You know how valuable it is when you’ve found the perfect tool for your mobile app product. You discover it, you play around with it, you fall in love with it, and you quickly forget how life was without it.
That’s what this list of seven tools will do to you. Seven tools of the wireframing, mockup, and prototyping variety, that will have you saying “wow, how do I pick?” Good thing we’ve got your best interest at heart, and we’ve provided some key takeaways from each tool. Not to mention that top mobile app brands like Airbnb, PayPal, Lyft, and Cicso have implemented some of these tools to build a slick user interface and engaging UX.
Balsamiq
Image source: Atlassian
Balsamiq’s name is like Kleenex for tissue- it is a known veteran when it comes to wireframing tools. Balsamiq includes several drag-and-drop elements, from buttons to lists, each styled as a hand-drawing. The basic premise behind this wireframing tool is to keep the mock-ups ‘intentionally rough and low fidelity’, to encourage as much feedback as possible. The platform can be accessed on Mac, Windows, or web. Pricing is based per project with two projects costing $9 per month to 200 projects at $199 per month.
InVision
Image source: UX Collective
InVision enables you to transform mobile (iOS, Android) designs into clickable, interactive wireframes and mockups rapidly. The product aims to make prototyping as seamless as possible and allows you easily upload images from local, Dropbox, Google Drive and Box. One of the top features of InVision is its ability to share the link of the prototype with different users via text message. This tool is extremely helpful for collaboration and feedback gathering. Designing a single prototype costs nothing with Invision. While additional prototype amounts are grouped into different pricing tiers.
UXpin
Image source: UXPin
UXPin is a cloud-based tool for prototyping web and mobile apps. It has a coherent, drag-and-drop interface and dozens of libraries with various items to be used in a design. It can be used to create both static wireframes and interactive prototypes for multiple devices. UXpin also offers a diverse range of UI elements and support for importing layered designs from Sketch and Photoshop. We also recommend checking out their industry-leading blog for extra good reads on UX best practices. In terms of pricing, basic ‘Prototyping’ is $29 per user/mo while its recommended ‘Systems’ plan is $49 per user/mo. Enterprise pricing requires further inquiry.
Proto.io
Image source: AlternativeTo
Proto.io is a web-based mockup tool. It is a good software for mobile wireframing and prototyping as it also allows to view the prototypes offline and comes with a lot of mobile widgets. You can use Containers to create functioning animations and interactions. It can be used to build both low fidelity and high fidelity mockups/prototypes. It also offers support for Sketch and Photoshop plugins and provides a huge library of design components.
Fluid UI
Image source: Wireframes
Fluid UI has 16 built-in libraries for iOS, Android, and Windows phones. You can create screens easily by dragging in elements from these libraries. This app provides a great way for you to map out your projects visually by creating links to join screens, forming a diagram of how everything fits together. Hovering over a link gives you the option to change the kind of transition you’re using. Fluid UI has three different pricing plans with the ‘Solo’ plan starting at $8.25 per month to the ‘Team’ plan at $41.58 per month.
JustinMind
Image Source: Justinmind
Justinmind is a web-based tool that includes a library of UI elements, from buttons and forms to generics shapes and a range of widgets for iOS, Web and Android. Custom styling is included, so you can add rounded corners, cropped images or color gradients, or import graphics by dragging them into the browser. You can download the tool for free or opt for an enterprise plan.
Prott
Image source: Prott
Prott is a very nifty prototyping and wireframing tool. With Prott, you have the ability to photograph your rough sketches and import them directly to Prott’s iOS or Android apps. You can then use the rough sketches to easily build slick wireframes and then prototypes. Prott also makes presenting very easy and professional with highly interactive presentation resources. It also offers an array of collaboration tools. In terms of pricing, Prott has 5 different plans based on a monthly or yearly basis. Yearly plans are 10 percent discounted.
What do you think?
There’s a lot of information here, but definitely check these tools out for yourself. Take some time to peruse the websites, try any free trials or demos, and play around with the tools as much as possible.
Don’t wait too long though–your product deserves its proper attention ASAP!