You might be familiar with the popular phrase from IDEO: “If a picture is worth a thousand words, a prototype is worth a 1000 meetings”.
Basically, the biggest benefit of prototyping is the risk — the sooner we fail, the faster we would learn. Designing and testing a prototype costs the business a ton less than running with, building, and launching a product, only to learn after the launch that it wasn’t solving the user’s problem.
There a tons of free and paid prototyping tools out there — it can be almost overwhelming. Today, I am just sharing my favorites. These I use a ton, love, and will always come back to. If you’re a new designer (or one with more experience), using these 3 tools will get you a long way — plus, the learning curve on these 3 tools is pretty low. Let’s dive in, friend!
1. POP by Marvel
My go-to for guerrilla usability testing. POP allows me to transform my pen and paper sketches into an interactive iPhone / Android prototype. It’s crazy powerful and (guerrilla testing) can save tons of time for your team in the long-term.
Gone are the days when you had to export all of your artboards into a separate tool for prototyping. With Figma’s built-in prototyping tool, you can turn your static design files into an interactive experience—no coding required.
3. Optimal Workshop: Chalkmark (First-Click Testing)
Do people know where to click when they land on your website? First-click testing helps you understand where on an interface people would click first to complete a task, giving you the insights you need to create interfaces that people will understand straight away.
I hope that some of these tools are helpful to you as you move forward in your design career!
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Hope you have a great week!
-Ella