Figma can work, but you have to restrict yourself to not embellish the wireframe. Choose one font only and use basic shapes only. Use colors only if you must (warning states, primary actions, …)
I really like/use Balsamiq. Although perhaps in a not common use case.
I'm really bad at doing neat pencil sketches and handwriting. Balsamiq easily lets be draw something up on my computer that looks obviously like it's "hand drawn style" and make is clear both to me while creating wireframes and to everyone else when I shard them that it's not intended to be high fidelity. I intentionally use Comic Sans to emphasize that.
If I were better with a pencil, I'd do these in a notepad or on graph paper - and then share phone camera photos of them.
F<or anyone who's ever died a little bit inside when their PM/boss say "Those wireframes are perfect. lets just hand those off to the devs!", I _highly_ recommend using whatever tooling or personal restrictions that workj for you - to generate output that is clearly "interface ideas" instead of being misinterpreted as "finished UI/UX designs".
> Balsamiq easily lets be draw something up on my computer that looks obviously like it's "hand drawn style" and make is clear both to me while creating wireframes and to everyone else when I shard them that it's not intended to be high fidelity.
I thought this was the core value proposition of Balsamiq.
One day, I plan to release a mobile and web app that's a pixel perfect representation of my low fidelity Balsamiq wireframes/UXUI exploration. Just to make the right kind of people's head explode.
Maybe Figma needs a prototyping mode that actually looks like rough whiteboard drawings or index cards. Later you can refine the designs, retaining history linking back to early prototypes.
Using rough drawings is useful for user research. Users are less likely to criticize or suggest big changes if you present a polished design, even if it is just a mock up.
