I’ve just been reading a post on Visio replacements. The market place for prototyping tools is growing. I’ve never been an advocate of using Visio for Wireframing (screen layout) and have always preferred to do actual HTML/CSS mockups by hand or in Dreamweaver. That said some of the Visio replacements eg iRise seem quite tempting with the inclusion of a simulation engine. An iRise type product for designing collaborative learning activities would be interesting. What about an iRise type product for creating Facebook social apps? What about an iRise type product for generating Blackboard building blocks or Moodle plugins. Possibilities, Possibilities, Possibilities! What about generating complete backend code (code generation) for any platform (Java, .NET, Rails, PHP). ….and then what about a lower price tag? In the end it just means more power to the designer.