Designing websites is an art. A lot of tools and techniques are used to create a design before the programmers can start working on it to create the backend. Even for the experienced designer, it might not be ideal for remembering the organization of the pages and content in his head throughout the process. Pen and paper can only go so long.
Jumpchart helps you plan websites before getting the design and coding done. Care to know how useful the app actually is?
Overview
Overview
Making a website design and organization plan is now so easy with Jumpchart. The app allows you to create pages and subpages enabling you to quickly sketch out the hierarchy of your site. Jumpchart lets you change titles whenever you please and reorganize with just a click and a drag. It’s never been easier to plan the navigation for your site.
Pricing
Pricing
Jumpchart has four different pricing plans starting from an economical $5 a month plan. Various factors determine the variation in price but key among them is the number of concurrent projects, collaborators, pages per project and storage. A free plan that allows only one project with 10 pages is available for everyone to evaluate the app.
Ease of Use
While signing up, you will be asked to create a sub domain for your company. Unlike a lot of other apps, immediately after signing up you will be redirected to and logged into your account page. This is how easy user experience should be. Usually, I find myself stranded somewhere in the homepage and will have to feed the login credentials to get in.
Using Jumpchart
Creating a Project
Project Page
The landing page will prompt you to create a project. There is a note letting you know of the example project link at the bottom of the page, to get a good understanding of what the app can do for you. I would strongly suggest that you check it out, as it will help you master the features of the app very quickly.
Editing Content
Each new project created comes with a basic template of a website. To start making it your own and add some content, use the Edit Content button. Enter the web copy for the page and if you plan to add more elements to the web page — radio buttons, bullets, form — use the respective option on the smart sidebar to the left.
The smart sidebar, as the name indicates, is smart and it lets you organize your navigation easily. With each type of layout you are creating, the options on the sidebar changes accordingly.
Adding Pages
Use the tabs at the top to create pages and sub pages. Give the page a name and start editing it by slecting it from the sidebar. The option to create multiple pages in go is very handy. Use asterisks to denote the depth of the pages you want to add, and type their titles one for each line. These pages will be added one after another to the bottom of the existing list of pages. Sub pages can be created the same way. A sub page is automatically created beneath the page you are currently viewing.
Adding a New Page
Starting from the homepage you can keep adding pages, and sub pages till you have the perfected the design you have in mind. To make the pages complete, you can start adding text, images, and attachments using the smart sidebar. Select the element you want on the page and hit save to see it live on the page. Good stuff!
To delete pages and sub pages, use the Remove Page option at the top. And to reorder the pages you create, use the Reorder Pages button on the smart sidebar.
Collaboration
Conversation and feedback play a vital role in building a website. Jumpchart lets you make page level comments to get/leave feedback and ideas. You can also attach files to the comment and instead of visiting the page to check if there is a follow up comment, you can subscribe to email notifications.
Adding a Comment
To invite people to work with you on the project, just click the People button in the top bar to give others access to your Jumpcharts. You can only share projects that you created and not the ones shared with you. Besides that, you can allow who can edit the project and who gets a read only access. From the Revisions tab, you can monitor who made what changes to the project precisely.
Views
Wireframe View
In addition to seeing the live preview of the page as and when you add content to it, you can also see the design created so far in Wireframe and Sitemap views. The wireframe is a mockup of just the text, files, and architecture of your site and does not include graphics or colors.
Sitemap View
Sitemaps are important for SEO and you also need them to keep track of the flow of pages in your website. The minute to add, edit or delete a page or rearrange it, it’s automatically reflected in your sitemap. There is no need for you to manually edit them.
Final Thoughts
From top to bottom, Jumpchart is a terrific app jam packed with features. The focus is on helping users without any prior experience to give their dream website a shape. While the user interface is intuitive and elegant, it looks a bit off. Not everywhere, but some screens have a stretched out look with the design elements being unnecessarily bigger.
Share Your Thoughts!
Do you use apps to get the basic website planning or stick to pen and paper? How much time an app like Jumpchart can save?