Invision Prototyping

As a new or experienced UX designer, you know that creating a quality prototype is an important part of the UX design process. That said, if you don't have the right tool, it can be a time consuming and costly endeavor. Having the right prototyping tool is key—but how do you find the one that's right for the way you work or the demands of a particular project?

Not too far away from Invision, you'll find Proto.io. Just like Invision, Proto.io lets you create high-fidelity prototypes of Apps within hours, with libraries of ready-to-use graphic and functional elements such as onboarding carousels, menus, buttons, maps, videos and more. Price: Starting from $24.00/month. For a long time, Sketch has been criticized for its interactivity. The company seemed to. When you publish Studio prototypes to InVision and begin to involve stakeholders for feedback and reviews, you'll encounter the standardized pricing tiers and plans for InVision, detailed below. Free plan for InVision V6. Cost: Free forever; 1 designer; 1 prototype; 3 boards; Starter plan for InVision V6. Turn your static design files into an interactive experience—no coding required. Intuitive build: Simply connect UI elements and choose your interactions and animations. Interactions: Define subtle interactions, like on click, while hovering, while pressing a button, and more. Mobile-optimized: Details like device frames and momentum scrolling make your prototypes feel like the real experience. Pros: The integration with Sketch makes it easy to stitch together prototypes from screens or wireframes created. InVision is a great tool to present work, concept and ideas with non-design stakeholders - it allows them to envision what their product could look like once developed, without having to pay for the development. Great for MVP creation.

Some prototyping tools are designed to support early user testing and a basic demonstration of user flows. Others are full-stack which allow you to design your prototypes or wireframes, simulate realistic and rich user interactions, collaborate with your team, and generate code that is ready to handoff to developers. Which tool you'll select will depend on the goals of your prototype, how quickly you need it available for user testing, who will be working on it, and how it needs to integrate into your workflow.

So many things to consider! That's why we've created this list of our top 11 prototyping tools for UX designers—to help you decide which one is best for you, your team, or your next project. For each tool we'll cover the cost (USD), system requirements, how easy it is to get up and running, what it's like to actually use the tool (it's UX), and the fidelity of the final product. Let's get into it!

The 11 prototyping tools we're going to guide you through are:

1. Adobe XD

Adobe XD would be considered a full-stack prototyping tool, meaning you can create designs from scratch, link pages together in a clickable prototype, and share your work easily—all in one tool.

Price

• $9.99 per month
• $52.99 per month as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud which gives you access to all Adobe apps.

Getting started

XD is laid out similar to other design editors (e.g. Sketch and Framer) and if you've used an Adobe product before it should be familiar to you. XD has built-in tutorials with downloadable resource files which are really great to get you up and running.

System requirements

• Available for macOS or Windows10

Deliverables

Prototypes created with XD can be built for mobile, tablet, or desktop, and I would classify them as mid-fidelity. You can create some advanced experiences with their new voice prototyping commands and audio playback features—but the finished interactions will be visually basic.

What it's like to use Adobe XD

If you're familiar with other Adobe products, this might be a no brainer for you. You can easily create your wireframes in the design tab, then easily switch to prototype and add start linking your components together.

You'll be able to specify triggers as either tap, drag, key click, or voice command—simply hold down your space bar to activate your microphone, speak the command word you specified and watch your prototype respond! There's even a built-in preview that allows you to record your prototype in action.

Collaboration capabilities

XD seamlessly works with other Adobe apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, and supports importing from Sketch. All Adobe products work in the Creative Cloud which saves all of your files in one place where you can grant access to your entire team. Further, XD is beta-testing a coediting feature where multiple people can work on the same document live!

2. InVision

InVision is a tool that takes your pre-existing designs and quickly transforms them into a clickable prototype by applying hotspots to your wireframes.

Price

• Free for one prototype
• $13 per month on a yearly plan for up to three prototypes
• $22 per month on a yearly plan for unlimited prototypes

Ease of learning

Since you aren't designing any wireframes in InVision, the platform is simple to navigate. This was the first prototyping tool I'd ever used, and I was up and running very quickly. If you're already a Sketch user, the Craft plugin makes things even easier as you import your artboards seamlessly into the project area.

System requirements

• Web-based tool for your browser & all files are saved on the InVision cloud server

Collaboration capabilities

InVision is really great for soliciting early feedback on your user flows. It's simple and quick for others to follow a link to your prototype, create an Invision account, and insert their comments as they click through your prototype on their own devices. How do i make space on my macbook air.

The UX of InVision

InVision's layout makes it easy to import wireframes and organize them in your respective user flows. Once you import your screens it won't take long to understand how to drag over an element of your wireframe, apply a hotspot, and add a transition to another screen in your library.

Deliverables

InVision is best for early stage designing and user testing, and produces a low/mid-fidelity prototype for mobile or desktop. The animations are more basic than others on the market, so the actual user testing done with your prototypes will be basic as well. Worth noting that Invision Studio is a new tool that can bring your prototypes to a greater level of fidelity, so if you enjoy using their basic tool and want more—check it out.

3. Sketch

Sketch was built with the designer in mind and supports you in creating vector-based designs and quickly viewing them as a clickable prototype.

Price

• $99 per year for a one-time license which you can use for a year with free updates, and after that if you would like to renew your license to receive further updates its $79 per year.

Ease of learning

Sketch is a beginner friendly application—and it may sound cliche—but its interface is really intuitive. The prototyping features available for your Sketch designs are pretty basic, as you can see from the highlighted portion of the panel above.

System requirements

• Available only on MacOS

Collaboration capabilities

• Share your prototype with others simply with a link they can view in their browser
• Sketch has its own cloud storage system which you can grant your team full access to
• Developers can view your designs in a browser, inspect elements, and export assets for free

Where Sketch belongs in your toolkit

Sketch definitely isn't the first program people think of when it comes to prototyping, and while it's a dream to design wireframes, it really shines as a companion to other prototyping tools.

Deliverables

Your Sketch prototype will be clickable and simple. It has fewer transition customizations than Adobe XD or InVision, but they all similarly show how your screens flow with one another. Finally, you can view your prototype on your desktop browser or with the Mirror (iOS) app directly on your mobile device.

4. Figma

Figma is another full-stack design tool that has really sophisticated collaboration to support the design process from wireframing and prototyping all the way to developer handoff.

Price

• Free for two editors and three projects
• $12/month (on yearly plan) for unlimited projects and editors

Ease of learning

With a familiar looking interface, Figma is known to be an easy tool for designers to pick up and figure out—especially if you‘ve used Sketch before. There is no coding knowledge required to add interactivity to your designs in Figma.

System requirements

• Available on the web, MacOS, or Windows

Deliverables

Figma prototypes are basic and will present similar to the other click-through mid-fidelity prototypes we've discussed so far.

Collaboration capabilities

With real-time editing capabilities that mirror a multi-editor Google doc experience—your team will love working together with Figma.

The UX of Figma

Figma has all of the essential design tools you'd want from Sketch, and is equally intuitive to use. It's easy to stitch wireframes into your prototype so you don't need to worry about importing your designs as you continue your design process in a single tool.

5. Balsamiq

Balsamiq is a rapid wireframing and prototyping tool that allows you to link your screens together to demonstrate simple user flows.

Price

• $9 per month for two projects at a time
• $49 per month for up to 20 projects

Ease of learning

Balsamiq is simple to use and produces a product you would show your team early on to refine your user flows and content strategy—this tool will help you to layout your app and collect feedback before the designs go through any iterations.

System requirements

• Available as a web app for any browser
• Desktop app compatible with MacOS and Windows

Deliverables

These prototypes are a step above low-fidelity, as look like a digitized-paper prototype. Linking elements in a wireframe here works as a simple clickable prototype, with the only action available being a transition to another screen (no overlay, animations, or custom transitions). One neat thing to note—if you export your Balsamiq prototype as a PDF, the links you embed will still work!

Collaboration capabilities

You can invite peers to view your designs right from the platform via email, and collect feedback that is focused on the layout of content and interactions instead of small details.

The UX of Balsamiq

Balsamiq may be the lowest-fidelity prototyping tool we'll discuss today, but it certainly has personality! Don't let the sketch aesthetic fool you into thinking Balsamiq's platform isn't well designed. While it may not be your first choice for dynamic prototypes, it is a great tool meant to start big picture UX/content conversations.

6. UXPin

UXPin is another full stack UX platform which supports you from end-to-end in your design process, and specializes in creating high-fidelity interactive prototypes.

Price

• $19/month billed yearly for unlimited prototypes with animations, interactions and states
• $29/month billed yearly for unlimited advanced prototypes with variables, expressions, and logic

Ease of learning

Although UXPin designs are code equipped, it does not require the same steep learning curve of a few of our other prototyping tools which require some coding knowledge (e.g. Webflow and Axure). The platform for editing your wireframes is similar to other popular tools in terms of layout, layers, and property editing panes.

System requirements

• Cloud-based web tool that works from your browser
• Also available as a desktop app for PC or Mac

Deliverables

Wow! UXPin delivers high-fidelity prototypes that I personally can't differentiate from the real thing. Elaborate animations and conditional interactions which add logic to your design, really set the bar high. For example, during user testing your participant can enter their name in a text field, and when they submit their data—their name will appear in a greeting message on the next page. Conditional interactions are things like setting up password parameters that must be met in order for the user to continue to the next page in the prototype.

Prototyping Invision Studio

Collaboration capabilities

The platform is really built to support big teams and projects with its advanced project management and collaborative sharing features. There is also a way to categorize the input given by your team so you can clearly differentiate the source of technical and non-technical comments.

What it's like to use UXPin

The upgraded version of UXPin allows for live screen sharing, commenting and importing from Sketch and Photoshop. Importing from Sketch and Photoshop is great because it keeps your sketch layers and assets intact, making it easier to add custom animations and interactions.

To help you in making your decision, UXPin actually has listed at the bottom of their site navigation, ‘UXPin vs. ____', which compares their tool with almost every other prototyping tool we've mentioned in our list.

Although there are extra features to navigate with UXPin, there are hundreds of tutorials online and the end product is so impressive that it's worth taking the time to learn.

7. Flinto

Flinto is the prototyping tool designed for Mac users to create high-fidelity interactive experiences.

Price

• $99 for a license with one year of free updates

Ease of learning

Flinto is pretty easy to pick up, and looks similar to Sketch's layout. You don't have to know any code to use Flinto, and they have a Youtube channel with tutorials—though it hasn't been updated in almost a year. Other tools seem to be iterating and upgrading more often. Keep that in mind if you are planning to use it as your go-to tool.

System requirements

• Only available for Mac, and it's preview app is made specifically for iOS

Deliverables

Despite it not being one of the most popular tools I've come across, Flinto is great for presenting advanced animations, transitions, and gestures. The prototype you'll come away with is high-fidelity and viewable on a mobile iOS device or your Mac desktop.

Collaboration capabilities

Flinto is able to import designs from both Sketch and Figma, but also gives you the tools to mockup your own designs or make changes to imported files. Others can view your prototype from a link once they download the previewing app for an iOS device.

The UX of Flinto

Flinto is really focused on interaction design and presenting sophisticated animations, however, it isn't as complete of a solution as other tools have become. It lacks collaborative capabilities and isn't going to help with your developer handoff as much as others.

Some notable features include adding UI sound effects to your prototype, unique scrolling, and the ability to design your own animated transitions and micro-interactions.

8. Origami

This unique prototyping tool was created by Facebook designers and has helped build products like Instagram and Messenger.

Price

• Completely free!

Ease of learning

If you're a beginner and haven't used any prototyping/design applications before, this may be tricky to learn. There is an active support group on Facebook (obviously), but the tool could use some built-in onboarding. The Origami product page does offer tailored tutorials for people with a programming background and those from a design background—but you should still give yourself extra time to learn this tool.

System requirements

At this time, Origami is only available for Mac, however the prototyping preview app they offer is available for iOS and Android so you can user test on any mobile device.

Deliverables

Origami can create prototypes with intricate interactions for your watch, mobile device, desktop or tablet. You can expect a high-fidelity prototype with some pretty sophisticated interactions to showcase. For example, Instagram's image straightening feature, where the user can watch as the image and the degrees adjust while they drag their finger along a scale—the prototype exactly mimics the experience you get using the app.

Collaboration capabilities

Origami supports sharing your prototype or viewing it on a device with the application installed, but there aren't any commenting or co-editing features at this time. However, Origami does collaborate with other tools like Sketch and Figma to help you import your design layers.

What it's like to use Origami

https://qsdfhi.over-blog.com/2020/12/monosnap-3-3-0-download-free.html. Origami's platform is set up a bit different than our other tools. Although the layer organization is similar to Sketch, to add interactivity you will be creating ‘patches' which show up on your canvas next to the prototype viewer. You'll specify your interaction in one patch, connect that to a transition patch, and specify your destination in a third patch (as shown in the image above).

Opening up Origami for the first time was a bit intimidating, especially after being ‘taken by the hand' by many of the other tools with their onboarding and built-in tutorial videos. There are videos on Origami's website you can walk through, and a few on Youtube. This is a free tool, so I wouldn't expect the same kind of attention to the beginner UX as other tools.

9. Framer

Framer focuses on smooth team collaboration and rich interactive prototyping.

Price

• Free up to 3 projects with 2 editors
• $16/month billed yearly

Ease of learning

While some have complained that Framer has a bit of a learning curve—the creators claim you can be up and running with basic knowledge in five minutes due to their new comprehensive onboarding. If you've used any Adobe tool you'll recognize the mixture of coach marks and video onboarding. The tutorials actually play and pause automatically in your workspace each time you're given a new step to try.

System requirements

• Web application that runs best on Chrome
• Desktop app is for MacOS and only available for Pro users ($33/month)
• Framer Preview allows you to check out your design on any mobile device and is compatible with both Android and iOS.

Deliverables

You can expect high-fidelity interactive prototypes with Framer, for an experience that's as close to your final product as possible.

Collaboration capabilities

From multiplayer editing, inline commenting, to sharing your prototype in one click—Framer really delivers a great collaborative experience for teams.

The UX of Framer

The Framer platform is familiar to Sketch and Adobe XD with its editing panels and layer organization. Framer is great for learning how a developer will receive your design work—for example, the platform allows you to organize similar components into ‘stacks' that you can edit as a set—which is similar to how a design would be implemented with code.

10. Axure

The all-in-one UX platform that creates rich prototypes and supports quality developer handoff.

Price

• $29/month per user for basic that include unlimited prototypes
• $49/month per user for the team version equipped with coediting, cloud services, and revision history

Ease of learning

Axure's platform is pretty intuitive and reminiscent of other visual design tools we've discussed here. You definitely don't need to know how to code to create your prototype, but it would help you to know some basic front-end coding so you can understand the language used within the tool.

System requirements

• Available for Windows or MacOS

Deliverables

Axure can produce some of the high quality prototypes for mobile, desktop, or tablet.

Collaboration capabilities

• Team version of Axure has co-editing capabilities, team access to files saved in their cloud server, and history of design revisions made
• Notifications are integrated with Slack for great workflow continuity

The UX of Axure

Axure's platform is drag and drop, and is reminiscent of Sketch. This tool is great for developer handoff and is regarded for the quality of the code it generates.

Creating your prototypes seems pretty simple, and can get more complex when you implement conditional logic on different triggers (i.e. play animation when page loads). You can also apply advanced animations to your components like show/hide or toggle states.

11. Webflow

A very powerful prototyping tool that your development team will thank you for!

Price

• $35/month

Ease of learning

This is a tool that is designed for someone with basic development knowledge. While anyone can use it, you need to have a basic understanding of HTML5 and CSS. If you were a developer before a designer—Webflow will feel like home.

Deliverables

Webflow produces high-fidelity prototypes for websites or mobile experiences that generate all of the code necessary for your development team to implement your design seamlessly.

Collaboration capabilities

Webflow is set up with a shared dashboard for your whole team to access your prototypes and design files. Designed specifically for collaborative harmony with your dev team—Webflow automatically generates code that your developers can access as you build.

What it's like to use Webflow

This platform was designed with developers in mind, so although you won't have to write any code, you will need to understand basic HTML and CSS to understand the language used in the platform. For example, you can drag and drop design elements into your prototype, but they are all labeled as HTML tags (e.g. div block, column, container). Finally, you'll want to understand how tags and classes work so you can change the styling of multiple elements at a time.

Your interaction panel contains trigger selection, which lets you specify what your trigger will be (e.g. click, scroll, or page loading). It also contains the animation timeline which specifies what will occur during those triggers at what time(e.g. scroll animation that follows the speed of your scroll).

Choosing the best tool for you

While all of these tools will help you create a working prototype, there is bound to be one that suits your needs better. As we've seen, the type of prototyping tool you'll use depends on the goals of your prototype, what kind of team you're working with, and what skills you already possess. Here are a few statements that summarize the main differences we tackled in the article:

• If you are comfortable working with code, and want to showcase the highest fidelity prototypes—choose something like Axure or Webflow.
• If you regularly handoff your prototypes and designs to developers but don't know much about code—try UXPin or Framer.
• If you're in the early stages of your design process and need something quick and content-focused—Balsamiq or Invision might be best.
• If you want to present a polished prototype and primarily use MacOS—use Flinto or Origami.
• If most of your time will be spent designing the wireframes to perfection with a little prototyping—check out Sketch, Adobe XD, Figma.

If you've settled on a tool and are interested in learning more about prototyping, check out these articles from our blog:

According to Northumbria University research, design is responsible for 94% of first impressions. For business owners and developers, this means that rich functionality matters only if they are packed in the responsive interface. You can invest in creating and testing features, but if it doesn't look good, users will leave the page or delete the app.

The best way to ensure it doesn't happen is to start testing the design at the first development stages. It's done with an interactive prototype that clearly displays the project's functionality.

The prototype allows achieving three key objectives – validation of the concept and theory, and prevention of potential errors. Typora 0 9 9 31 37. The team can understand whether the product reflects the initial vision and see if it responds to goals discussed at the first stage. With a prototype, it's possible to compare theoretical descriptions of the desired product with the actual implementation. Ideally, the goal is to eliminate the errors from the application or site before customers set their eyes on it.

There are dozens of prototyping tools on the market; however, lately, most teams usually go with Marvel App, used by BuzzFeed, and InVision, chosen by MailChimp and Uber. These platforms stand out with their universal functionality, intuitive interface, and active user community.

Since we provide UI/UX design services and use prototyping tools for a variety of projects, we shared our experience and reviewed two best prototyping tools Marvel App and InVision based on their overall performance, functionality, interface, price, and additional features.

What is Marvel App?

A prototyping platform, created in 2013, the app has attracted more than 2 million users and international teams. The platform, known as one of the fastest InVisionApp alternatives, is applied by BuzzFeed and BlaBlaCar for scalable prototyping, user testing, and developer handoff. Marvel's clients used the service for bringing several teams to seamless simultaneous cooperation on the same project and redesigning the workflow.

What is InVision?

More than 3 million designers that use InVision prove its reliability. With $35 million of investments, it has much more capabilities than Marvel. The platform also has more high-profile clients – Netflix, Uber, MailChimp, and SoundCloud. Similarly to Marvel App, the usage is not limited to UX prototyping – InVision also improves client relationships, facilitates team communication, and provides fast integration – as proven by verified reviews.

InVision and Marvel: common functionality

The tools share a similar approach to essential features, offering the same choice of possibilities and available integrations. The core functionalities of InVision and Marvel consist of the following features:

• Interface prototyping – a user uploads design mockups from Photoshop or Sketch, and the platform processes this data into an interactive app or web prototype. It's also possible to add interactions, features, hotspots manually.
• Automated user testing on desktop and mobile devices. Both tools provide users with built-in interaction templates. Marvel and InVision support Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and other OSs, as well as iPhone, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Android smartphones.
• Automated integration with Cloud services and management software. Marvel integrates with Google Drive, Box, and Asana. InVision has the integration with PS, Basecamp, Jira, Trello, Teamwork, Hipchat, etc.

Functionality differences between Marvel and InVision

1. Linking hotspots to prototype images

Marvel is a flexible InVision alternative – it's possible to combine multiple hotspots in one file. A prototype can be opened on various screens – a comfortable feature for team cooperation.

• The process of setting up and managing hotspots is fast and seamless;
• The app asks only the necessary questions;
• No interruptions of the task flow;
• Transitions in a desktop mode.

Invision opts in favor of templates. In theory, this is supposed to be a faster method, but actually, it turns out to be a limiting one. The platform requires a user to stick to a prepared template – you need to remove unwanted sections and add missing interface elements manually

• A choice of models for the creation of hotspots is an excellent solution if you don't have a mockup yet;
• Edit view and a prototype mode can be translated on the same screen.

2. Collaborative features: InVision vs Marvel

Marvel allows exchanging links, sharing comments and invitations. No real-time audio or video communication.

InVision is more progressive in this aspect:

• Leaving a comment is convenient and easy: a text field appears if you click on a selected area;
• Liveshare is one of the InVision's best collaborative features: it allows creating notes, drawing, making voice calls, etc.

Marvel is one of the fastest prototyping tools out there. According to the experiment by Prototypr, the creation of a prototype takes approximately a minute. InVision, in comparison, requires twice that time.

3. Prices and plans

What's cheaper – Invision or MarvelApp? Well, both have free trial periods. Every stakeholder can have a temporary experience with both tools to understand what is a better fit for their business.

Further use of the Marvel app costs $0-96. What do you get with a free Company Marvel plan?

• One-user plan that provides support for a single project;
• Free trials for Team and Team Plus that allow to remove Marvel watermarks, add unlimited number of projects ,assign user roles, and protect content by passwords.

InVision plan price starts from 13$ per month and includes:

• Possibility to create 3 prototypes;
• 3 supported boards.

Invision Prototyping

4. Additional features

Marveloffers one-time access to shared prototypes in demo-projects that show users how the platform works and get an idea of what the platform is capable of.

Marvel iOS app allows using this tool on mobile devices. Its clear interface allows taking sketch pictures, applying hotspots, and building simple prototypes.

InVision suggests more advanced features for prototyping.

• InVision Inspect simplifies the question of dimensions measurement and storing the @2x kind of files;
• InVision Board provides great help in storing and organizing the content. Here, you can save the .png files, colors, and samples you need to create a prototype. Synchronization with Dropbox and Google Drive makes this feature even more useful.

Briefly, Marvel App design, with its simplicity, is an excellent choice for a single designer or a small group of experts. InVision's functionality would be better for big teams that need a hassle-free collaboration.

Read also: UX design process

Use cases for Marvel

1. Prototyping and collaboration – BuzzFeed

A big international design team needs an organized platform to keep track of updates and store project data. BuzzFeed opted to choose Marvel for its speed and simplicity. The platform was used mainly for prototyping and collaboration, two essential Marvel's features.

Marvel's prototypes were used to develop Tasty Cooktop – a smart cooking tool that monitors food's state during preparation and updates the progress via a mobile app.

2. User Testing and Prototyping – Monzo

Monzo used Marvel to develop a mobile bank, setting the record for the fastest crowdfunding investment, raising more than 1 million in less than a minute. Later, the company turned to Marvel to develop a prepaid card and work on fast product shipping.

• Uniting multiple teams for feedback and testing input at the first stages of development and testing.
• Omitting endless email threads and Slack discussions and keeping documentation on a single platform.
• Quick team on-boarding – the manager provided new members with access to Marvel files.
• Showcasing work to stakeholders – mockups are automatically converted to dynamic prototypes.

3. Managing the product with the handoff feature – Yieldr

Yieldr, the platform that helps aviation companies manage unsold seats and reach out to customers quickly, used Marvel to improve their SaaS platform. The company connects development, design, engineering teams to keep their project running – and the platform made the process easier.

Developer Handoff feature provided developers with automated design specs. The engineering team was able to see a real-time design prototype of their code and vice versa, turning the mockup into the code file.

This feature supports Swift, CSS, and Android XML code for Marvel or Sketch mockups, turning designs into ready-to-use functions, scripts, and algorithms.

Yieldr states that using Marvel was the best web prototyping tool for them as it simplified the communication between the design and development teams. It became possible to work on two aspects of a project simultaneously.

4. Prototyping, User Testing – Hudl

Hudl, a sports company, used Marvel to test their mobile app. File cabinet pro 7 2. The decision to opt in Marvel's favor was made due to its speed and seamless integration with Sketch and Confluence. The company generated more than 160 screens per project – and Marvel, as the team manager says, helps to accommodate all this data in one place.

The platform was used for three design stages:

• Developing workflows and basic prototypes – these were minimum viable products with essential features and interface;
• Testing value and performance of the features: the company turned the sketch into a functional prototype and analyzed the experience with a planned user's journey. This is where team members from other departments come in with their opinion on the project.
• Final testing stage – the app is released as a beta version to a small circle of customers. Here, the product is used the way the end-user would do it – on the most common devices and with real clients.

This three-stage design process can be applied to other projects – Hudl proves that the framework works even on highly-scaled projects.

5. Startup design and management – Zinc

Zinc is a startup boot camp where developers and designers are bro8ght together to solve the problem of unawareness about mental health issues. The program was looking for a platform that would be the simplest and fastest solution for camp participants and their projects.

The startup used the Marvel prototyping tool to create customized mapping services with real-time community data so users can take well-lit streets at night. Marvel was used to create mockups and organize the project's data. The prototype was used for user testing with potential users.

Zone, a science-based fitness startup, used Marvel to cooperate with musicians, scientists, sports experts. The prototype communicated the purpose of the project to all consultants and simplified the communication.

Invision prototype examples

InVision has been an industry standard for prototype design for more than ten years – during that time, the company has adapted its functionality to big corporations and SMBs alike. Let's take a look at the universal applications.

1. Defining the task – MailChimp

The company on the automation platform. The project was complex and similar to what the company did before. MailChimp decided to approach this problem by uniting all design and development data on a single platform.

MailChimp decided to take the least risky road of unifying the entire on a single project. This way, if small tweaks appeared in one department, they were caught immediately. The result was the prevention of tech debt accumulation and efficient team communication.

Marketing, engineering, design, and QA teams were cooperating at the very first building stages. The result was the publication of the automation platform – the product that the team defined as the most important yearly release.

2. Communicating with international teams – Uber

Uber points out that InVision helped them to express their ideas to global driver communities and present the vision to experts worldwide. Explaining ideas to people in San Francisco is different from defining the same concept for Bangladesh, it became more accessible with an interactive representation. Company based their prototyping tool choice on fast cross-border communication as their main target.

Uber used the platform to test their mobile application and created several thousands of screens, adapted to numerous target audiences worldwide. They also used InVision to cooperate with outsourcing teams for collecting all data on a single platform.

3. Working with remote developers – SalesForce

To quickly wrap up a complex project, it's important to keep continuity between mockups and code fragments. SalesForce used InVision for this purpose – the team uploaded every single design-related task and image to the platform, organizing them in a structured workspace.

This feature is especially handy during cooperation with remote team members. They don't have regular meetups and can't just come over to the neighboring desk. All data should be within one click's reach. SalesForce, like Uber, solved this issue with InVision prototypes.

4. UX-prototyping and wireframing – Evernote

Evernote has an exemplary UX/UI design team. This result was achieved due to the effective use of wireframing and InVision prototypes. The team used the platform to handle napkin-fi and Mac-fi.

The company that InVision is easy-to-integrate with multiple graphics editors and management platforms, including Sketch, Photoshop, Jira, and others.

5. Using InVision studio for animated designs – Silvia Squotti

The vector-drawing tool allows creating flexible layers that adapt to any screen resolution. The layout engine helped the company to scale its design for any screen – you have to edit the geometry percentage.

On top of that, the studio allowed creating animated pages – admittedly, they look much better than the static ones. The results were updated to the Cloud storage, which was equally accessible to the in-house team and remote specialists.

Learn more about the latest graphic and web design trends.

Final comparison: pros and cons

Let's take the last look at these two tools, and summarize their advantages and drawbacks based on everything we've seen up to this point.

Marvel is mostly used by small companies that need to coordinate their in-house work processes. It's also a favorite go-to option for startups – Marvel is a simple and fast tool for those who need the results right here and now.

Pros:

• High speed;
• Intuitive interface and simple functionality;
• One of the best Sketch integrations;
• 24/7 customer support;
• Accessible free plans.

Cons:

• It's not the best fit for complex projects;
• Limited choice of animation settings;
• No offline version.

InVision is preferred by bigger companies who need to coordinate their workflow with thousands of team members all over the world. InVision, with its built-in Studio with functionality similar to Sketch and advanced communication tools, is better-suited software for large teams. Unison 2 1 4 ub download free. Startups, on the other hand, might find this functionality too heavy, slow, and overwhelming.

Pros:

• The most universal prototyping tool out there;
• A developed ecosystem of built-in tools;
• Versatile integrations with more than 20 services;
• An active user community.

Cons:

• The app is slow and heavy;
• A long learning curve due to complex functionality;
• No offline version.

Marvel or Invision?

5 alternative prototyping tools

Let's take a look at some alternatives. Some of the competitors share the same niche as Marvel App and InVision, but others focus on different design aspects. Either way, you may consider using a combination of several tools or unite the project on one platform – whatever fits the needs of your team best.

In our experience, the project benefits most out of automated prototyping platforms by combining several tools and integrating them together. We picked our favorite ones – they really complement the functionality of Marvel and InVision well.

Read also: Top Design Trends

Comparison

It's best to choose between InVision or Marvel judging from the size of your team, the scope of the project, and the design experience. The rule of thumb is, InVision fits for more complex projects and experienced teams, while Marvel is excellent for fast urgent tasks, small companies, and startups. Jelvix team of UI/UX design experts can create prototypes of different complexity and can choose the best tool for your project. Do not hesitate to contact us to get a consultation.

We believe that this short prototyping tools review has fulfilled its mission and answered the question you are interested in. Marvel App vs InVision App: this battle is not finished. Only the specifics of the team, project management, and performance can decide what tool is the best.

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