HOW TO MOCKUP AN APP
Mocking up an app is something you will want to do before taking your idea to a developer. Their job is to turn your mockup into a functioning app. Their job becomes more difficult when the client commissioning the app to be developed does not give enough details and information to end up with the app you had in mind. There are some programs to help you out with that. You can also mock up your app in Photoshop or PowerPoint.
I prefer PowerPoint for most mockup work as it is easy to work with but these programs do quite a bit more in app design than PowerPoint can without some extra work. You can buy PowerPoint templates to help you with mocking up things though.
[Keynotopia - PowerPoint Mockup Templates]
Keynotopia has PowerPoint mockup templates for apps. They also have templates for all sorts of other user interface situations. Their customers are some of the big guys such as Steve Blank as you can see on their customers page.
[POP aka Paper App Making]
With the POP app (Prototyping On Paper) you will be able to draw out a screen mockup on paper, take a picture with your phone, and then later string together all the screens you take pictures of. You can select areas and link them to other pages just like buttons. This gives you a nice interactive feel of the flow of things and it is all done on the fly for FREE.
[Phototapper]
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This is very similar to POP app. Not sure what the differences are, but it works about the same as you can see in the video.
[NinjaMock]
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This tool is free to use if you are just building a mockup for yourself. If you are doing it in a commercial capacity then you will have a little charge. It is currently running you between $10 (one pro user) and $25 (multiple pro users).
You can mockup things for the iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone, Microsoft Surface, and if you need it for doing websites, you can do that too. Oh freehand? Yea they have that too.
[Balsamiq]
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Balsamiq is a paid program that does mockups for apps and websites and such. It is very powerful as well and has been around longer than NinjaMock. Comparing this to NinjaMock should be done by you. The features are close and there are so many there is just not a good way to do the comparison here.
[App Cooker]
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For $14.99, this is a very slick program. It allows you to make very high quality mockups that have transitions, and all sorts of good stuff. If you know how to use PowerPoint, you can make an app mockup with this.
[UI Stencils]
UI Stencils is a great company which makes a wide variety of high quality paper mockup solutions. They have metal stencils for iPhone, websites, iPad, Android, Android Tablet, Windows 8, and Windows Phone. They also have plastic stencils for mapping out user flow, quick framing content, and a stencil for mocking up browsers on a whiteboard.
They also have pads of paper that are ready to go for this sort of thing with the phone image and everything. Very impressive stuff.
[Paper Prototyping Example Videos]
If you want to see 10 videos of effective paper prototyping you can check out this article by Speckyboy.com.
10 Effective Video Examples of Paper Prototyping
[Tips on Sketching User Interfaces from Scratch Effectively]
There is an extremely in depth article about how to go about sketching without having a lot of smudge errors and such via Smashing Magazine that you could also check out.
The Messy Art of UX Sketching via Smashing Magazine
How To Make Mobile Apps
1) COST OF DEVELOPMENT
2) FUNDING DEVELOPMENT OF MOBILE APPS
3) GAME APPS
4) DO I NEED AN APP?
5) BEFORE DEVELOPING YOUR OWN APP
6) HOW TO MOCKUP AN APP
7) HOW TO MAKE A MOBILE APP WITHOUT CODING USING APP BUILDERS
8) LEARN TO CODE FOR MOBILE APPS EASIER THAN YOU THOUGHT
9) GET APP DEVELOPMENT HELP
10) HOW TO FIND AN APP DEVELOPER
11) TOOLS, RESOURCES, AND STRATEGY FOR APP DEVELOPERS
12) MARKETING MOBILE APPS
13) PAID ADVERTISING AND AD NETWORKS FOR MOBILE APPS
14) MOBILE APPS MONETIZATION STRATEGY AND WORTH