Design mock-up and prototype websites

Axure RP is a professional tool for creating prototypes and mock-ups of commercial websites.

So for example, say you want to design an online store for a business idea you have. Axure RP is designed to help you create how you’d like it to look, collaborate with others on the design and basically design the kind of store and site you want.

Axure RP certainly not the simplest application to get to grips with but its not particularly complicated either and there’s an extensive Help guide. However, overall it is more suitable for professionals in the web design industry.

For the technically minded, Azure RP Quickly creates wireframes that can be quickly developed from sketch to ready-for-development designs. You can annotate the wireframes and one useful bonus is that you can automatically generate Microsoft Word specifications.

You need a bit of a steady hand to get the most out of Azure RP – you can create boxes, grids, buttons and drag and drop elements but there are widgets available to help develop your projects. You can download these from the Axure RP website where you’ll also find widgets that other users have uploaded. Finally, you can also upload your final creations to the Axure RP website for others to critic and comment on although this isn’t a particularly secure way of working on a business plan!

Axure XP is a powerful tool for creating your perfect business website although its more suited to web design professionals than beginners.