin to take advantage of the tool’s other features: interactions, presentation to a team and transmission of design specifications to a developer.
While many apps let you grab CSS, HTML, or even JSON of your design, UXPin lets you easily present a working prototype of your design, gather feedback, and include specs/documentation all at once with in “Preview” mode. You can even choose what guests are allowed to see.
UXPin Price: Free for up to two prototypes at a time; starting at $19/user/month (billed annually) for the basic UXPin Standard plan which includes unlimited prototypes and reviewers.
6) Justinmind, for responsive mockups
Justinmind is UI/UX design software that is not only easy to learn and fun to use, it also emphasizes creating a wireframe that can be tested as a working prototype from the get-go. To do this, it includes something that other applications haven’t bothered to develop: interactive prototype elements (text entries, radio buttons, drop-down menus, etc.). Even at the basic wireframe level, a working dropdown would require three or more screens to set up in a tool like Sketch or Figma. Justinmind lets you add it to your wireframe with just one click, which can be really handy.
In fact, the ease with which you can create and share realistic wireframes can save you hours or days of work on a given project. This makes Justinmind a great wireframe diagram maker for anyone who wants real, in-depth feedback on their designs.
Justinmind’s layout is very easy to understand, all your design elements are on the left side; organizational items (like folders, list of screens, etc.) are on the right side. The set is very intuitive, you can find your way around easily.
Like Sketch or AdobeXD, Justinmind is only accessible from a desktop computer, which does not prevent you from collaborating with your team in real time. You can designate your design as a shared prototype on Justinmind’s cloud server, which stores an updated copy and detailed version history for all users to view. However, keep in mind that Justinmind uses a check-in/check-out collaboration model, which means users don’t always have the option to edit the same page or item at the exact same time.
Justinmind Pricing: Free for desktop app with wireframe capabilities; starting at $19/month for the Professional plan, which includes real-time collaboration and advanced prototyping features.
7) Frame
Available on Windows and Mac, Framer is a web-based tool that offers a fairly comprehensive free option that’s ideal as a professional prototyping tool. Framer’s insert menu offers a huge selection of components that can be quickly and easily added to your mockup with a simple drag-and-drop interface.
The prototyping components included in Framer display different visual states so you can see exactly what the real components would look like. You can also customize the included elements to control how they animate during screen transitions.
When it comes to sharing and showcasing your work, all you need to do is share a link. Presentation mode also lets you use backgrounds, frames, and more.
With the ability to add up to two edits and create three projects, Framer is one of the best free wireframe tools out there.
Framer price: free version / paid version from $19 per month
How to make a mockup of a website?
If you want to create a representation of a website the first step is to select the software that best fits your needs in terms of features and user experience. Once you have chosen the software you can begin building your website model. From there you have the flexibility to include buttons, text establish links, between web pages within your model incorporate images and more. It’s all, about personalizing and customizing your website model using the software of your choice.
