Here are some user experience design tools I think are worth the look:
- Justinmind Prototyper - developed by a Spanish company, Justinmind Prototyper is a robust tool to document requirements and map it to a wireframe. While it's a little clunky on some areas like the wireframe designer, it's strength is in the requirements analysis and gathering side. Mature web design/development and user experience companies will find this quite useful. It's free to try and the single license is $495.
- Mockingbird - My fave mockup tool right now. Why because it's web-centric and it's free. I admit, it's not the most powerful and comprehensive tool out there, but something about the way it simplifies the creation of navigation menus and tabs that I just like.
- Cacoo - Cacoo is probably the closest thing to Visio on Web 2.0 dope-- it's intended for a wide array of diagramming functions, but it has a nice set of wireframe features. Cacoo is also good for creating documents like site maps, task flows, and use cases. It's richer than Mockingbird, for sure, with the collaboration features and a chat function. Cacoo is free and is still in BETA.
- Axure RP - Axure RP is perhaps the best paid tool out there not named Omnigraffle. It's one of the priciest tools available and I think it's justified-- Axure RP is full of features and made for the enterprise. In the UX-related mailing lists I'm part of, Axure is getting good reviews and companies are starting to look for user experience designers and information architects with Axure RP experience.
- Balsamiq Mockups - Balsamiq Mockups looks deceiving because it emulates the rough sketch mockups designers often start with on paper. But it's quick and its license is pretty affordable for the small web startup ($79). It's available on multiple desktop environments (Windows, Mac, Linux) but its online version is still in development and collaboration is not yet included. But still, it's the best value mockup tool out there.
