I tooled around with online wireframing/diagramming apps about 18 months ago, and kind of put the whole subject to bed. If you’re used to OmniGraffle, Balsamiq, or Visio, using an online app is a bit rough. I had played around with LucidChart the most, and made the simple conclusion: a Flash powered online app will not compare to an installed application (at least in the near future). If you read my blog, you know I’m all about web apps, but I felt like this is a use case where they still just aren’t an option.

But recently, I was urged to give HotGloo a shot by my partner at SwellPath, @johnpkoenig – somewhat reluctantly, I agreed. I wanted to give the whole web app thing another shot, and I like the collaboration opportunities that a web app provides, and a tool like OmniGraffle doesn’t provide. I had to put together wireframes for a project we’re working on; about 5 templates total. John had already been using it for the project, so it made sense for me to give it a go.

It really is incredibly impressive. It is one of the most impressive Flash/Flex applications I have ever used from a functionality standpoint. HotGloo just came out of Beta, and it is obvious they mean business – from a pricing and functionality standpoint. After spending a day working intimately with it, I would definitely recommend giving it a shot, and it definitely warranted a review.

I’m going to break this review down into key elements of using this type of application:

1. Time to Learn
   How long did it take me to get up to speed and feel comfortable using the app? Pretty quick. Some initial grunts and complaints, but I got it all down within less than an hour. This includes figuring out how to handle administrative tasks (adding users, setting roles, etc.) and how to actually wireframe.
2. Speed
   If you use Salesforce.com, you know how you have to sometimes “stop” and wait for a popup to complete a desired action; that happens a bit with HotGloo. It is one of those web apps where you learn when to wait – mostly I’m referring to when you upload an image. But once you learn when to have patience, you get a bit more efficient. I was able to complete the bulk of my work in one day. I would say it took me about 20-25% more time to do it in HotGloo, and that includes the time spent “learning” the app.
3. Collaboration Aspects
   Ok, this is where web apps like this can crush it. HotGloo does, simply by letting you add users to a project, who can login and review or edit your templates, and in a more complicated way by allowing users to chat while viewing templates. You don’t pay for users (see more below) so you can add any number of folks to a project. It would be cool to see some other hooks built in (Basecamp tie-in, maybe Gtalk or other chat hooks, etc.). But it looks like there are some new collaboration features coming in May, so it’ll be interesting to see what those are.
4. Overall Impression & Pricing Considerations
   Come on, it is a web app that lets you wireframe as-good-or-better than you could with an installed app a few years ago, that is awesome! That being said, it is still kind of constrained by Flash, browsers and bandwidth, and as a result, it isn’t quite as fast as using installed apps. But there is loads of promise for HotGloo, and I will probably continue to use it for certain projects. You can view the HotGloo roadmap here and see what features and enhancements are coming. Pricing is fair, you pay for projects (2 for $14/month to start, $5/month for each additional, $2/month for an archived project), and their are constraints on bandwidth, but they are large enough that I don’t see those being hit. I like that you don’t pay for users; you can add as many people as needed.

I personally would be interested in how an Adobe Air install would work in conjunction with a setup like HotGloo. But Air apps are resource hogs, and I don’t see this on HotGloo’s roadmap, so it isn’t something we’re likely to see. Anyway, give HotGloo a shot and see what you think, you might just find that OmniGraffle and other installs are now a thing of the past for you.