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Twitter to the rescue again.

I was at the OAUG 20th Anniversary Party where I consumed my usual 2 beers (albeit larger than normal beers), when I noticed this tweet by Brian “Bex” Huff.

With the help of a couple of very nice conference attendees, I was able to locate the establishment. They warned me that the restaurant might not allow me in as I was in my travel attire (flip flops), but they did. Pretty casual everywhere around here.

Anyway, this was my very first Oracle ACE gathering. I got to meet, among others, Iggy Fernandez, Sunil Ranka and Bex. I also met Vicki who is the Oracle representative who runs the program. She actually went to high school near me in Denver.

Although I may or may not have had too much to drink, I had a good time. Floyd Teter has introduced me to just about everyone in the world and I’m struggling to remember everyone’s name. If my phone or camera would work, I could probably take a picture and quickly tag it with their name. I need a system.

Anyway, I had the steak which was delicious.

Looking at that picture though…the presentation doesn’t look too appealing…I can’t think of a couple of disgusting things that it looks like. But I was plyed with beer and didn’t care much. Like I said, it was delicious.

I also got to meet Arup Nanda, who’s New Features guides/tutorials I’ve used a million times to learn something new. Not really sure I belong with that crowd…but I’ll take full advantage of the opportunity.

About a month ago I stumbled across a fantastic tool called Balsamiq Mockups.  It’s a product that lets you rapidly prototype the UI for some new functionality.  It’s aimed at web development in general, not just PeopleSoft, but I think it’s so good that it’s something that the PeopleSoft community can embrace.

Mockups are useful for a number of reasons.  They help the business understand what they’re going to get much earlier in the design process, meaning that any changes they want to make can be proposed early, when the cost to change is lower.  It also helps the developer clearly understand what the requirements are.  All very Agile.

Balsamiq beats other mockup methods hands down.

1. It’s Fast. It has a pre-built library of controls so creating a mockup is fast, much much quicker than PowerPoint or MS Paint.  So quick that you can create them on-the-fly in meetings.
2. It’s more efficient. With pen and paper or a whiteboard it’s not easy to quickly rearrange what you’ve drawn.  Plus, there’s no electronic copy to mail around at the end of the workshop.
3. It shows only what’s necessary. Its style is more wireframe than glossy perfection, and that’s why it’s so good.  No-one will be under the illusion that it’s a screenshot of something that’s nearly built.

I’ve put together a YouTube video so you can see it in action (click the video to view it on the YouTube site for higher definition).

If you like it head on over to the Balsamiq website.  They let you use most of the functionality for free.