A few examples of common app prototype design tools

Summary : Used in app development prototype Design There are a lot of tools, a mixed bag , which is not a good thing for a potential phobia, and today we are going to get to know a few common app prototyping tools together.

We're all using axure.

Axure RP, or Axure Rapid prototyping, is one of the most commonly used rapid prototyping tools to help users who define requirements and specifications, design features, and interfaces quickly create wireframes, flowcharts, prototypes, and specification documents that can be used for application software and Web site design. Support multi-person collaborative design and version control management.

Axure RP's user base is very broad, including business analysts, information architects, usability experts, product managers, it consultants, UX designers, interaction designers, interface designers, architects, program development engineers and other practitioners.

Axure RP Benefits:

1, good at the complex interactive behavior of prototype design;

2, with good training and documentation support;

3, with a variety of elements of the style, can increase the independence of interactive elements;

4. The built-in plugin library can customize special actions and behaviors.

Although the application of axure is almost customary, it also has its own drawbacks:

1, steep learning curve, for beginners is not easy;

2, the prototype can not be previewed before exporting HTML;

3, the prototype of the Web display does not support all browsers, for example, Google Browser must use the plugin to watch;

4, the support of other equipment is poor.

But in the small part, the biggest advantage of axure is in the detail interaction, and the biggest disadvantage is that it is more used for commercial use.

Balsamiq mockup with a very rich form of expression

Balsamiq mockups is a fast prototyping design software that can quickly design sketches and better access to the processes and tools that normally work in teams.

The advantages of the Balsamiq mockups are also very obvious:

Based on Adobe Air, the prototype diagram provided is based on XML format, can be smoothly run in different browsers, operating system platform, can be used online, can also be used offline, can be installed in Windows 7, FreeBSD, Ubuntu and other platforms, Perform each prototype design task efficiently.

Balsamiq Mockups also has a very rich form of expression, the design effect is very beautiful. It supports almost all of the HTML control prototypes, such as buttons (basic buttons, radio buttons, etc.), text boxes, drop-down menus, tree menus, progress bars, multiple tabs, calendar controls, color controls, tables, Windows Forms, and so on. In addition, it supports phone element prototypes, which greatly facilitates the development of software engineers for iphone applications.

Balsamiq Mockups's lisence authorization may be expensive for individual users.

Justinmind mobile App prototype design

Justinmind can output HTML pages that are more specifically designed for mobile apps than the current mainstream interactive prototyping tool. Justinmind Prototyper's Premium version offers interactive components such as Iphone,android,ipad, with rich dynamic effects, but the free version is simpler. Justinmind Prototyper also provides versions of Winxp,win7 and Mac OS.

1. Justinmind's visual working environment supports the creation of a high fidelity prototype with annotations in mouse mode;

2, provide a variety of touch screen interactive effect, such as sliding, zooming, rotating, or even capturing device direction, in the need to produce the effect of the components to select the corresponding gesture;

3, Justinmind for the iphone, IPad, BlackBerry, Android provides a variety of components, you can create a custom component library;

4, better than Axure,justinmind provides a property window, and better support for capturing the image properties of software such as PS;

5, can be dragged and other ways to achieve jump, orientation and other interactive effects, no need to like axure every step can only be done by clicking.

Fluid UI

The Fluid UI is also a prototype development tool for mobile phone applications that supports iOS, Android, and WP systems. Fluidui supports Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, allowing you to run operations on Windows, Macs, Linux systems, without platform restrictions, and support for adding gestures that allow developers to easily create prototypes in minutes.

Fluid UI has some other features:

1, to provide easy-to-understand operating procedures and a very intuitive user experience, users can arbitrarily drag any component and control their size;

2. Prototype creation with FLUIDUI can be saved to the cloud and updated in real time, without any programming to directly generate the app prototype that can run on the smartphone.

3. The Fluid UI offers both paid and free two versions, but the free version limits you can only create 10 interfaces in one app.

GUI Design Studio (GDS)

GUI Design Studio is designed for client software by designing graphical user interfaces for application software. Be able to quickly visualize the design ideas, and achieve basic interaction, easy to demonstrate and communicate effectively with the customer.

GUI Design Studio supports all Microsoft Windows platform-based software, provides a majority of C/s, b/I components, can be used in combination, is a very suitable interface prototype designers and interface prototype developer software, to meet the general application software interface model design needs.

There are many tools for prototyping the app, such as Proto.io, mockup builder,appcooker, Fluidui, open source hand-painted Style prototype drawing tool Pencil, full-featured but not complex Lumzy, etc., have a good user base, Developers can choose the right prototyping tool according to their specific situation, and provide application development efficiency.

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A few examples of common app prototype design tools