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