Invision: Expanding the Creativity of Web Design

6/4/2012

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A Prototyping tool, provided you choose the right one, eliminates most of the tedious busywork involved with website and app creation and allows creativity to take the fore. Designing a website or app is divided into two sides – creativity and routine. The routine is the manual creation of wireframes, navigation and writing prototype code repeatedly. An advanced prototyping tool helps with the wireframes and more.

A designer will be able to create elements using their favorite design software, and drag and drop them into place on a wireframe without issue. They can set navigation with a simple click, no code writing. With a different click, the project can be shared across the entire development team.

What results is the difference between ‘creating’ and ‘building’ a website. The act of creation is a pleasure; the act of building is a chore. Invision does most of the mechanical steps for the designer, allowing them to spend their time creating. This is time well spent. It lets the developers run wild with their ideas, and the final project benefits from this freedom more than you expect.

The result is that the development team and the client both experience a fully interactive prototype. Buttons work when clicked. Apps designed to send texts will actually send texts. App projects can be accessed directly from mobile devices, allowing hands on testing. A prototyping tool can handle screen layouts and color schemes as well.

Invision makes it easy to switch from one wireframe to another. The prototype can be tested from the point of view of an actual user, and any bugs can be noted and fixed on the spot.

Wireframe tools may or may not give free updates. They may limit you to a certain number of computers. None of these restrictions applies to using the prototyping tool on the web. Pay for the subscription plan you need, and spend the money you save on more projects. You can rest assured that you’re always using the most updated version of the software.

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What Designers Expect from a Prototyping Tool

3/14/2012

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prototyping tool
When a designer thinks about their ideal prototyping tool, what do they envision? The list of things they wish they could do is huge. Designers often wish for drag and drop functionality, to better enable the linking of screens and assembly of a prototype.

Likewise, designers are always looking for ways to cut down on costs, for both project managers and business owners. One potential way to cut down costs is by eliminating the time involvement necessary for designer-client communication. Real time collaboration would slash project time. 

Another item high on the list of wishes is a tool that eliminates the need for so much tedious documentation. Every step of the process needs to be documented, and that takes time and energy -- not to mention storage space. The fewer man-hours spent on documentation, and the fewer development cycles needing to be documented, the more money and time is saved by everyone involved.

Finally, a tool has hit the market that addresses each and every one of these problems. It's called InVision, and it lets a designer use their existing tools to create a working model prototype. Anyone involved in the project can interact with the prototype complete with working buttons, navigation, and test data. InVision also allows real time communication and direct interaction with the prototype, saving those design cycles.

InVision creates these full featured prototypes out of image files your designer already has. It works with existing tools like Photoshop or Fireworks, and eliminates the need to code a framework from scratch. Designers can upload directly from their existing projects without the need for conversion, coding or extra work.

The best part of InVision is that it allows full resolution high-fidelity prototyping. Gone are the days of a black and white half-sketched mockup. InVision's prototypes look exactly like the current revision of the project, as finalized as it is. The resulting creation is full featured and looks like a finished project, not a blueprint. It even allows remote access to the project with as much or as little security as is necessary. It can even make educated guesses about ideal background colors and alignments for presentation.

As of March 2012, nearly 21,000 designers have created over 132,000 screens using InVision, all within six months of launch. Try a free trial today, and see just how much this excellent tool can save for you.



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