How to Use Balsamiq in Your Hackathon Project
If you’ve attended a TechTogether hackathon it’s likely that you’ve run into the Balsamiq logo. At some point, you probably wondered to yourself, what is Balsamiq? How can I use their tools in my hackathon project? This blog post seeks to answer those questions and more.
What is Balsamiq?
Balsamiq Wireframes is the perfect first UX design tool for anyone interested in getting into UX. It’s by far the most approachable: you just drag, drop, and arrange controls on the page, and voila’, you made your first User Interface!
They even have online courses and articles to teach you all about UI design and wireframing. Balsamiq is free for classroom use, and very affordable for anyone else. Often at hackathons, Balsamiq will provide hackers with extended trials of their software.
What is a wireframe?
According to Balsamiq, “a wireframe is a schematic, a blueprint, useful to help you and your programmers and designers think and communicate about the structure of the software or website you’re building”.
At a hackathon, a wireframe will serve as a blueprint that will help your team communicate the structure of the project you’re building.
Why is wireframing important at a hackathon?
Most hackers will make a wireframe of their project before they begin writing any code. Wireframing is key to giving your team a clear direction and roadmap throughout the hackathon. In a competition, where time management is key it’s important that everyone be on the same page from the beginning.
In the words of Balsamiq, “Doing this work now, before any code is written and before the visual design is finalized, will save you lots of time and painful adjustment work later.” Nobody wants to be rewriting code on the Sunday of the hackathon after you’ve been working around the clock all weekend.
To learn more about wireframes and how to use them, check out this article by Balsamiq.
Where can I go to learn how to use Balsamiq?
Balsamiq’s Wireframing Academy will teach you everything you need to know about how to use their product and more. For aspiring designers, I highly recommend checking out Balsamiq’s free online courses and articles that teach you all about UI design and wireframing.
