About mockups
When I've an idea about a Webapp, it's always hard for me not to start coding directly. But it's always better to visualize the screen you want to build before firing up the text editor and start coding.
Sometimes I use a paper and a pencil, sometimes I code directly the screens in goody old HTML + CSS. While those solutions did the trick, I wasn't totally confortable with them. The paper solution works fine for me for the very first mockup, but it's not that handy when you want to move screen parts around.
This is the very first mockup I did for Cashflow App :
Building the early mockups in HTML do not work well for me neither because it take me too much time, and my hands are already too much "in the code".
A few weeks ago, I heard about Balsamiq Mockups. It is an Adobe Air (which I usually don't like that much) application, but it's incredibly easy to use, easy to learn, and it gives you a quick and lean result. The guy behind this app is an Italian based in San Francisco, and he has a very interesting blog.
Here is the very first screen I designed for my Cashflow App :
It was done in a few minutes (I thought about it a little longer than that).
It allowed me to quickly get real and start coding, having a clear and simple target.
It's priceless.
Feel free to share your experience with mockup tools here.