Balsamiq Blog

A little update and a record day

by Peldi Guilizzoni. July 31st, 2008 under Company / Business, Development / Technical, Mockups — 4 Comments

I just published a build with a few bug-fixes:

• the Tree no longer goes crazy if you use system fonts (thanks Travis Jensen for reporting it)
• the DataGrid selection is no longer off by one (thanks Don Coleman for reporting it)
• I finally gave a white background to all of the controls that I think need it
• Drag-and-drop in the Desktop version was off by 15 pixels after adding the Ribbon, it’s fixed now (I published this update already yesterday during the day)

Another exciting bug-fix for Mockups for Confluence customers is that it appears that Atlassian has fixed issue CONF-12235 in the upcoming 2.9 version of Confluence, which means that if you update the “Add UI Mockup” link shows up in all themes, hurray!

I have a long TODO list for improvements to the app, but I have decided to only do bug-fixes like the ones above for the next few days…I need some time to properly prioritize everything and I don’t want to rush out half-backed features.

The other reason is that I am struggling to survive the “ReadWriteWeb effect” – thanks again Marshall and congrats on the big news! – yesterday was my peak day in terms of traffic (4,400+ visitors), reviews and mentions (not sure how many, but Techrunch France is worth a mention), emails to deal with (92!) and sales (I won’t say because it’s ridiculous…let’s just say that I sold more yesterday than all of last week).

I am taking a few hours off today to go to the beach and decompress, see you back online tonight!

Peldi

— 4 Comments

 

 

 

$10,000 in revenue in the first 6 weeks

by Peldi Guilizzoni. July 30th, 2008 under Before the Jump, Company / Business — 18 Comments

The huge amount of attention that my “Profitable, in 3 weeks!” post has received so far tells me that there’s a thirst for financial results of small bootstrapped startups in the interweb, so here’s another milestone report:

Less than 6 weeks from launch, Balsamiq Studios reached USD 10,000 in revenue.

Here’s the breakdown, week by week:

You see 7 columns there because I launched on a Thursday, but the chart shows weeks as starting on Monday.

Mockups for Desktop accounts for 98% of my sales and 89% of the revenue. Hopefully after yesterday’s licensing change sales of Mockups for Confluence will pick up some and contribute more.

Saying I am happy with this milestone is a big understatement, the feeling I have is more one of incredulity than anything else…if it’s a dream, don’t wake me up.

I’ll post another financial update here if I reach $100,000 in revenue (I wish) or if things go dramatically south. I sure hope it’s the former!

I have a very long TODO list for Mockups and for Balsamiq in general, so I’d better get back to work and keep the momentum going!

P.S. Some people asked me why I share my financial data so openly on the web. My short answer is: why not? The long answer could be the subject of another blog post: it has to do with gaining the trust of prospective customers by making Balsamiq Studios an open, honest and approachable company you’d want to do business with.

UPDATE: I wrote this post yesterday, but today was another record day, with 2 Team licenses of Mockups for Confluence and 4 licenses of Mockups for Desktop sold. So now the revenue is at $11,488. Also, I had an exciting thought: could Mockups be the highest grossing Adobe AIR app to date? That’d be cool.

— 18 Comments

 

 

 

Licensing Changes for Mockups For Confluence

by Peldi Guilizzoni. July 29th, 2008 under Company / Business, Mockups, Release Announcements — 1 Comment

The news

Your Mockups and Confluence licenses no longer have to match.

In other words: you can now install a small license of Mockups (i.e. a Team license) on a bigger license (say, Enterprise) of Confluence.

In other words: Mockups for Confluence just got a lot more affordable!

The reasons for the change

A few prospective customers have asked me for it, and it makes perfect sense. Mockups is somewhat of a “vertical” solution. After all not everyone in a large organization is interested in mocking up websites or software, so why should you pay to give access to everyone?

How it works

I tried to make it as simple as possible. Here’s what happens:

• you install Mockups for Confluence normally (no changes here)
• while you are using a trial of Mockups for Confluence, everyone can add and edit mockups (no changes here either)
• once you enter your Mockups license, the plugin detects your Confluence license level, and compares it to your Mockups license
• if the two licenses match (i.e. Team/Team or Workgroup/Workgroup), everyone who has access to the wiki will see the “Add UI Mockup” and “edit this mockup” links – this is basically how it works today
• if your Mockups license is smaller than your Confluence license, only members of the “balsamiq-mockups-editors” group will see the “Add UI Mockup” and “edit this mockup” links. You create the group yourself and manage its members normally, via the Confluence admin UI (docs here).

Some Screenshots

If your Mockups and Confluence licenses match, there is no change to any of the UI anywhere.

If your Mockups license is smaller than your Confluence license, you’ll see this in the “Configure Mockups” screen:

Now let’s say Mockups is hugely popular in your organization and everyone wants access to it. You keep adding members to the balsamiq-mockups-editors group, and somehow you add more than what your Mockups license allows. When this happens, you’ll see this “friendly but firm” warning:

To make sure you notice, the same warning is displayed under every mockup in the wiki:

When this happens you can either remove some people from the balsamiq-mockups-editors group, or upgrade your Mockups for Confluence license – we suggest the latter option.

So that’s it! If you liked Mockups but couldn’t justify the price for your whole organization, I hope this change will remove that obstacle. Now you can start small and buy it for your team for only $600.

So what are you waiting for? Download the latest version (build 1.1.15), then buy Mockups for Confluence now!

— 1 Comment

 

 

 

A tiny new feature, and the Ribbon is in

by Peldi Guilizzoni. July 29th, 2008 under Development / Technical, Mockups, Release Announcements — 1 Comment

Ok so I merged the Ribbon UI Library changes described yesterday into the official build, thanks for the feedback everyone.

I also added a solid background to a bunch of controls (Button, Calendar, MenuBar, NumericStepper, TextArea, TextInput), so that you won’t run into weird overlapping issues any more.

The main reason I’m posting this though is another, tiny new feature: the Menu control now supports checkmarks and radio buttons:

It’s more like a bug fix than anything else, thanks once again to Michael Matti for noticing it and reporting it yesterday.

Onward!

— 1 Comment

 

 

 

New feature preview: “Ribbon”

by Peldi Guilizzoni. July 27th, 2008 under Development / Technical, Mockups — 5 Comments

Hi there. So no-one likes to scroll horizontally, myself included. So why does Mockups force you to scroll that way through 60+ UI controls in the UI Library?

Well, the main reason is because I couldn’t come up with anything better. Then a customer pointed me to a better way, which helps a lot without taking too much space.

So here’s a preview of the new “ribbon-like” feature of Mockups:

The thing to notice as I select control groups is how much bigger the scrollbar thumb gets (i.e. how much less scrolling will be necessary to see all elements in the group). Sometimes the scrollbar even disappears entirely!

I never use the UI Library myself (I’m a Quick Add fanatic), so I decided to not publish this change live until I got the go ahead of those of you who do.

So please test-drive the new UI here, let me know if you like it, and if so I’ll push it live.

— 5 Comments

 

 

 

Tiny new feature with a big impact: size overlay

by Peldi Guilizzoni. July 26th, 2008 under Mockups, Release Announcements — 1 Comment

This is my favorite kind of feature: there when you need it, invisible when you don’t. It took about 15 minutes to code, and solves a real need.

In short: when you need it*, you will now be able to see the size of the selection.

This 30-seconds video shows it in action (there’s no audio):

* With “when you need it”, I mean: “when you resize a selection bigger than 200 x 200 pixels.

It’s already live, you can try it here on the site or update your builds now if you want it!

Thanks to Jason Yanowitz and Robert Myers, two awesome customers who asked for this feature (it was already on my TODO list, but I bumped its priority because of their feedback).

— 1 Comment

 

 

 

a few bug fixes

by Peldi Guilizzoni. July 23rd, 2008 under Development / Technical, Mockups, Release Announcements — No Comment

Perfection is unattainable, but it doesn’t hurt to aim for it right?

I try to get closer, one micro-release at the time.

Here’s what I just fixed today:

• ungrouping via the property inspector also locked the controls (kudos if you guess how such a dumb bug happened).
• ButtonBar and ComboBox have a white background now, so that you can place them over other controls without seeing through them
• This was a bad one: entering backspace in the little “quick add for icons” would delete the selected control, and leave you in a bad state with the suggested icons floating at the top-left of your mockup. Yuck. It’s fixed now.
• UPDATE: what do you know, I just found, and fixed, another bad ungrouping bug (had to do with duplicating a group, then ungrouping both. Not common, but the result was not good). It’s fixed now, build #s updated below.

If you want these fixes download and install the latest: for Desktop (v1.1.15) or for Confluence (v.1.1.10).

Mockups For Desktop users: this upgrade is strongly encouraged if you are running a build between 1.1.9 and 1.1.12 (all published on Monday), as they have a couple of pretty bad bugs in them: my apologies if they affected you.

I will try to batch bug fixes into micro-releases like this one so that I don’t just publish a new build every hour, but if I were you I’d subscribe to this blog’s RSS, or if that’s not fast enough, follow @balsamiq on Twitter.

— No Comment

 

 

 

Mockups for Desktop Volume Licensing

by Peldi Guilizzoni. July 21st, 2008 under Company / Business, Mockups — No Comment

Hi everyone. Spurred by a prospective customer who asked for it, I have now added volume licensing options to the Mockups For Desktop online store.

Here are the discounts:

• 5-User pack: $379 (~4% off)
• 10-User pack: $709 (~10% off)
• 15-User pack: $999 (~16% off)
• 20-User pack: $1299 (~18% off)

So what are you waiting for? Go buy Mockups for Desktop now!

— No Comment

 

 

 

New Release: Balsamiq Mockups 1.1

by Peldi Guilizzoni. July 20th, 2008 under Development / Technical, Mockups, Release Announcements — No Comment

The news: Mockups version 1.1 is available as of today as a free upgrade to all customers.
What to do: go get it! For your desktop and for Atlassian Confluence. Licensed users will NOT need to re-enter your license information.

What’s new?

Below is a list of all the improvements since version 1.0 shipped a month ago.

My intention for 1.1 was to be a “see what’s dramatically broken and fix it quick” release. It turns out there’s a lot more in 1.1 than I thought (just look at the size of your browser’s scrollbar ), and now I think the main theme for the release should be “polish and power”: all the bug fixes and little enhancements here and there give the app the level of polish I wanted, while the new controls types, all the new keyboard shortcuts, plus the ability to work on multiple mockups at the same time in the Desktop version or the new import flow in the Confluence version give you the power to express your wireframing creativity even better and faster.

Although there’s always room for improvement, I must say I am quite happy with this release: I have used it extensively and it feels pretty smooth. It feels more like a 1.5 than a 1.1, but what’s a release number these days anyways…

This release also addresses most of the issues that were raised in the very active GetSatisfaction forums, I think: correct me if I’m wrong!

Changes that apply to all product versions

New Features / Enhancements:

• Added Callout controls
  
• Added Vertical Rule controls
• Added Curly Braces controls (both horizontal and vertical)
  
• Added Red X and Scratch-Out controls
  
• Added Tooltip controls
• Added 11 new icons: Copyright, Registered, Trademark, CreativeCommons, Circled-X, Delicious, Dollar Sign, Euro Sign, Closed Folder, File and the all-important Star
  
• Added “lock control” feature
  
• Added “show notebook” option
• Added a “Use System Fonts” feature which allows you to enter non-western characters in your mockups
  
• Renamed Paragraph and Label controls to be more Quick-Add friendly
• Added a background color to DataGrid, Tree and Menu controls
• Combobox, radio button and checkbox controls support icons
  
• Combobox has a disabled state
• Links can now be disabled
• the text of Link-bar and breadcrumbs controls can now be resized
• Calendar control can be resized
• Charts were renamed so that they’re all together in the UI Library (good idea Jaydev!)
• Added ability for icon-and-label to have the label at the bottom or on the right
  
• TabBar control can now have tabs on top, at the bottom, and aligned left, center or right
• VerticalTabBar control can now have tabs on the left or on the right
• Changed the selection rectangle color so that it doesn’t blend with the rest as much
• Grouped controls now have a different selection color (so that you’ll know that they are a group)
  
• Removed the modal screen shown when editing a control’s text (it was too jarring)
• The export dialog now automatically puts your mockup’s XML in your clipboard (resulting in less clicks)
• The UI library now scrolls smoothly
• You can now escape commas with \,
• You can now cancel out of any dialog with the escape key
• Added CLTR+E and CTRL+SHIFT+E key combination for export/import
• mockups can now be bigger than the window (they scroll)
• In a scrolling mockup, the arrow keys will scroll the mockup only if there’s nothing selected. Otherwise it will nudge the selection.
• improved the look of the property inspector, giving it a more “draggable” look
  
• Hitting / (forward-slash) sends focus to the QuickAdd input field

Bugs Fixed:

• Objects stay where you drop them
• Made a few important performance improvements
• UI Library checkmark was opposite what it should have been
• Undo/Redo menus did not update properly
• Fixed the default color of icons
• CTRL+click on a ui control also re-selects it
• Cleaned up snapping a little bit (not as aggressive)
• Fixed bug with “show library” option sometimes not working
• Fixed bug with crazy-repeating-characters when editing a control’s text
• Fixing “hard to deselect all the text right after double-clicking on a control” bug
• Cleaned up the browser window control
• Fixed the elusive “things drift by a little” bug
• The app doesn’t listen to keyboard shortcuts while dragging controls around
• Fixed the file icon (it wasn’t showing up)
• The closed folder in the Tree control now looks closed

Changes Specific to the Desktop Version

New Features / Enhancements:

• Now uses native menus on Windows and Mac, which means that keyboard shortcuts are now OS-dependent, and WORK!
  
• Added the ability to open multiple mockups at the same time
  • new “save unsaved” dialog for multiple mockups
  • CTRL+TAB now tabs between open mockups
  • properly restores session on open (all open files)
  • added ability to copy from one mockup and paste to another
• The application now remembers the window’s last size and position
• Now adds “xml” if you don’t specify an extension
• Now allows you to choose the file name and location on save
• Now puts the PNG in the same folder as the mockup’s XML file (or desktop if the file has never been saved)
• Now remembers the last folder used on open and on save
• Added “recent mockups” to the import dialog
• Added a nice green reassuring icon to the “activate” button which shows up when the license key is correct
• Removed the ‘welcome mockup’ (it’s only in the web version now)
• The app’s minor version number shows up when you update

Bugs Fixed:

• “New Mockup” doesn’t ask for a license key
• Now asks if you want to save when you close the window via the “x” icon
• Pasting text from another application works again
• Removed “created with balsamiq mockups” from exported PNGs

Changes Specific to the Confluence Version

New Features / Enhancements:

• Added a new way to import mockups which makes it a 4-step process (from 10)
  
• The jar name contains the minor number
• Removed the ‘welcome mockup’ (it’s only in the web version now)
• added instructions on how to remove a mockup from a page
• Added a help section on making Mockups compatible with Adaptivist’s Theme Builder plugin

Bugs Fixed:

• Now the license information is properly persisted across restarts
• Fixed bugs with double slashes on redirect after editing a mockup
• Now works with Confluence 2.8+ (default theme only…)
  
• Now deals properly with anonymous users
• Fails more gracefully when entering an empty license key

Enhancements to the site

• Added a new flash detection script which makes fixes some bugs with the install badge and live demo
• Added a help section on how to install Mockups on linux
• Added community license instructions on the Mockups for Confluence page
• Updated the customers page
• Updated the testimonials page
• Blogged a bunch and tweeted even more
• Fixed search both on the site and on the blog
• improved the “thank you for your purchase” email, which now contains a receipt and helpful links, as well as your license key
• added a couple of “buy now” links here and there

Ready to upgrade?

Go download Mockups for Desktop or Mockups for Confluence, or both!

If you find any issue with 1.1, please report it either via email or in this new GetSatisfaction topic I prepared just for the occasion.

What’s next?

The single most requested feature left is “image upload”, and I promise I’ll get to it soon. It’s a tricky one and I want to take the time to do it right…I’ll post more about it as I start planning the development for it.

Right now I have some more pressing concerns though, which have to do with the Confluence version:

• I want to allow Mockups in page comments. No other plugin has done this before, so wish me luck!
• I want to change the licensing model for the Confluence version, namely I want to allow you to buy a Team version of Mockups and install it on an Enterprise version of Confluence (the tricky part here is how to enforce it)

I will also keep fixing whatever bug you send my way and release it as a ‘micro-release’ (I have had 4 or 5 this month alone), so keep checking back on this blog or via Twitter.

Here’s a rough timeline for the next few months

• fix anything wrong with 1.1
• make Confluence version changes outlined above
• finish JIRA integration
• add image upload and localize the app in different languages (this might be called v2.0)
• do the Twiki integration

Special Thanks

Finally, I wanted to publicly thank a few people who have provided me with invaluable feedback this month:

• David Heller – a fellow first-time entrepeneur who has provided me with great feedback and encouragement from the beginning
• Jason Greenstreet – superb Quality Engineer with an uncanny ability to break everything he touches, he spent a whole week-end testing Mockups and sending me great bugs.
• Jaydev Pinara, a.k.a. screenshot-machine, sent me 41 (yes, 41) emails in less than 48 hours, each with an annotated screenshot of either a bug or an idea for improving the application’s UI. Wow.
• Michael Matti – king of Balsamiq’s GetSatisfaction pages, his precise, numerous and always respectful feedback speaks for itself.
• Neville Ridley-Smith – Confluence-meister, his patience is infinite and his enthusiasm keeps me going.

You guys rock. Would you be interested in a Balsamiq T-Shirt or something? I haven’t made any schwag yet, but I’d like to send you a tangible representation of how grateful I am to you. Ping me on email if you’re interested!

 

Thanks for reading this far, I’m flattered!

Onward!

— No Comment

 

 

 

Curly Braces, Scratch-Outs, Big Red X-s, oh my!

by Peldi Guilizzoni. July 16th, 2008 under Development / Technical, Mockups, Release Announcements — 2 Comments

Today I finally enlisted my lovely wife (and hand behind all of the UI controls in Balsamiq Mockups) to draw a few more shapes for me. A few hours later, I give you…

Curly braces!

I added both a “Horizontal Curly Brace” and a “Vertical Curly Brace” controls, for better annotating your mockups.

Also note the property inspector which lets you choose which way the curly brace is pointing:

Scratch-out and X-Nay controls

Also useful for annotating, idea when you want to tell whoever did the mockup “we’re not building this!”

They are called “Red X / X-Nay” and “Scratch-Out” for you Quick-Add lovers.

Other improvements from today

This morning I finally squashed the “off by a little” positioning bug which has plagued many of your mockups (it was a simple change of a value from 10 to 3 pixels, go figure).

Also, at the suggestion of the awesome Michael Matti, I implemented the following:

Basically in the “Icon and Label” control you can now decide if you want the label below the icon or to the right of it.

While I was at it, I finally added support for icons in Checkbox and RadioButton controls:

So overall, today’s been a good day. You can find the new controls in the live version here on the site, the Confluence version and the upcoming 1.1 release of Mockups for Desktop, which is going live on the 21st and you can preview already using this temporary badge.

— 2 Comments

 

 

 

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