When you work with remote teams, providing them with mockups is faster than doing long phone calls or writing long emails to explain your ideas.

I discovered Balsamiq few years ago while looking for a software that I could use to quickly share mockups of iPhone screens to developers for a mobile project.

My main goals were:

• to explain how the iPhone application would work
• to list the content of each screen (without going into a detailed screen design)
• to show how to navigate between screens (you don’t want to have a complex navigation for mobile applications)

I would use Balsamiq to mock up the application and to link the wireframes together. I would also write additional explanations of the application to my final document. As Balsamiq targets simplicity, this is not a tool for you if you need a software that handles complex interactivity.

Here is below an example of a mockup I created to explain a “Settings” screen using Balsamiq:

You can purchase the desktop version of Balsamiq or subscribe to their web application (they also offer plugins). I purchased the desktop version and since then all the upgrades were free. I usually start creating my mockups on paper as it is faster, then I would finalize them with Balsamiq.

Once you have your wireframe in mind, create a new blank mockup and drag and drop the elements from the top UI Library to your canvas: it is that simple!

You can also click on each component to edit their properties:

You can open and work on several mockups at a time:

Then you will have the possibility to export all canvas to multiple PNG images or a single PDF document:

In addition, here is a website where you can learn some basics about UX design from the Balsamiq team: UX Apprentice.