Learn Wireframing by Watching Videos

May 22, 2017 · Posted by Peldi in Case Studies · Add a comment

At Balsamiq, we believe that life's too short for bad software, and our company's mission is to help rid the world of it.

The main way we do that is through Balsamiq Wireframes, our wireframing tool.

Balsamiq is the industry's leading wireframing tool because it's the easiest to learn, the quickest to use, the best supported and, frankly, the most fun to use.

The problem is, Balsamiq is just a tool, like a pencil. With a pencil you can draw amazing drawings, or terrible ones, like I do. An easy-to-use tool, on its own, does not guarantee great output.

So we've been thinking, what can we do to help our customers get better at wireframing?

We have lots of ideas. Follow us here, on Twitter, on Facebook, or via our newsletter (best option!) to be the first to know about them.

Today we're announcing what we're calling Wireframing with Balsamiq.

It's a weekly video series on YouTube where you'll watch me and other people who are good at UI Design while we wireframe new web pages, software features or product ideas. In real time.

You get to hear our thinking while we do it, see the techniques we use, the mistakes we make, and follow the iterations that lead us to a final design.

We plan to publish a new video each week. Each video is around 20 minutes long.

The Science Behind It

The idea came from Kathy Sierra, one of our heroes.

In her 2012 Business of Software talk called "Kathy Sierra: Building the minimum Badass User," Kathy talks about how watching "the masters" at work is a fantastic way to learn, even when you're not actively trying to learn.

So that's what we're doing. We want to expose you to lots of good examples of skilled people wireframing. Who knows, maybe some skills will rub off on you!

You can watch the whole Wireframing With Balsamiq playlist on YouTube.

It's an Experiment!

This is definitely an experiment, we'll see how the community likes it and we'll improve it, as usual.

We'd LOVE to involve you in this project:

Are you really good at UI design? Would you like to share your mojo and volunteer to design something for one or more videos?
If not, is there someone you'd love to see do this? Imagine, it would be like watching over someone's shoulder while they design amazing wireframes... without being annoying or creepy. 😊
If you're new to UI design, how would you like to participate, other than watching the videos and commenting on them? Should we give people "homework" somehow?

We think this little experiment has a lot of potential. Can't wait to see where our awesome community takes it.

Here's the link to the playlist again: Wireframing With Balsamiq. Enjoy!