In our informal “Toolbox CODEFUSION” series we show the tools that actually make it into our daily work. This time it’s PlantUML Salt – a text-based way to sketch interface mockups fast.
As developers, for years we reached for tools like Balsamiq to quickly mock up client requirements. It was mostly the developers doing it, with UI/UX designers stepping in later, once it was clear what we were building and why. Balsamiq was simple and fast – exactly what you need in the early stages. But as AI capabilities have grown, a new class of tools has emerged, ones where the interface is described in text rather than drawn with a mouse. Lately, PlantUML and its Salt subproject have pulled ahead for us.
Working with it is convenient precisely because it is text. The AI generates a dozen or so lines describing a screen, and we keep full control over them: such a mockup is easy to audit, easy to change, and just as easy to discuss with the client – potentially editing the mockup live during the conversation with them. And since it’s plain text, it fits the everything-as-code philosophy: it lands in the repository next to the code, goes through code review, and is versioned and tracked by diffs like any other project artifact.
The real value, though, is in what comes next. A Salt mockup is a great starting point for later design stages – both interactive prototypes and high-fidelity versions. Sometimes it becomes part of the specification straight away and feeds directly into development. Instead of treating a UI sketch as a one-off attachment to a ticket, we get an artifact that lives alongside the project from the first client conversation all the way to finished code.
