InVision: UX Prototyping Made Easy

This one is close to my heart. I built many an interactive prototype in my day and it usually consisted of opening Adobe Flash and then scheduling a considerable block of time for completion. To be clear, I am not a “Flash Hater”. I know Adobe has tried to accommodate both designers and developers with its authoring environment, but it is still a deep platform…it’s not for the faint of heart. In terms of prototyping, I’ll be honest that I also think the level of complexity with Flash can be distracting from the “design” problems one might be trying to solve, especially if you are a one-person design shop. It can be tough to be creative and technical, even though both skills are a contemporary requirement for the design inclined.

Enter InVision: a SaaS prototyping tool. In a nutshell, InVision allows designers to string flat design templates together, in a flow, by using overlay “hotspots” to show how the screens would all link together as if they were an interactive website or experience. Couple that with easy methods for sharing and collaborating on projects – there’s a lot to like and multiple price points for entry.

Here’s how it works:

They have a bazillion testimonials from designers across the spectrum including Thomas Knoll (except not the Thomas Knoll who created Photoshop but rather the one who created LaunchRock).

InVision also has the capability to build mobile prototypes reminiscent of Duncan Wilcox’s Prototypes app (which I think is the bee’s knees).

While I haven’t used InVision enough to give a full review yet, conceptually, I think the idea is sound and could be a real time-saver for designers and developers alike. And if you are the company hiring or employing these designers and developers, you can probably recognize the potential time/cash savings associated with a tool like this.

However, I didn’t find much info about their security policies. Since this is a hosted solution, if your designs contain sensitive information or trade secrets, you might want to think about that before uploading images to their service. Just something to consider.