I am creating a job vacancy form that has quite a lot of required fields. I need to collaborate with my boss (a non ux type) who is working remotely.
At the moment, the only standalone tools that we both have is MS Office 2010 so we can go down the MS Word path but that is not ideal. What I am looking for is a lightweight web based app that will let us create forms, including inserting the multiple choice, dropdown values on specific questions.
Any ideas here?
As the User Experience Director for a company of around 175 employees, I'm often challenged with getting department managers to articulate their ideas without the knowlege of a designer. The best tool I have found (for us) is the web version of Balsamiq. Give it a try, although their server seems to be down right now which I haven't seen before:
Do you need to create a functioning form or just to prototype it?
For prototyping, I'd go with mockingbird or pencil.
I've found a lot of success using HotGloo with non UX types. Simple for those that just want to place forms and link pages, but at the advanced level it has been pretty powerful too - so good for the UX types as well :)
If the goal is to work with your boss to figure out the layout of the form I would recommend using PowerPoint.
If the goal is to figure out the questions/flow of the form, use Google Docs Form Generator.
The first option will be a lightweight way for him to convey his design/layout concepts to you and the latter will force him to focus on the questions/answers and how they are presented.
Hope that helps!
+1 for Balsamiq, i've been playing with it last weekend, the results were great, so many options, very easy to use, you'll be building a clean mockup that you can share with anyone, your boss, your non-designer colleague and even your mom, it's fixable nature with all the needed elements you need to proof a point makes it a good choice.
here is an example of what you can do using Balsamiq for less than 60-70 minutes: http://yfrog.com/gy91a7j
Explore ideas with your boss on a whiteboard first. Once you guys firm things up, take a pic with your phone, then go away for an hour and mock it up with myBalsamiq.com... Add boss to myBalsamiq, tweak as necessary, then tell him/her that you'd like to get feedback from target users and you'll get back to them shortly.
If you know keynote or power point well, there are great high fidelity templates at Keynotopia - they are my favorite (although Balsamiq is great too especially just to get your layout and point across - but the colors and animations possible with Keynotopia templates are awesome for really showing interaction and colors/design) for communicating requirements to outsourced dev shops.
In this case I would try to operate with Google Docs / Forms. There you can create the form itself, and than share it with your boss.
Here's an onlie mockup builder, but there are no form items:
