Creating Your First Mockup Balsamiq

7/24/2019 Creating Your First Mockup Balsamiq

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Creating Your First MockupHome(/) Tutorials (/Customer/En/Portal/Topics/49503-Tutorials/Articles) Creating Your First Mockup

Hey There!

W e ' r e i n t h e p r o c e s s o f u p d a t i n g o u r t u t o r i a l s f o r Balsamiq Mockups 3

(http://balsamiq.com/products/mockups). W h a t y o u s e e h e r e m i g h t n o t m a t c h y o u r v e r s i o n (learn more

(http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/1844131)).

This tutorial is designed to guide you through creating your first Mockup. It will cover a basicoverview of the product as well as some of the features and UIcontrols.

Here is the Mockup that you will create in this tutorial:
http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/1844131http://balsamiq.com/products/mockupshttp://support.balsamiq.com/customer/en/portal/topics/49503-tutorials/articleshttp://support.balsamiq.com/


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If you're new to the idea of Mockups (also called wireframes), you may want to check out UX

Apprentice(http://uxapprentice.com/) to start with an overview of what Mockups are, and where

they fit into a UX Design process.

Basic Concepts and TerminologyHere are some of the basic components of Balsamiq Mockups:

UI Control - A standard user interface "widget" (e.g., Button, Image, Dialog Window). The

building blocks of any Mockup.

Canvas - The grid-lined area where UI Controls are placed.

UI Library - A row of UI Controls that can be dragged onto the Canvas.

Property Inspector (http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/110114)

- Aconfiguration panel that contains common actions (e.g., alignment, layering) and properties

that are specific to each UI Control.

Note: T h eMockups Application Overview

(http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/109151) h a s m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t t h e e l e m e n t s

a n d c o n t r o l s i n B a l s a m i q M o c k u p s .
http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/109151http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/110114http://uxapprentice.com/


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Adding the First Few Controls

To create the Mockup shown above, begin by dragging the Browser UI Control onto the

Canvas.


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The content of nearly all controls in Balsamiq Mockups is defined by simple text. When a control

is first added to the canvas, it will be shown in edit mode, often with hints about how to use it.

For the Browser control, you can specify the title bar and URL text, or just use the default.

Tip: T o e d i t a c o n t r o l a t a n y t i m e , d o u b l e - c l i c k o n i t , o r p r e s s E n t e r w h e n i t i s s e l e c t e d .

Next, resize the control to the desired size using the resize cursor controls at the edges and

corners of the control.

Continue by adding the following controls to the canvas: Title, Text, and Image as shown

below. Note that alignment guides appear just inside the edges of the Browser Window control

when you move them toward the edges and that the controls "snap" to these guides.


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For the product description placeholder text in the Text control, enter your own placeholder text,

or begin typing "lorem" and Lorem Ipsum(http://www.lipsum.com) text will automatically be

generated.

After resizing the Image control, your Mockup should look something like this:
http://www.lipsum.com/


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Tip: I f y o u h a v e t r o u b l e s e l e c t i n g a c o n t r o l t h a t i s i n f r o n t o f a n o t h e r c o n t r o l , t r y " l o c k i n g " t h e

b a c k g r o u n d c o n t r o l u s i n g t h e i c o n i n t h e t o o l b a r t o p r e v e n t i t f r o m b e i n g s e l e c t e d .

Creating and Aligning the Image Pager Controls

The next step is to add the little dots beneath the Image that indicate a rotating content or image

control.


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In this part of the tutorial you will learn about adding Icons andGrouping andAligning

controls.

Begin by adding the Icon control to the canvas.

Next, click the arrow inside the "Icon Search" box to open the Icon Library.


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This window shows the list of all the icons included with Balsamiq Mockups. You can filter them

by category or search by name. Once you have chosen an icon you can choose from one of six

sizes. For this tutorial, select the Circle icon and set the size to "XS" and click "Select".

Tip: T h e " I c o n S e a r c h " b o x i n t h e Icon P r o p e r t y I n s p e c t o r b e h a v e s l i k e t h e " Q u i c k A d d " b o x a n d

d i s p l a y s i c o n s m a t c h i n g t h e t e x t y o u e n t e r ( t r y t y p i n g " a r r o w " , f o r e x a m p l e ) . ( M o r e a b o u t u s i n g i c o n s

c a n b e f o u n d o n t h e Working with Icons (http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/110202)p a g e . )
http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/110202


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Add three more icons to the right of the Circle icon (use the Circle Outlined this time). You can

also copy and paste once you've added the second icon. Using your mouse, position the icons

next to each other. You can see that alignment guides appear both horizontally and vertically,

helping you place them appropriately.

Tip: U s e t h e D u p l i c a t e k e y b o a r d s h o r t c u t ( C T R L + D o n W i n d o w s C M D + D o n M a c ) t o q u i c k l y

r e p l i c a t e i t e m s o n t h e c a n v a s . ( More keyboard shortcuts here

(http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/110445))

Zooming out, your mockup should now look something like this.

The next step is to center-align the four icons below the Image control. The procedure for doing

this is to first group the icons and then align the icon group with the image control.

To group a set of controls, select them by drawing a boundary around them with your cursor or

holding down SHIFT and selecting each one with your mouse. Then click the Group command

in the Toolbar or press CTRL+G (on Windows CMD + G on Mac).
http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/110445


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Tip: A n o t h e r w a y t o s e l e c t o n l y c o n t r o l s t h a t a r e i n t h e f o r e g r o u n d ( b e s i d e s " l o c k i n g " b a c k g r o u n d

c o n t r o l s ) i s t o h o l d d o w n t h e A L T / O P T I O N k e y w h i l e d r a g g i n g t h e m o u s e . T h i s w i l l p r e v e n t b a c k g r o u n d

c o n t r o l s f r o m b e i n g s e l e c t e d .

Grouped controls can be identified by a light purple color and will remain grouped until

Ungrouped (shortcut: CTRL/CMD + SHIFT + G). To align the grouped icons with the Image

control, select them both and use the Align Center icon in the Property Inspector.

You can move the pager controls closer to the Image control either by using the keyboard arrow

keys or by using the mouse and the alignment guides.


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Tip: H o l d i n g d o w n S H I F T w h i l e m o v i n g c o n t r o l s w i t h t h e a r r o w k e y s w i l l m o v e t h e m 1 0 p i x e l s a t a t i m e

( i n s t e a d o f t h e u s u a l 1 p i x e l ) .

The Mockup so far, with the pager controls added.

Completing the Mockup

The remainder of the Mockup consists of a set of tabs, more text, and a chart.

Add a Tabs Bar control and place it in the bottom half of the Mockup.


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Commas are used to create tabs in this control, so you can create as many tabs as you like

simply by entering additional text separated by a comma. Entering the text "Overview, Features,

Design, Specs", for example, will create the tabs shown below.

To show the "Overview" tab as selected or highlighted, use the Selection property as shown

below.

After resizing the Tabs Bar control to match the width of the page, add Label andText controls

to create something like this:


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You can format text as bold,italic

, or hyperlinked(#)

in many controls by enclosing the textwith special characters. Use *text* for bold, _text_ for italics, or [text] for hyperlinks.

Tip: L e a r n m o r e f o r m a t t i n g t i p s o n t h eWorking with Text

(http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/110121#basicformatting) p a g e .

Finally, drag a Chart: Column control into the empty area inside the Tabs Bar as a finishing

touch to complete the Mockup.
http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/110121#basicformatting


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Exporting and Next Steps

Now that the Mockup is finished, you can easily export it as an image via the Project > Export >

Mockup to PNG... (shortcut: CTRL/CMD + R) menu. Other export options are described in the

Exporting your Mockups(http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/111730) article.

Congratulations! You have now completed your first wireframe with Balsamiq Mockups

(http://balsamiq.com/products/mockups)! You are on your way to become an User Experience

(UX) expert! :)

For more information on any of the topics covered here, see the Full Mockups Documentation

(http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/127377).
http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/127377http://balsamiq.com/products/mockupshttp://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/111730


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Last Updated: Apr 06, 2015 03:38PM PDT

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Creating Your First Mockup Balsamiq