Hopefully this comment will make it on since I'm late. Really nice, useful freebie. Sure, some other UI mock-up tools mentioned in the other comments are out there.. IF you've got, or can justify 80-500+ bucks per seat. But this one will allow you to do wireframes and basic mock-ups of your app and/or webpage for cheap (or free, if you caught the GiveAway). If it comes around again - be sure to grab it.

-Roj

What is "UI"?

Hi ALL,

You could just create a U.I. ( USER INTERFACE ) with even more gadgets in the FREE versions of .Net software.

Any of the following would let let you create a WINDOWS .EXE file that would run and without code behind the buttons or whatever it would be like a MOCK U.I. >>

Microsoft Visual Basic (.Net) Express Edition

Microsoft Visual C# Express Edition

Microsoft Visual C++ Express Edition

So seeing as Microsoft offer FREE software that could be used to do this, I don't see the point in this offering taking up space on my hard-drive!! So I have uninstalled it!!

Come on GOTD, give me something I would actually use.

I tried to install this twice. Both times it caused a BSOD on my WinXP desktop (WinXP Pro w/SP2, ATI Radeon 9550 [512MB]). I asked Daddy to try it on his laptop (AMD Athlon-64, nvidia "Go" 64MB) and he told me it caused a BSOD on it too (also WinXP Pro w/SP2).
*shrugs* I don't know what is causing this or why I keep having this problem, but it's present none-the-less....

Actually, this won't be useful to programmers... because programmers have their IDEs that they can use (complete with interactions). This is useful enough for UI designers as well as user experience people - good for a quick concept in a meeting, or for creating mock-up UI to use in PowerPoint (you can have mock-up interaction there).

However, this is most useful when you're not a technical person in the software team but you are contributing the idea or explaining it to the design team or the development team. For example, you are a sales person or writing a proposal to customers, or a buyer asking your vendor to customize a screen for your company.

For a home user, this is useless unless you're a student of UI/UX. Those in the software business but are not technical people - this is useful and not too expensive. Although, for simple occasional UI design, you can do well enough with a screenshot and Paint.net...

Downloaded at 915pm - but could not activate the software - required license file..please advise.

Most/many IDE's have UI designers already implemented in them. But I guess this could be handy for the non-programmers wanting to create a mock-up of their dream program.

I haven't tried this one so no thumbs up nor down.

Besides, anyone heard of pen and paper? Supports non-standard UI elemtents:p

I love this, thanks! :-) I have Windows XP 32-bit, SP3. #20, thanks for your explanation. Like many, I really didn't understand the lingo used and was clueless as to what this actually was. But after reading the explanation and then installing it, I understood totally! I don't do website design for a job but there are times when I do one for personal stuff or for a community I'm involved with on the internet that's for fun. So, anyhow, thanks!

I guess some people may find this useful. From the large number of thumbs up, it would seem the majority like this.

I installed it to check it out. It installed, activated and ran fine. I didn't keep it though. I'd much rather do mockups in Photoshop or Illustrator.

Which brings me to my question!

Wouldn't anyone needing to do any type of mockup already use Photoshop or Illustrator?

Or would it be programmers who aren't much into the creative side of things that would use something like this?

Just curious....

Good news and bad news with regards to user interactions. According to the developer's blog, user interaction is in the pipeline for the v1.2 release. The bad news? The free version is v1.0 and does not come with free upgrades.

As a web application developer I use tools like this all of the time to work with clients to prototype their project. One of the things that you have to watch out for when prototyping is creating too much of a good thing. Using VB to create fully interactive demos is nice, but can sometimes lead to unreasonable expectations. Clients see everything working and think the project is almost done. They end up coming away disappointed when you have to tell them otherwise. I often use Napkin for mock ups so that the demo doesn't cause unreal expectations.

Interesting...I just go to the ForeUI official website and find that they just post a blog, which mentioned their delivery planning: http://www.foreui.com/blog/?p=187

Un-install leaves a good bit of stuff that needs manually deleted.

LOL .... I agree with LYN. Bring on the LOTTO NUMBER CREATOR that can give me the winning numbers thank you. LOL I love this site! I check it every day and if there's nothing here that catches my eye or meets my talents then thats ok with me. I'm a download junkie so i guess that i have to pass up some free stuff now otherwise my pc may explode. LOL *grins But hurry up with that LOTTO thingy so Lyn & I can become millionairesses LOL Thanks GAOTD for all the freebies you offer us!

Installs and runs fine on Vista Home Premium.

I was hopeful about his program - been wanting to try something like this. However, today's offering is very basic, too basic to be useful for me.

As promised here's some more games to make up for a lack of a game giveaway today. Sorry it's so late in the day. I got side tracked. I've posted three games called History Line 1914-1918 a WWI strategy game,, Dr Blobs Organisms and Casebook episode 0 a game with real actors, real movie cut scenes and mini games to help solve clues. Dr Blobs organisms has just been coverted to freeware. Previously it was sold over on Reflexive games for $19.99 then $9.99.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/5255#post-56072

I keep seeing this in my blog's adsense. Guess I'll give it a try.

A fun application...although I don't know when I will be using it. I think the animation section could make fun ecards.

To the non-programmers out there - this software would also be very useful for practical jokes.

Now this is nice. I've had to do some web modelling occasionally, and I usually use QSee because it's free. QSee has a lot of other things going on, so it's still useful, but this is a lot nicer for layouts.

I think someone said earlier that it would be nice if it supported follow through and interaction, but it's a minor thing, and since this is version 1, hopefully such things are in the pipeline.

I notice that this giveaway is on their blog, so hopefully they are monitoring this. I'm very surprised that the usual gripe about Chinese software hasn't shown up. Perhaps the prejudiced are starting to see the light.

#8: I have been able to. It's a MP4 video: www.foreui.com/demos/demo1/ForeUI-Demo1_c_3.mp4

Forgot to mention, it might also run on *nix, because it's written in Java, and Java is quite portable. Just run launch.sh after you copy the program to your *nix system and edit the Java path in the script. I dunno, but you might need the JDK version of Java.

This looks like a nice toy to play with. I always wanted to make my own GUI. The program might be portable, as the registration data is in a file in the program folder and it has its own JRE. However, I'm wondering if the JRE is updatable, or if the program will break when I do that.

Installed and registered easy enough on Vista 64. Quite easy to use and layout. Rumple feature works fine on my rig. It is however, quite user specific. Think of this program as designing a house, and showing just how it, and each room will look when done--you still have to build the house. I had a couple nice layouts. I almost wished it had some basic WYSIWYG code built in where a little script or code could be added, or maybe an "if" or "then", etc. You can't help but want to click some buttons or check some boxes on your layout. No biggie though, as it does what it's made to do, and does so in a decent fashion.

#39: "Has anybody installed this using an install monitor? I’d really like to get some idea what it does to or adds to a Vista operating systems registry."

Today's GOTD offer isn't for me, but taking a quick look, the trial program setup takes up about 80 MB with 608 files in 34 folders, with most of that being taken up by the Java Runtime Environ @ 589 files in 29 folders. Nothing in the program proper seems destined for you Windows folder -- I'd hazard a guess the biggest impact would be from Java itself if not already installed (the program's just 1 .exe & 5 .jar files), but I'm not a Java fan so take that with a grain of salt.

In Vista, System Restore does a pretty good job of backing up the registry, so set a restore point, & monitor with the free RegShot.

@ww2vet56: if you want to remove manually (XP), just remove the install-folder and:
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\Classes\.4ui]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\Classes\ForeUIPlot]
from the registry and you're good as new.
For Vista you will know the equivalent I guess, but #21 'Chris Locke' is very much right, so keep that in mind before you decide to install.

Installs & functions fine on Vista 64-bit. Thanks for all of the free programs GAOTD.

Pretty nice interface, and very comfortable for the eyes. And very easy, self-explanatory set-up, that there is no need to read instructions for help. But when I tried to export or save, and look at the folder in "save in", many of the folders did not show the correct name, but just a series of squares. Or, if nobody is experiencing this, maybe it is because of the language version of my Window XP.

Has anybody installed this using an install monitor? I'd really like to get some idea what it does to or adds to a Vista operating systems registry.
Since it's something that I personally doubt I'll use anytime soon, I won't be installing this on my new PC until that questions been cleared up a little.
I appreciate the offer but I'm not into beta testing on this PC.

to WhiteRabbit aka:Stephan... Your site has a problem. When I try to create a new account I get the message "Username already exists." When I try to logon I get the message "Username does not exist." And it leaves me no way to contact anyone regarding this issue (you have to logon in order to send an email).
I won't use the term "suck" to describe your site; rather only my feelings... (this sucks - I can't download any games)

Downloaded,installed and activated on Windows XP 2003 server x64bit edition..no problems.

i have been trying to make some UI projects lately, and this seems like it will help.
Thanx to GAOTD and EASTNTH.

as i usally interface my comments solely with the product,

However,i have to say Thanx to #20 BuBBy
for answering the question from #10 Umit, in a polite manner, UNLIKE #16 TERRY, who i think is being very RUDE.



"Sorry to be negative"...Then don't be!

"I have a pretty clear idea what it is"...Well everyone is not as brillient as you!

"Don’t worry there will be another giveaway tomorrow"..well thats just being a JERK,captain obvious!



i think folks look to this comment section for some insight on the product, and to learn from others, and don't need to be ridaculed in the process.

Simple UI.
Install ok,
Does what it says.

The purpose of it is to make a UI, send to client, the client then annotate what needs to be changed and so forth until you get what they want.

I don't see any possible personal use for this.

To the developers:
In the case of application development, this is double work. Why create an user interface in an application that cannot export code or a resource script? If you can add that, your application value will greatly increment.

How do you activate this software.

All resources and an XML representation of your 'Plot' can be extracted from the .4ui file by renaming to .zip

This is pointless software.

It needs to be able to export something useful:

xml
html
RC data statements
VB code
C# code

something!

#24: maybe the the strange geographical locations are not that random, but related to some kind of botnet?

Great stuff. Two thumbs up.

I could not install this software in Windows Vista (32 bit). I get an error message that the setup program encountered an error trying to rename a certain file. Odd, since there was no such file there previously in the folder that was newly created by the installer!

I don't need something like this if if can't get the installation correct in the first place. I guess I'll stick with SmartDraw.

This is a useless program to me, but may be great for others, thanks GAOTD, for what you do. I'm still waiting for a program that picks winning lotto numbers in advance......( I guess I'm hard to please, but keep trying!)

I understand this software as it will help you design special things on your web pages ex. "login place". I do not know if you can use it to make design for programs or even new "quik start" to your programs, but I could immagine it have this possibilities to.
I giving this at try, it is sound interesting.
Thanks GAOTD, EASYNTH and for all the comment :o)

OK, regarding my comment #24, ForeUI is making a local copy of Java's time zone information, so there are exceptions for various localities. I don't use Java, but making a local copy seems like a bad idea since it will need to be updated.

This i sa great programmers tool for Screen Design.

I forgot to mention, there's some very strange stuff in ForeUI's installation; stuff related to random, particular geographical locations, or some programmer with a warped sense of humor.

I was amused that so many people gave Ashraf's "review" a thumbs-up while it was completely unavailable. BTW, Ashraf, you can "un-pin" the options window for the elements and it will go largely transparent when not in use.

Some people like this, but personally, I can't see any value for this type of software since the very early 90's. It's simply not capable of simulating many UI elements and features, and isn't well-structured for hardware/software environment differences. Even non-programmers can be trained to use simple GUI builders in development tools, without much more effort than learning these types of tools. There are other options, such as simply working with a programmer to whip out some initial UI design. I regard these types of tools as being antithetical to good software design and development practices.

I didn't see the "rumple effect". I'd rather pay for Balsamiq than use this.

For the less-than-inventive among you who can't see what use this would be, consider this:

You are wanting a program that's in development to do certain things and you don't find it easy to describe to the programmer or project manager what you want - so you decide a picture is worth a thousand words.

You make a mock-up of what you're thinking and send it off to them.
Ah haaa, now they get it!

And this doesn't need to be a commercial activity; you may just want to influence what a program does. Have you never contributed to an idea?

This program is mainly only useful for programmers to design their screens, before hitting the main development environment. However, most programming environments have their own design interface you can use to build up screens, take a snapshot with, etc.

"Whats this program for?" Here's a quick 3 min demo:
http://www.foreui.com/demos/demo1/

As this is only useful for programmers, I'd recommend downloading one of Microsofts 'Express' development environments (which are free) such as Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express. You can design your user interface quickly and easily (using multiple screens, rather than just one screen here) and create simply code to display the forms. This gives a more "heres what happens when you click this button" demo, rather than static screenshots that this program provides.

Not a programmer? Than sadly this program is useless to you. Not just a "Oh, well maybe I can play with it anyway" useless, but totally useless.

For the users asking, "what is this software for?" - it is intended as a tool to create visual prototype. You do not build a working program from ForeUI - but you can design and refine what the screens would look like. (This applies if you are developing web pages too)

It is also a tool you could give to a user and have them draw what they are thinking of - and the mockup screens can go back and forth while the design is refined until all the parties involved can see what is proposed and some level of agreement can be reached.

Just like software - car makers design a new model of a vehicle also using drawings before progressing to clay models and an actual prototype. A building architect uses drawings and blueprints before constructing a model and getting approval to start on the actual building.

Software and web developers would use a tool like this to easily design representative screens to demonstrate to a client what the eventual software/site would look like.

--
For a version 1 release this software has a nice feel to it. I have a new project starting this month - and I'll definitely be trying ForeUI out.

Someone mentioned Balsamiq Mockups as a "free alternative", but it is not free actually.

Such kind of softwares are used to design the UI (user interface) of applications, some of them provide only wireframe design (like Visio, CoreDraw); some of them provide final visual simulation (like Axure, Mockup Screens, GUI Design Studio and this one); some of them even provide the interactive simulation (like Axure, iRise).

GAOTD has once again outdone themselves. There’s no need for any drawn out highly subjective opinions highlighting the “good”, the “bad”, and the “verdict” with this application. Short, sweet, and simple; this is very good design tool or to be more accurate, screen mockup tool that is surprisingly easy-to-use, as I’ve discovered in the short time since it was put up. This program has the look and feel of a well thought out program that’s a great addition to anyone’s personal software library. Get it, and you won't regret it...

I searched the web for this application this morning & couldn't find a trace at any download sites like Softpedia or CNet. In fact other then here & the publishers website, nothing at all.
I guess a lot of us are missing something today, like what exactly would I use this for that makes it worth installing? Maybe Sunday was a bad day to offer this give away. It sure seems to me like this is one that publisher input would be helpful.
I'm clueless as to why I should install this. How can this possibly be useful to the average PC user? UI (user interface) design for somebody writing software code? Sorry, I'm nowhere near that talented so I guess that until someone comes up with more info on it, I'll have to pass. I'm not into beta testing!