My team occasionally uses Balsamiq Mockups to create mockups for our business users when working on basic UI requirements for new applications. We normally use the built in Balsamiq symbols and if needed simulate the Appian UI using screen shots of the Tempo interface (menu bar, filters in records, reports, etc.). Unfortunately, since Appian's UI elements and headers are styled differently from normal HTML there are differences between our mockups and what it looks like with the other UI elements.
Do you know of any symbol libraries for the Balsamiq application? (similar in nature to Visio stencils)
Does anyone use Balsamiq to create mockups of their proposed applications/user interfaces? If so, how do you crudely simulate the Appian UI?
fyi, we are upgrading to Appian 17.1 and hence the newer Tempo UI is our target
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I don't have an answer for your Balsamiq question, but why not just mockup your interfaces in Appian's interface designer? Dragging and dropping the UI components is pretty much the same as any mockup tool, with the added bonus of the mockup looking exactly like the final product.
When we first bought Balsamiq we were creating Portal apps on the old Appian 6.61, and then eventually moved to 7.6, 7.11 and now 17.1 (and slowly rewriting our Portal apps to SAIL/Tempo). The ability to drag & drop and build interface demos was rather limited in the past and also only available to those with Appian experience. Balsamiq gives us a way to have non-Appian developers able to make a mockup, and by abstracting the UI from the real Tempo look it minimizes the 'detail' talks that users have. Once they think you have an Appian form/search built they think that is all that is necessary, but they also get stuck in the details of color, layout, what the text field's label/drop down shows, etc.
Balsamiq and similar mockup tools are quick and easy for non developers to grasp without the users (and their management) focusing on details versus the big picture flow. i.e. when the mockup looks like the real thing it can actually make the high level discussions difficult.
Note, the screen shot below was a mixture of Balsamiq functionality & actual Appian tempo output: