A friend at work pointed out the Balsamiq mockup software to me recently, and I think it’s great!

It’s a fantastic piece of flash software that helps you create simple web mock ups in a ridiculously fast time. It’s free to use (with a few features hidden, such as browse for image) but you get a popup every now and again asking you to buy the full version. It took me 10 minutes to produce this (admittedly lacklustre) mockup.

Using it is simple. You drag on items, such as tabbed containers, images, text boxes, buttons and even iphone layouts, until you have created your mockup. You can then export it as a pdf or a png, ready to show your client. The most impressive feature is the amount of detail they have included. You can change the position of the scrollbars, selected which tab is active and even add in disabled/selected checkboxes. Everything is customisable.

I’ll definitely be using it if given the opportunity.