The latest news from Balsamiq:
We’ve been talking about our book for a year. It’s finally here!

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Read an excerpt and find out!

You may have heard us talking for the last year about the book we've been writing. Today we'll be sharing all about it - what it's about, who it's for, and when and how you can get it!

A brief recap: Three of our most experienced designers, Michael Angeles, Billy Carlson, and myself (Leon Barnard), have been working on a book called Wireframing for Everyone with A Book Apart, publisher of amazing design and development books like Design is a Job, Just Enough Research, Everyday Information Architecture, and many more.

The big news is that you can pre-order it now and be among the first to get it when it ships next month.

So now that you're back from ordering it (which you just did, right?), here's what it's all about, including some exclusive excerpts, just for our inner circle.

What's in the book?

Roughly speaking, the first half of Wireframing for Everyone is about how to think about wireframes and better ways to make them. The second half focuses on using them with your team and incorporating them into a repeatable process.

Here's a sneak peek at the table of contents:

Why Wireframes (Still) Matter
Exploring Ideas
From Ideas to Interfaces
Design Principles for Wireframes
Wireframing as a Team
Establishing a Feedback Process
Crossing the Finish Line

Why did we write a book?

In short, we wrote this book to fill a gap that we saw while comparing existing books with our real-world experiences.

There are plenty of books about software product management, user experience design, and programming, but there are hardly any that recognize the interplay and amount of work that happens between these roles.

In the media, there are a lot of idealized descriptions of the software design process that don't ring true to us, and we felt that wireframes have the power to bridge these gaps that exist but often aren't talked about.

A lot of companies out there are not designing like Google and Apple. For example, think about the teams, titles, and pace at companies in enterprise, education, startup tech, and government agencies. They have different resources and, in some cases, might be in the earlier stages of focusing on UX details. In most cases, they really care about design and want to do it well, but they don't have the expertise or insights. For these groups, wireframing can be their gateway to better design, even if they don't have a dedicated designer.

Lastly, there are plenty of books that mention wireframes and why you should use them. But they rarely dedicate much space to talk about the process of wireframing, and how to do it well. Making a wireframe is easy, and you don't need a book or even a manual. But wireframes, like any product, can be "good" (i.e., effective) or not.

Here's an excerpt from Chapter 1 of our book called “What Makes a Wireframe Good?”:

It depends, of course, but not in the way that you might expect. Unlike a digital prototype, we don't judge a wireframe by how much it looks like the final product. Rather, good wireframes pave the way to good products by bringing out the best ideas and shepherding them to implementation.

Good wireframes are the product of many rounds of iteration. Take advantage of the ease with which you can quickly create and change a lot of ideas. With their rough and disposable feel, wireframes encourage you to start over when you’ve hit a dead end. Because, the truth is that many of our ideas aren’t winners. The most successful products result from taking risks. You have to be okay with being wrong many times in order to get the design right.

Successful iterative design depends on your willingness to regard ideas as ephemeral so that you can let go of weaker ideas in favor of finding the best ones. The best ideas are the ones that provide the most effective solutions.

Wireframes have two audiences: you, and your collaborators. Good wireframes don’t only help you visualize your ideas in the beginning; they help you communicate them once they come into focus. When you’re ready to show your wireframes to others, the goal changes. Now, it’s a blueprint for a real product.

The result should be that you have a clear idea of the proposed options and what you need to do next. This could mean highlighting the differences between what currently exists and what this design proposes, or highlighting the areas of least certainty. The reaction you don’t want from others is, “Ok, now what?” A good wireframe allows the next person to pick it up and run with it.

Who is this book for?

One of the misconceptions about wireframing is that it is a technique for designers. We feel strongly that it shouldn't be, which is why the "for Everyone" in the title is so important. The target audience for wireframing (and our book) is someone who doesn't consider themselves a designer, but who participates in the design process, which applies to a lot of different roles these days.

We like this definition by UX pioneer Jared Spool (who wrote a glowing review of our book!): "Design, in its simplest form, is about rendering intent. When a person makes a choice about how they want something to be, they are designing."

Viewed through this lens, designing a good user experience is not the result of having a designer on your team, but about being deliberate about design. It may be a designer's primary job to consider the user’s experience and perspective, but they aren’t the only ones allowed to do so.

Whatever your role on a software team, you make suggestions, ask questions, and make decisions that all affect the end product and the experience of using it. You may not have anyone on your team who is called or even thinks of themselves as a designer. But, by the above definition, the product you work on has been designed. The experience that your end user has with it is a direct result of decisions that your team has made. It works as it was "designed" to work, whether those design decisions were intentional or not.

What you’ll get out of it

The intimidating tools and terminology of the UX world shouldn’t prevent you from contributing to better design. Our book uses wireframes to help teach you how good designers think, without getting too in the weeds about the details you don’t need to know.

Rather than an in-depth curriculum on UI and UX design, our book offers a basic introduction to each in real-world contexts, as well as tips and tricks for saving time and collaborating more effectively.

If you are a fan of Balsamiq Wireframes, this book is not a guide on how to use it (see our excellent documentation and tutorials for that), but it will definitely give you insights and techniques to help you use it better.

We hope you’ll add it to your digital or physical shelf and that it inspires you to tell everyone in your circle about it. Pre-order now at Wireframing for Everyone | Balsamiq

Happy customer of the month

The team from @balsamiq wrote a book on wireframing. It's for, well... everyone!
I just pre-ordered a copy here https://balsamiq.com/learn/wireframing-book/. You should, too 🖼️👍💵 — Rand Fishkin

Product news

In Balsamiq Cloud, we released a new way to manage images, icons, and symbols, all directly from the UI library! Just right-click on an item, and voilà!

We also linked to our awesome UI Controls Guidelines, so if you’re not sure how to use a specific control, you can quickly review the industry’s best practices for it!

We’re also hard at work on a MAJOR restructuring of our app’s UI and menus. Here’s a small sneak peek just for you, our inner circle.

We’ve been using it ourselves and it’s so much more intuitive, faster, and modern-feeling than today’s version. It will come to Balsamiq Cloud in July, so stay tuned!

Wireframing Academy news

Obviously, wrapping up the final edits to the book and ramping up our marketing for it has been our main focus this past month. Our medium-term plan is to start incorporating some of the material from the book into our Wireframing Academy site. Maybe some talks and videos about specific chapters, for example. Please let us know if there’s anything you really want to see.

UX/UI links for May

A Radical Proposal: Put UX Research In Charge - by Jared M. Spool
DesignOps and the Impact of Effective Roadmaps - by Patrizia Bertini
Creativity for All - by Jess Eddy
Designing for (Realistic) Attention - by Christopher Butler
The 7 Qualities of a Conversion-Focused Interface - by Yura Turivny

Even though we skipped the newsletter last month, you can catch up on the UX/UI links for April here.

Company news

We’ve been heads down getting ready for our first full company retreat since 2019! This week, the team is making their way to Bologna from various cities across the US and Europe. We’ll be spending our retreat time on a bit of work and a lot of team building. Recap to come, but in the meantime:

We're always striving to make things better! How do you use Balsamiq to collaborate with your team? Join our Research Program and let's discuss how we can improve it for you.
Sponsorships and raffles: Notable events we’re sponsoring include Black Women Talk Tech's Roadmap to Billions, SmashingConf SF, RenderATL, and more!
Notable recipients of our Free Software Program:
- iRespond is an international non-profit organization dedicated to solving the identity problem using a unique digital biometric identity solution
- Positive Work is the nonprofit that's all about disability inclusion in the workplace
- Angel Flight West delivers health and hope using donated flights to serve those with healthcare or other compelling human needs

That's it for this month!

Thanks, as always, for being loyal readers and supporters. See you next month, with more behind-the-scenes news from your friends at Balsamiq!

Leon for the Balsamiq Team

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Everyday Information Architecture Interfaces Design Principles

Inside Balsamiq’s new book: Wireframing for Everyone

What's in the book?

Why did we write a book?

Who is this book for?

What you’ll get out of it

Happy customer of the month

Product news

Wireframing Academy news

UX/UI links for May

Company news

That's it for this month!

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