What Is The Difference Between Sketchflow and Balsamiq?
Jan 21st
While prototyping my new website I have had the chance to have a look at Balsamiq and Sketchflow. After seeing Balsamiq, I was scratching my head wondering how Sketchflow could be any better.
Before embarking on your own evaluation, it’s worth noting the differences between the two. Balsamiq concentrates on allowing you to create mockups of your screens for whatever they may be for – desktop or the web. Sketchflow, which is part of the Microsoft Expression line of products (and part of Blend) is designed to allow you see the flow and interaction between the UI and the user, and provding that ‘back of a napkin look’ to much the same as balsamiq. With both tools, the point behind the sketched look is to encourage debate from your stakeholders. This would be harder to do with a more polished UI and also gives you the flexibility to create changes without much pain.
So the difference between the two is:
Balsamiq concentrates on mocking the UI. Sketchflow concentrates on mocking the UI and user interaction.
Another nice feature of building your mocks in Sketchflow is the ability to package them up and send them to your stakeholders.They can then look at your mocks using the Sketchflow player (included with the package, so they do not need Expression Blend installed),Interact with the sketched UI, add notes and annotations, and send the package back to you. You can then import those details back into your mocks and repeat until a decision is reached. Balsamiq gives you the ability to send around PNG images, and in some cases this will be enough, but I preferred the Microsoft approach. Balsamiq does provide more UI elements, and I hope Microsoft adds some additional sketched UI elements to Blend.
While you would be forgiven for thinking that Sketchflow is more orientated towards WPF and Silverlight UI design, it can be used for anything, and hey, we have been scribbling of napkins for years. One last thing, I really think Sketchflow deserves to be a separate product, and with a bit more polish, could go a long way, and be my choice for mocking a UI for years to come.
Resources:
Microsoft Expression Blend
Balsamiq
How to Improve your wi-fi Signal
Jan 14th
I recently updated my router to a Netgear DGN2000 and discovered that the performance I was getting out of it was sub optimal. At one point the transfers speeds obtained were a little over 9 Mbps, sadly only a little faster than my broadband connection. I really wasn’t happy so decided to investigate.
The first thing I did was to move the router around the room, and monitor the improvement at each stage. Then, I adjusted the antennas untill the signal strength was as high as it could be. I still wasn’t happy, so dug a bit further. I then used the software that came with my network card to scan the available wireless networks in my area, and found the problem.
It was crowded, with a couple of networks using the same channel as mine. I picked a channel that wasn’t in use by any networks in my area immediately saw a marked improvement. In fact I am now getting 160 Mbps network speed. This can fluctuate time to time, but is normal.
If you are suffereing from slow speeds and signal I would suggest the following.
- Relocate the router if you can, checking the results each time.
- Use a wireless surveying utility to checked for other networks in your vicinity and make a note of the channels.
- Identify the quietest channel and set your router to broadcast on that.
- Keep your wireless home telephone away from the router, especially if it is on the 2.4 Ghz frequency band.
- Test as you go.
A Brave New World
Jan 12th
After much thought and consideration, I have decided to change the engine the runs my blog to from BlogEngine.NET to WordPress. I must admit, so far I am impressed. It has been really easy to use and the set-up was a breeze. I am going to spend the next few days learning all the new features, and importing my old blog posts. More posts soon.
Progwizz is a software developer who has been writing code for the internet and the desktop for the last ten years. He is also pretty good at server configuration and IT, and has a weakness for gadgets.