If you have developed an interactive prototype, it is crucial that it is shared widely. Doing so allows you to test hypotheses, gather feedback and improve digital designs.
Figma is an online team-based whiteboard solution that enables users to collaborate on projects and visualize project trajectories collaboratively, making it an excellent alternative to popular design tools such as Sketch and Adobe XD.
Key Features of Invision Prototypes
Invision Prototype is an interactive prototype tool designed for designers. It helps designers quickly create interactive prototypes of their projects to collect feedback from clients or team members while showing off designs to clients or team members. Easy and time saving, Invision Prototype helps designers speed up the design process of websites or apps while centrally managing all comments in one central place.
Invision’s primary advantage lies in its easy, rapid and reliable interface; users can create prototypes quickly while making changes as needed on-the-fly. Furthermore, users can share links so others can view and interact with your prototype easily.
Sketch and Figma are tools primarily meant to facilitate design work; Invision stands apart by offering prototyping tools like creating clickable prototypes from images and sketches. Ideal for websites and apps alike, Invision makes prototypes easily shareable among clients and stakeholders, and helps gather feedback on features and functionality as well as aesthetic appearance of products.
InVision also features several other useful tools that make its workflow more efficient, including Components – similar to Sketch’s Symbols in that any changes made will automatically apply across all instances in a file; this significantly decreases work required to maintain consistency throughout a project.
InVision makes prototyping easier by providing a way to link frames together in a prototype, useful when showing flow or sequence of events. Links can be activated via mouse/touch interaction such as click/drag/hover etc, giving users a realistic experience. Plus you can add animation effects for an even more realism experience!
You can also use Invision to create clickable overlays, which are frames that appear over the current screen or frame and can be used for things such as modals, alerts and menus. Furthermore, Invision enables you to control both speed and direction of an overlay for an improved user experience.
Upload multiple files at once is another useful feature of Proto. Once uploaded, files can be dragged around to reorder them or move them between screens within your prototype.
Invision also features a full-screen presentation mode, making prototype presentations and outlining key points easier during client meetings and making feedback processing faster. This feature can help streamline client feedback.
Adobe XD
Adobe XD is an invaluable design software that helps designers quickly create prototypes of apps or websites in minutes with just a few clicks, share your prototype with others for feedback, and receive theirs too. Best of all? It’s completely free – perfect for users looking to test prototypes without making changes!
Adobe XD provides an efficient way for designers to present their designs to clients. Simply share a link and invite clients to provide feedback directly on the page – this method is especially helpful if working with developers who do not have access to your XD file directly, while it’s also an efficient way to secure initial approval before making major modifications to a design.
To share an XD file, just click the sharing icon in the top-right corner. There you can create either a public link, password-protected link, or embed. Embedding allows users to access their prototype from either web browsers or mobile devices whereas password protected links require both parties to possess and share an unique password in order to view. Embedding also lets viewers view prototype in web browser or mobile device and set permissions so only those who know about its existence may view your prototype.
Adobe XD is no longer free, but now available as part of Creative Cloud for just $9.99 per month. Ideal for UX/UI designers looking for easy integration into other Adobe applications, it allows for free 14 day trials if you are unfamiliar with Adobe XD.
Though Squarespace and Adobe XD do not work together directly, workarounds exist that allow for beautiful prototypes. You can utilize Adobe XD’s integration with Creative Cloud Libraries to import designs directly into Squarespace; or export as images or PDFs and upload into your site using hotspots.
InVision Studio
InVision Studio is a prototyping tool designed for vector-based graphics design, animation, and high-fidelity prototypes. Part of the InVision family of tools and products such as InVision Freehand, Specs, and Design System Manager. With various vector-based drawing tools such as flexible layers, an infinite canvas, scrolling artboards and device mirroring as well as adaptive layout tools and advanced animation features it offers prototypers unparalleled prototyping power.
This software can be found both on MacOS and Windows platforms, compatible with Sketch (a popular desktop graphics editor for Mac). Furthermore, it supports several file formats, including HTML. UI/UX designs can be created easily as it can be used by both designers and developers; in addition, animated prototypes can even be exported as code snippets from its interface.
Animated prototypes are an effective way of conveying ideas with clients, but can be tricky to embed on websites and documents due to all their moving parts. Luckily, there are ways around this problem; using a script or plugin will help embed animated prototypes more efficiently.
If you’re working on a large project with multiple teams, InVision can be an invaluable way to quickly share ideas and solicit feedback. Interactive prototypes of your website or app can be shared with clients and shared back via InVision for commenting purposes. Furthermore, this platform can also be used to test compatibility across browsers and devices.
InVision Studio not only offers an easy-to-use interface, but it offers many other useful features as well. It contains a shared design library which helps maintain consistency across different InVision files; editing Master components instantly updates all other versions within a file; it even supports synchronized workflows which help improve teamwork and collaboration.
InVision Studio can bring many advantages, but you should keep several factors in mind before purchasing it. First and foremost, make sure you understand how the tool is being used; that way you’ll know whether or not it meets your requirements and costs associated with its purchase are minimized. Also take into consideration its financial implications on your company.
Figma
Squarespace provides users with an easy-to-use platform for building professional websites, blogs and online stores. With beautiful templates and an array of tools for designing and managing sites, it provides ample customer support as well as tutorials to assist newcomers get up and running quickly.
Squarespace supports various third-party services and applications, such as email marketing and social media management, with an in-built chat feature providing fast assistance with common issues. Squarespace also integrates popular third-party plugins that extend its functionality; for instance, YouTube videos can be embedded directly onto Squarespace websites using its Video Block; you can add descriptions for each video as well as disable autoplay to ensure visitors remain engaged with your content.
Figma stands apart from Sketch by offering collaborative design tools that run directly in your browser without needing installation. Thanks to its cloud-based architecture, Figma works across various operating systems and hardware; while Autolayout streamlines design processes by automatically adjusting layers and keeping alignment consistent as designs change.
Figma provides robust collaboration features, such as project management tools and version history. Team members can access files instantaneously across platforms and devices for real-time revision. In addition, users can share files externally while tracking progress and comment tracking – and Figma even offers a mobile app so designers can view designs on the go!
Sketch and Figma both offer prototyping features for designers to quickly connect UI elements and overlays, and create overlays. However, Sketch provides more complex animation capabilities due to its wide collection of plugins; its Symbols Page makes changing appearance of elements easy; Figma uses vector networks instead of paths when drawing lines between two points.
Squarespace and Figma are great collaborative tools for brainstorming and designing. Figma allows teams to communicate via an online whiteboard that can be used for brainstorming sessions, creating diagrams/sitemaps/wireframes development as well as developing wireframes. Both programs boast intuitive user interfaces for ease of use while offering numerous features making them great choices for teams of any size.
