Pentotype Lets Developers Quickly Build And Collaborate On Interactive Wireframes From Their iPads

Are you a developer? Do you wanna create wireframes and share them with your friends and collaborate and mashup and test out the user experience of new apps before you commit to code? Well here comes Pentotype, a new web app for the iPad (and frankly, any other HTML5-enabled device) that will let developers quickly sketch out wireframes of their apps and test out user interaction.

Pentotype is an app for creating quick wireframes of mobile apps on the iPad. While it’s based on HTML5, it’s designed to run like a native app, allowing users to sketch out their apps and see how they would work. Users can simulate their app functionality through the wireframes and then share with others to get their take. It enables both viewing and collaboration for the earliest part of the app-creation process.

Note, these aren’t fully realized apps that the service churns out, and there’s no code exported by the service. It’s really just a way to get a feel for the user experience before it’s all committed to code. Pentotype co-founder Thomas Wanschik compares the service to a “combination of the apps Paper and POP enhanced with sketch recognition.”

screenshot-draw

Pentotype follows the typical freemium model: Users of the service can try it out with a couple of free projects to see how they like it. Those who want to use it more will be asked to pay up. The team is still working out pricing, but those who want to create more projects can email the team to get more info.

The startup was founded by Johannes Dörr, Thomas Wanschik, and Waldemar Kornewald, three German entrepreneurs who had studied and done contract work together. They had mostly bootstrapped the project over the last year-and-a-half, taking a small bit of funding (about $120,000) through a German/EU stipend program called “EXIST Gründerstipendium.” They are also part of a local university incubator in Germany called “PFH Göttingen,” which provides free office space and other services for startups there.