Digital Prototyping Tools

If you want to make prototyping a part of your digital design process, now is an excellent time to get started. The market is flush with tools to help you test and refine your interactive design ideas—so many tools, in fact, that choosing among them can be tricky. This practical report takes an in-depth look at five key prototyping tools available today, including Adobe XD, Axure RP, Framer, InVision, and Origami.

Author Jonathan Follett, Principal of Involution Studios and a leader of the firm’s emerging technologies practice, describes each tool in detail, including everything from installation, learnability, and design functionality to collaboration capabilities, product support, and future use. By comparing and contrasting these different applications, you’ll learn when it’s best to use each one, and when it’s best to avoid them.

This report examines:

• How prototyping is critical to the digital design process for iterating and testing
• The pros and cons of using software for prototyping
• The design functionality of each prototyping tool reviewed, including the types of software interactions you can prototype with it
• How long it takes to get up to speed with each tool, and how well each one integrates with your workflow
• The level of support these tools have for collaboration and communication
• How well each prototyping tool works for beginning, intermediate, and advanced users
• Examples of each tool in action