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I am looking for some tool that would help me prototype basic website structure and logistics (or simply user interface).
It should be extremely efficient in the matter of time needed to do simple changes like changing position of objects on the page. It should provide features for creating multiple pages and linking them together.
I don't need visual aspect of the thing, just the basic structure, placement of objects and logistics.
I prefer offline, free or open source solution.
Try Mockingbird, it's mainly used for user interface prototypes, but you can easily use it for flowcharts / structure diagrams etc.
Best of all it's free!
Try Balsamiq Mockups, it's excellent and quite inexpensive. Or, Microsoft's Sketchflow is great for building interactive prototypes.
In no particular order:
Sketchflow, part of Expression Blend 3
Balsamiq
Mockingbird
Axure
"I prefer offline, free or open source solution."
Then Pencil is what you need!
I've tried iPlotz recently which is an online wireframing tool and I've been impressed.
I highly recommend Mockplus Cloud.
Mockplus is a desktop-based tool for prototyping mobile, web, and apps. You are able to create interactions with simple drag-and-drop. Besides，your teamwork will be time-efficient with the collaboration feature.
The admins are always online and can solve your problems in minutes if you have any. You can learn about design and get design inspirations and resources in this group.
What’s more, this group offers many benefits to its members only.
If you join the Mockplus and the admin will offer you 40% off coupons and free UI Kits & Fonts Package. Besides, you will get life-time free tech support on Mockplus even if you are not a paid user now.
If you are looking for a place to communicate with others about product and UX/UI design, and also get a great rapid prototyping tool with saving a big budget.
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Please recommend a scrum/agile project management tool. First, it should be able to be installed or deployed on my local computer. Additionally, it should be free, no need for complete unlimited usage, just that it can support 5 users and some scrum project functions, such as "kanban".
I found some answers of other questions like mine. Some of the tools which have been recommended are too old, so please recommend newer tools for me. And if it has a nice look that would be better, something like scrumwise or targetprocess.
Must haves:
local applications
free
kanban
I would suggest using Eylean board as it is the most visual scrum board compared to the competitors. And according to scrum you need to have a visible and transparent process inside your team. Also this software allows mixing other methodologies as well.
It is free of charge for personal use.
Given that you're wanting a local application, I'm assuming that your team is all located in the same place.
If so, I'd advise against using tools. As the agile manifesto says: "We value Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools". I'd urge you to consider co-locating your team(s), improving communication, using cards, physical boards and information radiators.
Hope that helps.
Try Yodiz, you can have up to 3 free users and it's one of the most intuitive with amazing UX. Every month they add more features to their platform. A few of the important features they have are following.
Collaboration Tools (Chat, Discussion, in-line comments)
Board, they have slick boards to manage your user stories and tasks.
User story management is as easy as it gets. Awesome backlog with priority and filtering
features.
Import/Export data to or from Jira, Pivotal and many other systems.
Three (3) free users with full features.
Report, they have detailed reporting, that makes progress and time tracking so easy.
Over all it's great tool. It's worth to give it a try.
http://www.simple-kanban.com
This seems like it meets your requirements. There are other possibilities if you will accept a hosted solution rather than a local install.
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What tools is best for drawing an overview of a system for a new starter.
I want to show the components and if possible the technologies they use.
Current options include: Visio, Word, EA?, Paint!
Visual Studio isn't an option (too exprensive).
As VS is too expensive, perhaps Google Draw would fit the bill? It's part of Google Docs, which is free. Just sign in with your Google account.
It's got all the normal flow chart symbols, I find it dead easy to use, and it's on line so you can share it with a new starter just by sending them the URL and giving them access to the drawing.
I use it for nearly all my system diagrams now, because it's so easy to use.
I had the exact same issue a short while back and tried all those tools (and others). Here's what I found:
PowerPoint's the best option! You probably already know how to use it and it gets the job done.
If you're looking for some neat diagram elements (e.g. pictures of network components and such) then Visio is also a pretty good option.
Enterprise Architect (EA) is an overkill for the job and unless you're already proficient with it you'll find yourself spending way too much time on figuring out how to get it to do your bidding rather than just drawing the damn overview.
Paint is is too simplistic - you'll be more productive with PowerPoint.
http://www.bubbl.us/ (fast mindmapping)
http://www.Draw.io/ (online diagrams, incl. UML)
http://www.visual-paradigm.com/ (client program that needs to be installed)
I have taken to a combination of visio and powerpoint, usually embedding flowcharts into a PP deck. I've found I get more bang for the buck by maintaining a living architecture diagram in visio and then referencing it in other materials appropriate for their audience. For example, I might want to reference an arch diagram in both an introductory slideshow as well as detailed API documentation.
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The company is growing and we're starting to implement more and more complex software designs. I feel a need for some tracking software... I just don't know if it exists.
I currently maintain a Google Doc Folder (shared by our 3 developers) with a well-organized doc for each module. A doc is also created per major upgrade to a module or modules. For all other "tracking"... we have interal forums.
I want the following:
I want get an immediate printout of all Project_01 features or bug fixes on a particular project with the option to hide or show developer comments that have been implemented in the last X number of days.
This clearly suggests a web-based system where developers enter issues, bugs, and features with appropriate tagging. Entries should be commentable, taggable, dated, editable and reporting should be based upon tags, dates, developers, projects, etc.
I figure I'm going to be perceived as naive by the grizzled veterans floating around here, though I've been running this business for 4 years (so I've been around). I don't think we have the resources to absorb the overhead of implementing something like CMMI... but then again, I don't really know what's best.
My personal evolution to using Google Docs per Application Module + internal phpbb forums for everything else has been pretty nice compared to the way we started out (marker boards, Microsoft Word docs). I just feel like I can go a long ways towards exceeding client expectations if I had the ability to track features/bugs/issues better with superior on-demand reporting.
Thoughts?
Update: Went with MediaWiki integrated with Mantis
Take a look at fogbugz. It looks like it meets all your requirements.
Also, take a look at this other SO question: Free/Cheap Task/Bug Management software
I've good experiences with mantis. http://www.mantisbt.org
Yes, FogBugz and Trac are recommended.
I hope it helps.
I find this comparison of issue tracking systems either interesting or overwhelming.
I think with 3 developers, in the same building, you probably can get by without software tools. But, adopting something now, before you're so big/complex that you can't survive without it may save a lot of future pain.
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Programmers usually don't pay much attention to user interfaces and focus more on functionalities but users first judge the product by its appearance so it is necessary to make nice user interface for web, desktop and mobile apps.
Personally I don't like to spend much time for user interface design and sometimes try to look for some examples and then modify the existing design.
Does anyone know any good web resource with collection of user interfaces for web, desktop and mobile devices?
Personally I find quince a nice site for that purpose
I use Balsamiq Mockups and their site has a good collection of mockups you can look at. Also UI-patterns and inspireUx are both really good resources.
This one may be useful: http://www.flickr.com/groups/ilovewireframes
You can also have a look at the Yahoo design pattern and particularly the wireframe stencil kit that you can use to design your user interface: http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/wireframes/
Design pattern libraries are very useful, but it can be a bit dangerous to look at them and "pick your favourites". This is not how good UI design happens. Different design patterns are useful for different contexts.
You may be better off by starting with a review of competitor products, and building up your own understanding of what works and what doesn't within your applications specific context.
For the web I recommend you to take a look at those links:
http://layouts.ironmyers.com/
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/style/sheets/layout/advanced/
http://www.code-sucks.com/css%20layouts/
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/grids/
This Design Patterns set by Chris Messina on Flickr.com seems to be good.
Not a web resource, but the user interface for BBEdit from
Bare Bones Software (text editor, Mac OS) is the best I have
ever encountered and is worth studying and emitating. What is learned from
such a study can be applied on any platform, not just Mac OS.
"Best" = simple to use for beginners, intuitive gradual discovery
of more advanced features.
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For an in house software project, what type of system I could use to centralize all the online team members discussion?
For our software development effort, currently our questions and answers are all scattered over emails.
Its hard to track ideas, questions, and answers etc.
What do you guys use? How do you manage such a situation?
Could a wiki be used for some thing like this? And if so, how could I get started? I have not done this before.
Our discussions could have sensitive information for the company as well so how could I address security?
In terms of technology, I would definitely go for a wiki (and Twiki is certainly not a bad choice). If it's installed on your company's intranet then there is no issue in terms of security.
One thing to keep in mind about a wiki is that it requires some work to keep it maintained; it's easy (and sometimes tempting) for everyone in the team to constantly just add pages without taking any linking of pages or structure into account. The moral here: a wiki is a very helpful tool for helping in communication, but it doesn't come for free.
However, depending on the kinds of communication/discussion that you're talking about: definitely watch out that online communication isn't replacing face-to-face communication. Depending on the interpersonal skills of the members of the team, it can some times be too easy for some people to shift to e-mail/wiki/forum use instead of verbal communication. Even having daily stand-up meetings (a la SCRUM) can be very useful in ensuring that everyone knows what is going on in the team instead of relying on electronic communication.
I'd suggest redmine
It has a forum and wiki per project, as you seem to need, and a lot more features very usefull when dealing with a project that requires several members to participate. And its opensource!
The only "issue" is that it was written using Ruby on Rails.
I would say Twiki, its an open source enterprise wiki.
Needs sometime to get used to it, but once you are, you will find opening new pages and topics very easy and quick.
One of the advantages IMO is its hosted on your own server
TWiki® - the Open Source Enterprise Wiki and Web 2.0 Application Platform
My own distributed team has experienced a similar problem, and we've solved it in the following way.
Day-to-day we run a continuous group chat (Campfire is an option). Announcements, questions, and answers can happen in chat, and it's recorded. You can search past transcripts as needed. This is simple and lightweight.
We also use a wiki for more permanent content. Sometimes material that starts in chat migrates to the wiki. The advantage of a structured wiki is that it makes it easier to onboard new team members and maintain specific content like team norms (like Subversion's HACKING doc).
The benefit is that we keep fast and lightweight chat for transient questions and so on, but we still have the wiki to hold content once it's deemed important.