This is version 2 of the Better Defaults library, expanded to sixty five (or so) interactive and cleanly styled widgets. Use it in place of the standard widget set.

Reasons to use these widgets include:

• Consistent and improved styling.
• Polished interactivity.
• Standardized labeling.
• Expanded set of shapes & controls.
• Rollover, MouseDown, Selected, and Disabled styles for most controls.
• Includes all defaults.

This is for version 5.5 and above. Put the extracted .rplib file in your “My Documents\My Axure RP Libraries\” folder (Windows) or your “Documents\Axure\Libraries” folder (Mac).

Preview |  Download

Kevin Wick has posted a very nice sketchy-styled Axure library.  I highly recommend it.

Prototyping in a very low-fidelity visual style generally helps your stakeholders provide feedback at the right level, as discussed in this article, and has been adopted by many other design tools, notably Balsamiq.

Web applications and sites these days are using many social features. This library, compatible with Axure versions 5.5 and up, contains many of the standard widgets you will need to prototype basic social functionality.

You’ll find a lot more than nice looking stencils – these widgets have polished interactivity, for your prototyping and usability testing needs. And always feel free to contact me if you have any requests or additions!

Preview | Download the Widget Library

(place the .rplib file in \My Documents\My Axure RP Libraries\ for it to load automatically when you start Axure)

Widgets in this library

• Add Friend
• Email This
• Favorite
• Flag
• Follow
• Leave a Comment (single and multi)
• Loading GIF (big and small)
• Post Status
• Rating (plus/minus)
• Rating (thumbs up/down)
• Rating (stars, with and without label)
• RSS
• Save
• Share This

Screenshots

Add to Friends Widget

Rating Widget

Email This Widget

Notes

Although they were developed separately, there’s a bit of an overlap with another neat widget library by Roslyn Zolandor.

Most of the icons in this library are from the awesome Silk Icons pack.

Axure Social Widgets Library by Loren Baxter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

About a month ago, the folks at Zurb published a nice article about sketching wireframes.  I went ahead and purchased some new sketching items including a nice thick sharpie and a cool gray “dropshadow” pen.

The difference in my sketches is incredible.  Zurb hits the nail on the head, saying, “Although we advocate keeping things as simple as possible, presentation is everything.”  I wholeheartedly agree.  While it’s important to stay in a sketchy, mostly grayscale environment while doing early prototyping, there is nothing wrong with keeping your deliverables professional looking.

In that sense, and through deep offense at the default White, Black, and Blue widgets offered with Axure, I’ve created a small library of widgets that are just a little more aesthetic.

This is for version 5.5 and above.  Put the file in your “My Documents\My Axure RP Libraries\” folder.
Download the Widget Library