14 DAY TRIAL // MockApp has created Keynote and PowerPoint templates of iPhone UI elements, aiding those who get an idea for an app and need to lay down its UI basics as fast as possible. The templates are available as free downloads and require the latest version of Keynote available at this point.
Spotted by the eagle-eyed TUAW, the iPhone prototyping templates from MockApp “do a pretty good job if you just want to show how a specific screen would look but don’t really work as a demo,” according to the maker. “So one of the advantages of doing this kind of prototyping in Keynote or Powerpoint is that you can use features such as hyperlinks, animations and page transitions to simulate the navigation experience that the user would have in the iPhone app,” the description over at Mockapp.com reads. According to MockApp, the templates are based on a “push” slide transition that creates the same visual effect as you would get on the iPhone.
“However, there are limitations,” the templates’ author adds. “After all, I doubt that the developers of Keynote (and even less PowerPoint) knew their software would one day be used to create iPhone app prototypes… For example, you can only define one transition per slide, which is fine when you’re moving sequentially through the presentation. But when there are hyperlinks all over the place, you can’t specify which hyperlink should trigger what type of transition effect. Anyway, I consider these limitations pretty minor considering other prototyping tools don’t even come close to offering transition capabilities.”
Although MockApp was designed with and is intended for use on Apple Keynote, Microsoft PowerPoint versions of the templates are also available for download on MockApp’s website. The files are updated on a regular basis, so users are encouraged to make sure they have the latest version before starting their mockups.