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Ankit Bhangar: Wireframe Specialist

Abigail RumseyWe were flattered to receive an email recently from Ankit Bhangar praising our little tool. Ankit is a UI/UX specialist currently working for inoltrotech.com. He is a long-time Mockups user and has used it for over 40 projects large and small in scope.

Ankit meets our "Champion" criteria both because of his expertise in using our product and because, as he put it, he has "convinced a lot of my clients to use it as well." Word of mouth is our primary marketing tool, so we are proud that Ankit has felt compelled to recommend Balsamiq to others.

It was also gratifying to hear Ankit talk about Balsamiq Mockups not just as a design tool, but also an ideation and communication tool, which is how we describe and use it internally.

Here is Ankit's list of things that you can do with Balsamiq Mockups:

  1. Turn your imagination into visible form.
  2. Convince investors to fund your project.
  3. Explain to your designers/developers the “things” inside your head.
  4. Collaborate with colleagues and your development crew to create or update existing products
  5. Flowchart a system that you want to develop.

He sent us some great examples of screens and flow diagrams that he has designed (shown below). We followed up with him to find out more about what he does and hear some of his first-hand stories.

Q&A with Ankit Bhangar

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Ankit Bhangar, and I am a wireframe UI/UX specialist.

I have now been in the business of wireframing for 4+ years, working on both simple and complex applications. My role varies and often takes me in to the depths of the user experience.

I love what I do, it's a fantastic job and also a career that allows me to earn a comfortable living as a virtual freelancer. I have worked for both small and large corporations assisting with UI/UX improvements and redesigns.

We are developing a whole division for wireframing and prototyping.

Currently I am with a team at inoltrotech.com which is a Branding, Marketing, and Web Development company. We are developing a whole division for wireframing and prototyping due to our belief that the UI/UX industry is becoming a key role in the IT field; particularly for small start ups and entrepreneurs who are bootstrapping their way to the top.

UX-FlowMobile app flow (click to enlarge)

What kinds of things are you excited about in your industry?

Great programming needs to be complimented with simple design and flow.

The depth of new concepts, but also the simplicity of applications. I am fortunate enough to be exposed to a number of brilliant projects, many of which I create rapid prototypes (wireframes) for. The UI/UX industry, I think, is finally receiving the credit it deserves. Great programming needs to be complimented with simple design and flow.

What suggestions do you have for someone looking to succeed in your role or industry?

Practice, and form good partnerships. Creating high level wireframes is a tough job, but it is rewarding. What is even more rewarding is continuing the journey with a team and watching things come to fruition. I work with a great team of freelancers who have come together to create inoltrotech.com so I am lucky.

To practice I suggest downloading apps and reviewing websites and then wireframing them your way, trying to simplify the process, reduce steps, and minimise potential errors,

To practice I suggest downloading apps and reviewing websites and then wireframing them your way, trying to simplify the process, reduce steps, and minimise potential errors, particularly in this mobile responsive age. This needs to be taken into consideration for a quality wireframe specialist - what will it look like on mobile.

What's challenging about your job and how do you deal with it?

The most challenging part is understanding the exact requirements of a project, covering all use cases, and then depicting them using Balsamiq. A simple list page can have 7-8 variations based on the UI/UX needed and at the end you go with the 9th one!

Why and how do you use Balsamiq Mockups?

I use Balsamiq as my livelihood to mockup projects for clients to understand their projects better, and to help my development team as well. I also use it for my team to convey any messages from clients, to show their exact needs and limit errors; I have found this reduces the turnaround time for the project.

What has been your experience showing your mockups to other people, for instance team members or clients?

The experience has been overwhelming. The interactive mockups give a clear view of how things will go ahead with the project. I can create mockups quickly, so clients are impressed with the outcome and they end up taking the time to understand how Balsamiq works. 🙂

Some of Ankit's work (click to enlarge)

Can you tell me about a specific project or projects where Balsamiq was especially useful?

Well there are a lot of projects where Balsamiq has been useful but one particular project was a mobile application where the client found that creating sketches was simply just time consuming. So he put up the job on Upwork and I took it. I showed him some mockups and told him about Balsamiq and how to use it. After few days he got used to it and was very happy that he met me and got to know Balsamiq.

Do you have any feature ideas or suggestions for how we can improve our product(s)?

  1. I would really love to see Balsamiq integrate with InVision or provide transition effects like InVision does. (Editors note: Not currently planned. Native apps are our top priority right now.)
  2. Many of my wireframes span up to 70 pages, so a search will be great. (We're working on it!)
  3. The rounded rectangles; When I fill in the colors the edges are not fully filled. Is that something that can be fixed? (We'll look into it. Thanks!)
  4. BMPR support in myBalsamiq (our online version).(Coming. See this blog post.)
  5. Pinch-to-zoom support for Macs. (It's on our list.)

Do you have any Balsamiq Mockups tips or tricks or anything else that you'd like to share?

  1. Use shortcuts as much as possible, it speeds up work by a factor of 2.
  2. If you create a lot of different projects, create a base project with all assets imported and just start editing that.
  3. Use Symbols for repeated assets, so that you just need to change things in one place.

Lastly I thank a special friend, Balsamiq, my clients, my family and friends for supporting me to become a champion 🙂


Thanks, Ankit, for the good work you do to rid the world of bad software!

Do you have a story to share about the awesome things you do with Balsamiq? Send an email to champions@balsamiq.com with your stories or blog posts!

Leon for the Balsamiq Team

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Comments (5)

  1. Hello,

    could you tell me please which software do you use to create user flow (like in Mobile app flow diagram) ?

    Thanks.

    • Hi Karim,
      All of Ankit’s diagrams shown here were created in Balsamiq Mockups. The mobile app flow diagram primarily uses the iPhone control and the Arrow control. For the arrows that “bend” at 90 degrees, I think he just used two arrows and aligned their end points.

      Hope this helps. If you have any more questions, you can email support@balsamiq.com.
      – Leon

      • Did he draw all the graphics for the first example, with the Workshop, in Balsamiq? Are they all lines and rectangles?

        Thanks,

  2. A colleague and a good friend, whose 4 pairs of eyes are specialized to create designs that are easy at the same time complex. I am happy that you are getting recognized for the hard work that you do all night 😉

    krishna M Chaudhary