Two weeks ago, TheServerSide managed to successfully get a formal commitment from Max Katz, the author of Practial RichFaces, and undoubtedly the industry's foremost advocate for Ajax enabled JSF frameworks, to speak at TheServerSide Java Symposium in March of this year in Las Vegas. (TSSJS 2011).

The thing is, in each discussion we've had with Max, he quickly turns the discussion away from  what we can expect from the upcoming RichFaces 4 release, and instead, he starts talking endlessly about this interactive prototyping tool, named Tiggr, with which he's been working. 

"It's a web-based rapid prototyping tool. It lets you create, share, collaborate, and preview user interface prototypes right there in your own web browser - any web browser. It lets you create interactive application prototypes that look and behave like the real application."

You could tell that Max was hoping to bring a soap box with him to TSSJS 2011 and start preaching the virtues of Tiggr. Of course, when you've got someone like Max, who's an expert on JSF and RichFaces, you want him delivering a session that's going to be of interest to as many people as possible, which is why we've got him to promise us that he'll do some speaking about RichFaces 4 when he's on the stage in March. Of course, to get him to promise us that, we told Max that we'd give him a chance to preach the virtues of Tiggr in a feature article on TSS, so here it is: Max Katz's article on the virtues of the Tiggr tool, and how Tiggr brings application prototyping to a new level.

Why You Need Interactive and Clickable UI Prototypes for Your Next Project
By Max Katz

TSSJS 2011 ($100 Earlybird Discount if you register before Febrauary 11th!)

Practical RichFaces by Max Katz

Max's Blog

... most of the application is Flex Based :)

I am very impressed though and will be demo'ing this to my team next week.

@Gavin: let us know how it goes, would love to hear your feedback. 

I ran a quick comparison test between tiggr and Balsamiq (both use Flex/Air).

Balsamiq wins hands down wrt useability and speed.

One example: Table with 2 columns one of them being a checkbox.

Balsamiq: Drop table on work area, edit content like that:  Java,[x]

Tiggr: Drop table on work area, adjust number of columns in table properties,  dbl-click a cell, type in 'Java'. Drag a checkbox to the second coiumn. Ooops. Doesn't insert into the cell. Hmm. what now?

@Jochen

I was able to do it what you tried, you can see it here:

http://gotiggr.com/preview/7107/screen-52D9.html

We are aware of the usability issues and are working on fixing them. 

There is fundamental difference between Balsamiq and Tiggr. With Balsamiq, you get static mockups. With Tiggr you can create interactive and clickable prototypes that you can view in any browser. The goal is to let you create a prototype that looks and behaves as close as possible to a real application (just a drawing is not enough today).