Designing for Success: The Best Wireframe Tools for Business Analysts

If you are a business analyst or aspiring business analyst looking for the best tool for your wireframing needs, this article is for you.

Based on my experience with wireframing tools, I have presented here my evaluation of the top wireframing tools based on their ease of use, collaboration features, and pricing.

Let’s dive in.

Figma

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Figma is the most popular UI/UX design tool. It can be used to create low-fi wireframes as well as hi-fi designs and interactive prototypes.

Ideal Users

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• UI/UX Designers
• Product Managers
• Founders
• Business Analysts

Key Features

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• All-in-one platform for creating Low-fidelity / Medium-fidelity Wireframes, High-fidelity designs, Prototypes, and Model diagrams.
• Live Collaboration with Stakeholders (Review, Comment, Handoff, Notification)
• Online Whiteboard for brainstorming, diagramming, and other team collaboration purposes such as team meetings, planning, etc.
• A large collection of UI-Kits, Widgets, Icons, Templates and Plugins available through the Figma Community.

Figma Contextual Comment Feature

Pros

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• Available Online as well as Desktop App (Windows, Mac, Linux)
• Ability to create professional wireframes and Hi-fi designs for apps and documents
• Ability to create a clickable prototype from the wireframes
• Easy-to-use Editor with reusable components, styles, and Auto Layout
• Productive collaboration through Live reviews and Contextual comments.
• The free version is sufficient for all the wireframing needs
• Ability to export designs in PNG, JPG, SVG, and PDF formats
• If the designers also use Figma to create hi-fi designs, it’s very easy to hand off wireframes to the designers. They can also reuse wireframes and convert them to hi-fi designs.

Cons

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• No cons as such. It’s fully packed with all the required features.
• A little learning curve is required to master the tool.

Figma Presentation/Prototype Mode

If you want to learn and master wireframing skills using Figma, check out our Online Course:

Mastering Wireframing for Business Analysts

Balsamiq

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Balsamiq is a popular low-fidelity wireframing tool, known for rapid wireframing capabilities.

Ideal Users

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• Product Managers
• Founders
• Business Analysts

Key Features

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• Low-fi Wireframes
• Live Collaboration with Stakeholders (Review, Comment)
• In-built Templates, Icons, and UI Controls

Balsamiq Contextual Comment Feature

Pros

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• Available Online as well as Desktop App (Windows, Mac)
• Ability to drag and drop in-built UI Controls and Templates makes it easy to create wireframes for both web and mobile apps very quickly
• Nice easy to use editor with drag and drop feature
• Small learning curve. It offers comprehensive learning resources to help you get started faster.
• Integration with JIRA and Confluence
• Different presentation modes – Review, User Test, and Custom

Cons

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• Limited customization options for the built-in controls.
• No Free Forever version is available. It’s required to purchase the tool after a 30-day free trial.
• Review and Contextual commenting feature is not intuitive.

Balsamiq Presentation Mode

Uizard

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Uizard is a UI/UX design tool similar to Figma with many cool AI features. This is the most advanced design tool available as of 2024.

Ideal Users

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• UI/UX Designers
• Product Managers
• Founders
• Business Analysts
• Marketers

Key Features

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• Versatile design tool for creating Hi-fidelity designs, low-fidelity wireframes, and interactive prototypes for any device (desktop, mobile, tablet)
• Nice intuitive design editor with drag-and-drop features
• In-built templates, UI controls, icons, and most of the design assets are available to drag and drop within the editor
• Switching between Mockup mode and Wireframe mode
• Useful AI-powered features to speed up your design work:
  • Autodesigner 1.5 – Generates UI designs from the Text prompts
  • Screenshot Scanner – Converts screenshot to editable design
  • Image Generator – Text to Image
  • Text Assistant
  • Wireframe Scanner – Converts hand-drawn wireframe sketches into digital wireframes

Uizard Contextual Comments

Pros

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• In-built templates and UI controls reduce the time and effort required to create wireframes
• Nice easy to use editor with drag and drop feature
• Small learning curve for beginners
• Good collaboration features:
  • Share a read-only web version of the design file with anyone or invite members to review the design in real time and add contextual comments.
  • Notify collaborators when comments are added or a reply is received to a comment
  • Embed the design file to a Project Management Tool or a website
  • Good AI-powered features to speed up your design work.

Cons

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• No downsides as such. It’s a great tool. Just listing here a few limitations.
• Not available as a Desktop App.
• The free version is limited to 2 projects and 400 UI components.

Uizard Presentation Mode

Comparison of Figma vs Balsamiq vs Uizard

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Conclusion

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All the 3 wireframing tools are great and suitable for business analysts depending on the needs.

If you have budget constraints but looking to create professional-grade wireframes then Figma is a great choice. All the essential features for creating low-fi wireframes are available in the Free flan in Figma.'

Another consideration for Figma is that if your UI/UX designers use Figma, it’s advisable to prepare wireframes in Figma as well for a better hand-off process.

If you don’t have budget constraints and/or your organization already has a subscription to Balsamiq or Uizard, you can go for either tool. Both are great tools.

If you are looking for AI-powered features, you can go for Uizard.

Disclaimer: This article is based solely on the author’s experience with the mentioned design tools. The recommendations are made considering generic situations. The purpose is to help the reader become familiar with the capabilities of different tools. It is the reader’s responsibility to self-evaluate the tools and choose the best one according to their wireframing needs and organizational constraints.