Balsamiq - 🔮 Why we’re redoing our homepage

The latest news from Balsamiq:

A preview of our new homepage and how we designed it.

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Hi friends,

You might not have known this, but we've been quietly cooking up something big at Balsamiq: a complete overhaul of our homepage.

After in-depth ‘jobs to be done' interviews and loads of insights (thanks to Katelyn Bourgoin's cheatsheets), we realized our homepage wasn't quite hitting the mark. It wasn't clearly guiding website visitors to the right product or resource, and it wasn’t fully conveying what we do. Plus, all the hard work we've put into Balsamiq Cloud over the last few years wasn't shining through as we hoped.

This is one of our values—evolving, improving, and making Balsamiq the best it can be for you.

So we spent the past few months working on better understanding our customers, revising our strategy, and starting the long process of updating our website. First up, our homepage!

Our approach

We started with a content-first approach, jotting down our ideas to make the marketing messaging come alive. The first draft was rough around the edges, but it was a starting point that got our ideas flowing and set the tone for what was to come.

Realizing the need for a sharper message and with my time split across various projects, we brought in Lianna Patch at Punchline Copy, a brilliant copywriter and friend of Balsamiq. She helped us make the page even more helpful and fun to read.

And with that, it was time to design.

Psychology in wireframing

With copy set, I passed the work to Billy Carlson, one of our in-house UX experts and author of Wireframing for Everyone, and Laura Lei, our creative lead. Their goal was to create a design that looked good and felt easy to use.

Among other things, they focused on three psychological principles that helped clarify design choices:

Gestalt Principles: Crafting a layout that your brain intuitively understands. We used these to guide visual perception and organize content in a way that feels natural and intuitive.
Hick’s Law: Reducing the number of choices was key. We streamlined the interface to simplify user decisions, focusing on a smoother user journey. A Cloud, Desktop, and Buy button were too much in one space!
Cognitive Load: Striking the right balance of information was crucial. We added space and clear section breaks to make the homepage informative yet not overwhelming.

Here’s where our wireframe landed—still raw, but every bit infused with thoughtful design.

As we get feedback from customers and team members, we layer in the details through mid and high-fidelity design stages (we went straight to code for this, as we often do).

Applying this to your work

We don’t gate keep at Balsamiq. These strategies can elevate your design from functional to phenomenal:

Embrace user behavior: Dive into your projects with a Sherlock Holmes eye. Conduct user testing, gather feedback, and watch how real people interact with your product. No matter your tool or team, this is your key to creating great user experiences.
Less is more: Streamline your design. Fewer choices often mean a better user experience. What can you cut from your trickiest screen or page today? Would your customers or users miss it?
Find that sweet spot: Play the role of a content chef – mix, stir, and season your information just right. Use user feedback to find what’s “just right.” When was the last time you talked to a user about a current project?

And now you’re creating great user experiences like the pros!

We're excited about our progress and always looking to improve. What's your take on our new direction? Your feedback is not just welcome – it's essential.

Happy customer of the month

Balsamiq has such a healthy approach to managing subscriptions: you're charged only for the months you're actually using the product.
— Rafal P.

Product news

We are putting the finishing touches to a couple of pretty exciting updates:

We’re going to remove the confusing “gray overlay rectangle” that you see whenever you select something, and
We’re going to bring templates and UI controls from wireframestogo.com into the UI library, for easy access.

Stay tuned for a release with these new features very soon!

Wireframing Academy news

We’ve been pretty heads-down lately as we gear up for a new slate of projects for 2024. It all starts with a virtual mini-retreat this past week to discuss strategy and brainstorm the best ways to create and deliver useful educational material for you.

Also, in case you missed it, we were featured in two new interviews this month:

Last, but not least, we’re putting the finishing touches on a brand new video course that we’re really excited about. Stay tuned for more details.

UX/UI links for November

5 Formatting Techniques for Long-Form Content - by Huei-Hsin Wang and Megan Chan
The Gulf Between Design And Engineering - by Rune Madsen
5 UX Essentials Design School Won’t Teach You - by Courtney Fortin
Designing for Accessibility Beyond Compliance - by Christie Wong
Until the Right Design Emerges... - by Luke Wroblewski

Company News

The biggest company news of November is that we successfully completed our salary matrix project. Our previous system was outdated and inconsistent. So, this project set out to build a new salary system that is fair, equitable, and aligned with the market. It was a lot of work, but well worth it.

With that project done, we're focused on developing clear growth plans for every person at Balsamiq, ensuring everyone has a well-defined path for their future. Plus, we’re kicking off planning for Q1 2024! And as always:

Help us make Balsamiq Better! We’d love to learn more about how you use Balsamiq and how we can improve for you.
Sponsorships and raffles: Notable events we're sponsoring include Black Men Talk Tech Unicorn Ambition Conference, SDCONF, USC OWN IT Leadership Summit, and more!
Notable recipients of our Free Software Program:
- Cyber Info strives to empower every individual with easy access to cybersecurity education
- Christian Aid exists to create a world where everyone can live a full life, free from poverty
- Success Accelerator aims to empower young people to become the inspiring leaders of tomorrow

That's it for this month!

Thanks for reading. We'd love to hear what you think of this direction with the homepage. Your feedback is very helpful as we gear up for the big reveal sometime in the next month or two.

See you in December, with more behind-the-scenes news from your friends at Balsamiq.

Arielle for the Balsamiq Team

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Balsamiq - 🔮 Why we’re redoing our homepage

Our approach

Psychology in wireframing

Applying this to your work

Happy customer of the month

Product news

Wireframing Academy news

UX/UI links for November

Company News

That's it for this month!

Most new customers find Balsamiq via recommendation...

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