macOS GUI Design on Mac

[Starfury]

Hi All,

Quick question: can anyone recommend a decent piece of software to create user-interface / GUI mock-ups on the Mac? I currently use Visio on the PC, but would rather have something I can use on the Mac.

I've tried the GUI Design stencil on OmniGraffle, but it's not really powerful enough to suit my needs.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

 

[robbieduncan]

Interface Builder? It's not really a mock up though! It's how you do it for real. It's drag and drop, pretty easy to use really. Install the Developer Tools and have a play.

 

[iindigo]

Well, you can make a non-functional interface via WYSIWYG drag-and-drop with Interface Builder, part of the free Xcode/developer tools available on Apple's site.

REALBasic works too, but is far buggier, has an OS 9/Windows feel to it, and costs a ton of money.

 

[GeeYouEye]

Use Interface Builder. It's only non-functional as long as you leave it that way. 0 lines of code web-browser is real.

 

[whooleytoo]

As others have suggested - use IB. It has a Test Interface menu option that'll create a skeletal (but functional) shell with the UI you've created. I'm not sure off hand if it would populate tableviews / outlineviews with sample data for illustrative purposes, but for most purposes it should be fine.

 

[Starfury]

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll take a look at Interface Builder!

Cheers again.

 

[adamjaskie]

If IB is pretty much the same kinda thing as VC++*, thats pretty much what I do. Rough mock-up on a POW (Plain Ol' Whiteboard), then it's straight to work dropping controls in the form and writing code around them. Seems to work for me.

* Yeah, I know. VC++ is what we use at work. I don't have a choice in the matter. The way I code, though, I make the guts of the thing pretty much portable, and just write a GUI on top of it. I can just as easily whip up a command line version that compiles on Windows, Mac and Linux no problem, and in fact, I have done so on occasion.