Yes, I’m obsessed with Konigi’s Omnigraffle wireframe stencils, but what if you could have real-life stencils to help you sketch? You can. They’re called UI Stencils, and they’re made by Design Commission, an experience design agency in Seattle.
Drawing can be intimidating for a lot of folks, and the fear of not being a “good drawer” prevents people from picking up a pencil to communicate their ideas. But UI Stencils make that a breeze by providing stainless steal stencils for common UI components for websites, iPhone and now iPad. Their kits also come with a mechanical pencil and PDF templates. Not bad for just 18 bucks each.
They also sell sketchpads and sticky pads with the browser chrome pre-printed so you needed worry about drawing to scale.
Follow them on Twitter @uistencils.
[I honestly can’t remember how I happened upon these, or if someone sent me a link directly. If it was you, tell me so in the comments. I apologize in advance :)]
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I love this stencil! I got one from the future of web design conference during Daniel Burka's workshop. Its a great little tool.
yeah… ummm these are awesome!
Goodbye stick figures…. Hello UI Stencils
Whitney, I posted this in the Gifts for UX Geeks list a while back:
http://www.nickfinck.com/blog/entry/gifts_for_u…
Design Commission rocks, they host our Refresh Seattle events every month. I'll tell the guys about your post.
If you can tolerate MS tools, or your folks develop apps using WPF, MS Sketchflow offers a nice tool for prototypes that can flow right into the designer/developer workflow. The screen shots show a pen-and-paper theme which yields fun screens like those you might draw with these stencils:
http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Sk…
Nice find. Added to the wish list.
Since you mentioned Konigi, I use their wireframe and storyboard notepads and this stencil would make a nice complimentary tool. Thanks for sharing. :)
Whitney-
First -great tactile, old-school drawing aid.
Second- thanks for the tip on the OmniGraffle stencils. I am a long-time user and advocate for Omnigraffle. My GOTO tool of choice.
Lastly- you are an inspiration. Keep on keepin on with your independence in UX/IA.
cheers
b