Review of Blueprint for iPad - the best prototyping tool

Back in december, I wrote a review of iMockups for iPad. While I found the application good, I felt it was lacking in so many areas. Since then, I found out Blueprint. I think this is the best iOS application user interface prototyping tool right now. Here is a complete review.

Blueprint initial interface is modeled on Apple's iWork apps for iPad. I think this is a great idea to replicate this paradigm because it is well adapted to the iPad document management style. 

Application first view - very similar to Apple's iWork apps

The application comes with a project example. Blueprint is so capable the makers of it created from scratch the default clock application of the iPhone. It is pretty close to the actual design. You can look at the full creation process on the company's web site.

From there you create a new project or duplicate an existing one. 

Choose a target device for the project

The next step is to select the target device for the prototype. As you can see, all current iOS device are supported in portrait or landscape orientation. Once done, the initial editing environment is presented. Any iOS developer will find similarities with Xcode Interface Builder.

The default editing view

The tool palette on the right is made of different parts. The top section correspond to the currently selected object on the design canvas. The following sections are the user interface element containing the selected object. I find this to be very effective. Also, the palette has two modes: properties or actions. Switching to the actions view, you will get the actions that you can set for the selected object.

Actions that can be assigned to an object

As you can see, for each object, you can assign an action for a tap, double tap or swipe. This is where you create links between screens in order to create a prototype of the application workflow. So you can build a very complete prototype by assigning different actions to all objects of the user interface. This is very cool. As you can see in the following screen shot, you'll see how complex a project can become.

Very complex prototypes can be built with Blueprint

I have spent quite a while in Blueprint and I have many observations. Here is a list.

• Objects can be placed on the design canvas with precision
• Foreground / background object placement can be set in order to build layers of objects
• Undo is available to help you correct mistake or do limited what-if
• Every UIKit widget is available with all the attributes you would expect to be able to set for each of them
• iPad is well supported with inclusion of the split view
• Blueprint supports iOS 4 multitasking (fast app switching)
• Some validation rules won't let you place object inside another, this is nice
• There is a complete control over text formatting, I mean full control (font, size, colour, etc.)
• All keyboards are available (alphabetic, numeric, etc.)
• Design options for UITableView allow all the needed flexibility to design plain or grouped tables with as many sections, headers, footer as you want - this is really nice
• Editing can be done in full screen mode, pinch to zoom is supported
• Color of links between screens can be set in order to help visually show related screens or workflow

Blueprint is well worth the money and kind of put iMockups for iPad to shame. There are a few things that I would like to see in Blueprint though:

• Support for the iPad external monitoring for presentation purposes
• Add a visual cue for the starting screen of a very complex prototype. The starting point is not always easily spotted on the canvas
• Add more expert options: currently only PDF is supported. 
• Add support for Dropbox
• Fix a few visual glitches
• Some user interface refinements could make this app even more compelling

Recently, Blueprint received a minor update that fixes a few things and improve others. The developer was responsive to my request. They also introduced a Blueprint viewer (iTunes link) that allows you to "play" the design on the iPhone, iPod touch or the iPad. This is really cool and it is free. So you export the project and using iTunes file sharing you can import it back in the viewer on the device in order to test the prototype or show it to somebody else. A preview mode is also available on Blueprint so the viewer is a bonus.

All in all, Blueprint is a must have for serious iOS developers or designers who wants (and should!) build realistic prototypes of iOS applications. Want to try it? Install the free lite version (iTunes link). 

Here are a few palettes that you will find in Blueprint.

Tools and palettes examples

Comments

[Scott]

I'm looking for an app. That will alow me to use my iPad as a compleat set of construction drawings.
I want to be able to see an entire page, or enlarge to a detail or section. Also to tap on a detail reference, and to go to that detail.

[Chiewata]

Try Autocad WS or print your drawing in PDF and store it in iPad

[ManuelB]

Hey there,

I would like to know if i can find this kind of software for mac or windows ?

Thanks

[JF Martin]

I'm not aware of any.

[JF Martin]

It has been worse in the past. Momentarily bad I think now.