The wireframing process is the straight-to-the-point and completely non-tech stage of any web project. It only requires that you define a skeletal outline of essential page elements such as headers, footers, navigation and content area and should illustrate how to cater and respond to any possible interaction from a user.
It is the most important, yet underused, stage of any web or apps development.
There are several avenues you could take for sketching a wireframe, most notably pen and paper (the easiest and most cost effective way), but for the sake of this article we have focused on apps that are not only highly effective and easy to use, they are also completely free.
We have covered free wireframe apps before (here), but a year is a long time in web development – some of the apps we had previously covered are either no longer completely free or are no longer available. And as such, we felt that we should compile a new list with more detail and covering all areas of design including web pages, mobile apps and application dev.
As well as showcasing a variety of free apps (11 in total), at the bottom of the post, we have also highlighted some premium wireframing services that do offer free, yet limited, options. You may like to try them.
For steps 4, 8, 13 there is no 'login' after the OS initial install or Mac reboot. Either I let the default boot flow continue, and that wants to finish new OS setup, or I interrupt it with ⌘R to get back in recovery mode. So is the reference to 'Reboot and login normally' referring to. Gathertron is a user centred Information Retrieval and Gathering prototype for Mac OS X. Theoretical analysis of exploratory search techniques combined with users studies identified a set of eight design principles and system requirements which characterise a user oriented information retrieval and gathering system. These design principles guided. 'Face the endless hordes of enemies and kill Ma'loko - the god of evil':)-To be honest, this is my first game / prototype - at this point, it is very basic, it doesn't have any boss:) but I always wanted to make a game, and this pandemic year seems perfect for it;) It's more like a work in progress project or very, very, very early preview / access;).
Lumzy – Quick Mockup Creation and Prototyping Tool
With Lumzy, you can create mockups of how your site or application will function by adding events from the extensive list of controls on offer.
As well as having great tools for creating your mockup, you can also create Message Alerts, interactive Page Navigation, add Links to external content, and much more. It does offer a great set collaboration tools for live team editing and a chat engine for deliberating over designs. All of this and it is absolutely FREE.
Mockup Builder – A Killing Prototyping App
Mockup Builder has just recenly been released and looks very promising. It is feature-rich and versatile by allowing you create various prototyping styles, including: UI mockups, interactive wireframes, website layouts, desktop software prototypes and even sitemaps & screen navigation.
Of course, it does come with great collaboration tools for sharing with clients and colleagues. Super eraser pro 2 5 1 download free.
Tiggr – Creating Prototypes Collaboratively
The idea behind Tiggr (currently in beta) is to give you the resources needed to create prototypes (for web, app or mobile) that look and feel like the final product. It allows you to design from a large number of components, share (via email, Twitter or Facebook), you can collaborate with any number of users and will generate an HTML/JS/CSS so that you can preview your UI mockups very quickly. A 10 second registration (email & password) is the only thing you have to go through to use this fantastic FREE tool.
Frame Box – Lightweight Online Tool for Creating Mockups
Frame Box does not have an extensive list of features (like the web based apps above). You can drag and drop, re-size and copy/paste the UI units, but its main focus, and why we like it so much, is that it allows you to create your mockup/prototype very, very quickly by using its very easy to use drag and drop interface. Again, this app is FREE and only requires a quick registration.
SimpleDiagrams Free Edition (Adobe Air App)
SimpleDiagrams (free version) is a tiny Adobe Air app that helps you express your design ideas quickly and simply. Drag & drop symbols from its libraries, add images or post-notes, export as a PNG are all of its features, adding up to just just enough functionality to create a decent mockup.
iPhone Mockup
With iPhone Mockup you have a choice of using either the Pencil styled editor (screenshot above) or the Illustration editor (screenshot below). Whichever editor you decide to use, the functionality remains the same: Its a very simple and easy to use app that allows you to create your own iPhone mockups very quickly, share them with other people at the click of a button, and any changes you make will by synced to everyone who has the mockup's URL.
fluidIA
fluidIA is a downloadable web based design tool for prototyping rich user interfaces. It allows for rapid refinement and exploration of concepts using an object-oriented approach to design. The original idea behind fluidIA is to discover whether a group of interaction designers, IA's, UX professionals and developers can create there own prototyping tool in an open way.
Progress on FluidIA has been a little bit slow recently, but the actual app works perfectly for designing a wireframe mockup.
Pencil Project (Firefox Extension)
Pencil Project is a free and opensource Firefox addon for designing GUI prototypes. With its built-in stencils you can create linked multi-page UI documents and finally export your mockup in either HTML, PNG, Openoffice.org document, Word document or PDF.
What more would you want from a wireframing app? This truly is an essential Firefox extension that any serious developer or designer should use.
CogTool – General Purpose UI Prototyping Tool (Standalone Application for Win & Mac)
CogTool is a FREE and powerful general purpose UI prototyping tool with a difference – it automatically evaluates your design with a predictive human performance model (a 'cognitive crash dummy'). You simply create a storyboard of your design idea with sketches, images or on a canvas with CogTool's widgets, demonstrate tasks on that storyboard, then press a button to produce a valid cognitive model predicting how long it will take a skilled user to complete those tasks.
CogTool offers a lot of support via its extensive user guides, step-by-step tutorials (video and articles), its forum and also offers example files to help you get started.
Prototype Composer (Community Edition)
Prototype Composer makes it possible to simulate how an application will look and function before any code is ever written. Instead of endless text entries, complex data hierarchies, or too technical UML diagrams, Serena Prototype Composer makes it easy for business users and business analysts to collaborate on requirements by building simple, high fidelity prototypes that simulate a working application.
It is a tool for prototyping data, processes, activities and most importantly, user interfaces. The application also works as a fairly easy to use Project Management tool.
The Community Edition is its free version which allows users to work in a sample project as well as in one user-defined project.
DUB – DENIM (Standalone Application for Win, Linux & Mac)
DENIM is a free desktop application that is available for Windows, Unix, and Mac OS X. DENIM describes itself as 'an Informal Tool For Early Stage Web Site and UI Design'.
It combines many of the benefits of paper-based sketching with existing electronic prototyping tools.
It allows designers to quickly sketch an interface, preserving the important properties of pencil and paper: a rough drawing can be produced quickly and the medium is flexible. However, unlike a paper sketch, this electronic sketch is interactive and can easily be annotated and modified.
Premium Wireframe/Prototype Apps with a Free Option Available
All of the Wireframe & Prototype & Mockup web-based applications below are premium services that do offer a free, yet limited, option. Personal bubble mac os. You may like to try them:
- FlairBuilder – Wireframes. Mockups. Prototypes
- Mockabilly – iPhone app mockup
Related Posts
If you'd like to support our preservation efforts (and this wasn't cheap), please consider donating or supporting us on Patreon. Thank you!
This is a sub-page of Proto:A Hat in Time (Windows, Mac OS X).
The alpha build of A Hat in Time was distributed to Kickstarter/slacker backers from February 20, 2014 to February 28, 2015. Identified by the words ALPHA BUILD: FAR FROM FINISHED at the bottom of the screen while in-game.
- 1Unused Text
- 2Inaccessible Areas
- 2.1Mafia Town
- 3Unused Music
- 8Revisional Differences
Unused Text
checklist.int
Text for what appears to be a scrapped checklist system. Highroad mac os.
collectibles.int
Fix it space! mac os. Detective city mac os. Unused text related to the collectibles. The Witch Hat would later appear in the game's Beta, and while the Dweller Mask does appear, there's no way to check its description.
menus.int
Text that appears to be for an earlier build that lacked a settings menu.
taunts.int
UnrealEd.int
Text that appears to be for an editor.
mafia.int
Text for a Mafia being teleported.
mustachegirl.int
Text that appears to be for a fight with Mustache Girl. No such scene is present in the Alpha.
bird.int
Text leftover from the prototype, where two seagulls taught the player about crouching and diving.
conductors.int
Text for The Conductor. While he does appear on the main menu, he never speaks in the Alpha.
crow_agent.int
CAW Agents never speak in the Alpha, and their text consists only of this.
debug.int
A file likely used while working on the text system. Interestingly, the Mafia's 'mumbletest' line was changed in later builds.
dev_commentary.int
Text for developer commentary for the level Vanessa's Manor. This feature is absent from the Alpha, and the file is completely blank in the final.
forestvillage.int
Text for the Subcon Village. This location is absent from the Alpha, rendering this text unused.
hatkid.int
An early version of the line used in the Bookstore level. While Hat Kid does say several of the lines listed here, no text bot is shown, making this text unused.
hubrobo.int
Text for a cut robot character. This character exists only in concept art, and as a model in Hat Kid's Toybox in the final.
mafiaboss.int
Text for a fight with the Mafia Boss. This version of his dialogue was shown in early trailers. His lines were completely changed by the Beta.
mafia_npc.int
Text for several acts that are not present in the Alpha.
mafiatown.int
moonjumper.int
Text for the Moonjumper. He does not make an appearance in the Alpha. This text was shown in a pre-release screenshot and in a development video.
moonpenguins.int
Unused text for the penguins found around Mafia Town.
mustachegirl.int
Text for scenes that do not appear in the Alpha. Several of these scenes do appear in the Beta and Final, albeit with rewritten dialogue.
new_ability.int
The Hookshot and Umbrella Pogo are not present in the Alpha, rendering this text unused.
scienceowls.int
While two Science Owls do appear on the title screen, there are no acts in the Alpha featuring them.
system.int
thor.int
Thor is not present in the Alpha, nor is the act where Mafia town is covered in lava.
tim_time.int
Tim is not present in the Alpha. This text was used for his appearance in the Prototype.
timetrial_ghost.int
No such mode is present in the Alpha.
train_operator.int
Caged (silversycamore) mac os. The Train Operator isn't present anywhere in the Alpha.
tutorial.int
This text was used in the Prototype. One line was used exclusively in the build sent to farfromsubtle.
Inaccessible Areas
Mafia Town
- Hidden on an inaccessible island is a chalkboard inside a tent, chiding the player for snooping around.
Lava Mafia Town
- Remains of the prototype Lava Mafia Town existed in earlier builds of the Alpha.
Spaceship Hub
The alpha's Spaceship Hub is mostly incomplete, and can't be roamed around normally. Many of its rooms are very clearly unfinished.
- An early version of Hat Kid's bedroom that uses Vanessa's bed as a placeholder. Fixed to the bed is what appears to be a clock face, along with a sign that reads 'ACT 1 TOILET OF DOOM'. This room would later become the Subcon Forest hub room in the beta onwards, with the clock face removed from Hat Kid's bed.
- A green room with a table in the center and a mysterious purple ghost. This ghost isn't present anywhere else in the alpha. This room would later become the Mafia Town hub room in the beta onwards.
- An early Trainwreck of Science hub room that borrows machinery assets from the chapter, unlike the beta onwards.
- A domed room whose sole furnishing is a slide, which leads back into the main room of the Spaceship Hub.
- A room that, sans viewport and doors, is entirely empty.
musicroom
What appears to be a test room that was used for testing collectibles and music. Contains a red vault code, 4 Electro Shock badge pieces, 4 Owl's Brew badge pieces, a Mafia tie, a Time Piece, and two buttons. One button plays the cutscene that plays when a Time Piece is spawned, and the other plays music from Vanessa's Manor.
Unused Music
Chapter 1 Intro
Leftover from the 2013 prototype intro cutscene for Mafia Town. Goes unused as this cutscene was removed and the track was composed by Eric Gleiser who has since left Gears For Breakfast. As his musical contributions have been almost entirely replaced by Pascal Stiefel's compositions, it's unlikely that this track will see use in the final game.
Welcome to Mafia Town (Lava)
Mafia Town overworld music from the 2013 Hat in Time prototype, intended to play when Mafia Town is submerged in lava. In the alpha build this level is inaccessible, leaving this track unused. This track was also composed by Eric Gleiser. The Lava Mafia Town theme will be replaced with Pascal's version as with all of the other Mafia Town themes in the final game.
Mafia Battle
Miniboss music from the 2013 prototype. Like the above example, this track was replaced with Pascal's miniboss music yet left in the alpha game files, unused.
Time Race
More remnants from the 2013 prototype. In the prototype, this track played when chasing Tim in Mafia Town, and in secret level staff ghost races. As neither Tim nor staff ghost racing is present in the alpha, this track goes unused. As this track was composed by Eric Gleiser, it's unlikely to see use in the final game.
Hat Adult Masked Song
A vocal track of a girl singing, likely intended to be layered over TheSubconForest_Masked.ogg as heard below:
While TheSubconForest_Masked is heard in the alpha's epilogue, the singing is unused.
Unused Audio
| Sound(s) | Speech | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 'Two minutes and zero seconds until self-destruct. Oh no!' | An announcer warning the player of an imminent self-destruct. These audio files are from Trainwreck of Science, which is unplayable in the alpha. | |
| 'One minute and twenty seconds until self-destruct. Better hurry!' | - | |
| 'Forty seconds until self-destruct. We're doomed.' | - | |
| 'Ten seconds until self-destruct.' | - | |
| 'Nine.' | - | |
| 'Eight.' | - | |
| 'Seven.' | - | |
| 'Six.' | - | |
| 'Five.' | - | |
| 'Four.' | - | |
| 'Three.' | - | |
| 'Two.' | - | |
| 'One.' | - | |
| 'Goodbye!' | - |
Unused NPCs
- The Moon Jumper has textures and even rudimentary animation, despite making no appearances in the alpha.
- A Fire Spirit, an NPC that's only ever been seen publicly in pre-release footage.
- Thor the inventor, also Thor the unused.
- Tim the Time Lord, mostly unchanged from his appearance in the 2013 prototype.
Unused Textures
- A texture that saw use by a rapping mafia member in the 2013 prototype. The rapper, his stage, and his audience were all removed in the alpha version of Mafia Town, leaving this texture unused.
- This graphic would go on to become the countdown timer in Trainwreck of Science, but is unused in the alpha.
- A texture titled timeadded_20s.tga. Would later be used in beta for Trainwreck of Science's race against the clock, but sees no use in the alpha.
Unused Models
- A stopwatch with +20s printed on it, intended to be used as a pickup. Would later find use in the beta build for Trainwreck of Science.
Revisional Differences
Moon Jumper's Theme
Endless Shmup (prototype) Mac Os X
Prior to March 26, 2014, the main menu used an early version of Moon Jumper's Theme as placeholder music. Once the main menu music was added, Moon Jumper's Theme was removed from the alpha game files entirely. Note that this early rendition lacks a bit of the instrumentation heard in the finalized version below.
Endless Shmup (prototype) Mac Os Catalina
