Prototyping is vital in UX design as it enhances collaboration, saves time, and helps gather feedback. Choosing the right prototyping tool depends on your project's goals.

There is no better way to confirm the requirements and expectations of a customer than building a prototype. Though Business requirements specifications/software specifications are useful many don’t read all those lengthy documents and find it difficult to visualise. 

A prototype can be defined as a model that is created to evaluate a design or product concept. The article provides a comprehensive list of the best prototyping tools and explains the importance of prototyping in the UX design process.

Why Prototyping is Important

Prototyping helps in better collaboration and communication among designers as well as between designers and clients. It allows the UX designers to show the stakeholders a visual model of the end product, which helps them better understand the design. It also enables the designers to overcome hurdles that only become evident when real-life testing is done.

Another advantage of prototyping is that it provides feedback. Team members and test users interact with the prototype and can identify the areas of improvement. This helps in iteration at a lower cost and also saves time. Quality prototyping can be done by using the best prototyping tools.

How to Choose the Best Prototyping Tools

Prototyping tools aid in demonstrating user flows and also assist in early testing. With the right tools, prototyping becomes easy, quick, and cost-effective. Now, how to find the right tool for your project? It depends on several factors such as

  • Goal of your prototype, i.e., whether you need a low fidelity (testing ideas), medium-fidelity (testing layout), or high fidelity (testing micro-interactions) prototype.
  • Speed at which prototype needs to be made available for testing.
  • Ease of usage and collaboration with others involved in the project, including designers and clients.
  • Price of the prototyping tool.

By considering these factors, you should be able to choose the finest prototyping tools that illustrate the purpose of your design, helps you save time and money, and obtain valuable feedback.

Which Are the Best Prototyping Tools for UI/UX Designers

Now, let’s take a look at the 15 best prototyping tools that will help UX designers to develop an interactive portrayal of their design ideas.

1. Figma

figma homepage view

Figma is a cloud-based tool with browser and native app support that can be used to design, prototype, and collaborate. It is easy to use, has excellent value for money, and does not require any coding knowledge to add interactivity to designs. It’s quick sharing, real-time feedback, and seamless collaboration in the cloud makes it stand out among the online prototyping tools.

Consistency is essential in UX design. Figma simplifies the consistent management of text, grids, and other design elements in design projects. The platform also has useful plugins like Autoflow for showcasing user flow and Figmotion for animation. These powerful features make Figma a standout choice, drawing the interest of UX designers worldwide.

Figma offers a free plan, while the paid plan starts at $12 per editor per month. However, there is no trial available for the paid plan.

2. Sketch

Sketch is one of the most widely used prototyping tools today. It is an entirely vector-based design tool, which means it is easy to adapt to change in size, style, and layout. It is fast, efficient, and has a simple interface using which high-quality graphics and artwork can be created.

With Sketch, the transition between different screens can be done seamlessly. It also provides ease of repeating elements such as buttons, bars, etc. with simple copy-pasting.  Consistency and uniformity are two main attributes of Sketch. The well-defined user interface, ease of use, and lightning-fast prototyping make Sketch an industry standard for prototyping among every UI UX design company.

Sketch's paid plan begins at $10 per month, billed annually, and includes a 30-day trial period for subscribers to explore its features before committing.

3. Adobe XD

Adobe XD website view

Adobe products are a league of their own, and Adobe XD keeps up this standard. Adobe XD is an all in one app that lets you create wireframes, prototypes, and design for websites, mobile apps, voice interfaces, games, etc. It allows seamless integration with other products from the Adobe family, which is a big plus.

Because of easy integration, designers can import files from Photoshop or Illustrator without trouble. It is a feature-rich tool that allows designers to view designs on actual devices in real-time and comment on prototypes. With Adobe XD, it is easy to switch from design to prototype mode, add interactions, share with the team, and receive feedback. Its reliability makes it one of the greatest prototyping tools in the market.

The Adobe XD Single App Monthly subscription is priced at $9.99 per month.

4. InVision

The acclaim for the most popular prototyping tool goes to InVision. Top companies such as Netflix, Amazon, Twitter, Airbnb, LinkedIn, etc. use InVision for their app prototyping. It is a robust tool and is continuously updated with new features, thus improving its efficiency.

By uploading static images and adding animations and interactions, it is possible to create clickable prototypes easily. It has a drag and drop design feature and is compatible with multiple image types. InVision supports real-time comments and provides an option to organize designs lists into to-do lists, under review, approved, etc. Collaboration and communication are two strong pillars of InVision, and its well-established reputation makes it a favourite among designers.

InVision offers a free plan, and for those opting for a paid subscription, the starting price is $15 per month.

5. Proto.io

proto io tool screesnhot

Proto.io is a prototyping tool that helps to create interactive and high fidelity prototypes using an extensive choice of components and tools. It has a very intuitive drag and drop UI using which it is possible to create prototypes without typing even a single line of code.

A variety of components, templates, and icon libraries aid the building of prototypes in Proto.io. Files can be imported to it from Photoshop or Sketch. Some of the big companies that use Proto.io are ESPN, Amazon, and Paypal.

Proto.io does not offer a free plan, but the paid subscription starts at $24 per month when billed annually.

6. Balsamiq Mockups

A tool that brings the ease and speed of creating mockups on paper on a digital format? Interesting, right? That’s Balsamiq Mockups for you!

It supports fundamental interactions to create a low fidelity prototype, but which gives the feel of a high fidelity one. It has a minimum learning curve and is a great tool for beginners. With a library of over 500 premade items that can be used with drag and drop simplicity, it helps to create rough sketches of the prototype. Although it is a prototyping tool, it excels at creating simple and static wireframes, making it ideal for designers to execute and focus on UX design trends.

Balsamiq Mockups provides a 30-day trial for all its paid plans. Following the trial period, the paid plan is available starting from $9 per month or $90 per year.

7. JustInMind

Ideal for creating anything from wireframes to high fidelity prototypes, JustInMind lets you focus on user experience. It is suitable for designers of all skill levels and comes with detailed tutorials and guided videos.

It is equipped with several UI libraries and templates and allows integration with other tools such as Sketch, Adobe Suite. It allows responsive prototyping so you can check your design’s adaption to multiple screen sizes. Two main advantages of JustInMind are it requires zero coding knowledge, and it allows offline working.

JustInMind offers a free plan, and for users interested in the paid features, the plan starts from $9 per month.

8. Origami Studio

Created by Facebook, Origami Studio is a powerful tool that creates sophisticated prototypes. The availability of prebuilt components makes designing using this tool efficient and quick. A key feature of Origami Studio is Origami Live using which we can preview mockups live in real-time on mobile devices. It is easy to import designs from Sketch and transform it as needed while preserving the project layers.

Origami Studio is available as a free tool.

9. WebFlow

webflow website

While designing a prototype, imagine simultaneously creating a live website without any coding—sounds appealing, right? WebFlow makes this possible! We integrated WebFlow into one of our projects, when the client needed a quick turnaround.

We observed that after crafting a high-fidelity prototype, WebFlow allows you to transform it into a fully functional website with just a click. Literally, you can build a website in as little as one and a half minutes.

Designers at Aufait UX enjoyed the tool, finding it beginner-friendly as prototypes can be exported without developer assistance. Focused on web animations, interactions, and responsive design, WebFlow stands out as one of the best prototyping tools for designers of all skill levels. Also, it provides weekly updates and has an excellent community support if you are stuck with any stage of the prototyping process.

The WebFlow starter plan is free, designed for hobbyist designers. For those looking for additional features, the paid plan starts at $14 per month, billed on a yearly basis.

10. Axure

Axure is a functional prototyping tool built for professionals. It is a feature-rich prototyping platform that facilitates a better handoff to developers by enabling the prototype to be shared on the cloud. Some of its attractive features are data-driven sorting, support to conditional logic statements, dynamic content for hover functions, etc. It also has comprehensive documentation that makes collaboration within a team easy and organized.

There is a 30-day free trial plan available for Axure. Following the trial period, the paid plan starts at $25 per month per user, billed annually.

11. Fluid UI

fluid ui website screenshot

Fluid UI is a prototyping tool that takes pride in being lightning fast. It allows prototyping for web and mobile interfaces for both high and low fidelity. Its simple user interface and feature-rich readymade libraries make it a tool that is easy to get started with, even for beginners. Collaboration using Fluid UI is effortless. Different people can work on a prototype at the same time and can also link them together for testing interaction.

Fluid UI does not offer a free plan. The paid plan starts at $8.25 per month.

12. Framer

Framer is one of the best prototyping tools for interactive design. It lets you create completely functional prototypes very fast. Framer X store has thousands of resources using which it is easy to design a UI in a simple and speedy manner. Realistic prototypes and responsive layouts are the highlights of Framer.

Its beautiful designs are backed up by code, which provides a seamless workflow. It also has extensive documentation and several tutorial videos to help you learn. Its flexibility and power make it a top-rated tool among designers.

Framer provides an unlimited free plan. For those opting for additional features, the paid subscription starts at $3.75 per site per month.

13. UXPin

ux pin website screenshot

Create anything from well-planned wireframes to high fidelity interactive prototypes in real-time using UXPin. It supports elaborate animations and conditional interactions, which is very advantageous for testing of UX design principles. Its project management system and collaboration capabilities are very advanced, making it a suitable tool for big teams. It allows importing from Sketch and Photoshop, live screen sharing, and commenting, which makes UXPin an impressive prototyping tool.

UXPin offers a free trial, and for those looking to subscribe, the paid plan starts from $6 per editor per month.

14. Marvel

A full-featured web and mobile prototyping tool that is free, fast, and easy- that is Marvel for you. It lets you create wireframes, prototypes, and design specifications. It allows designers to add interactivity and dynamic transitions to static mockups to create a realistic interface. It has a minimal learning curve; hence it is easy to grasp even for non-designers.

Its library of prebuilt templates, components, and a repository of stock images greatly aids the prototyping process. Well-known organizations like Stripe, Buzzfeed, and Typeform are users of Marvel.

Marvel offers a free plan, and for those seeking additional features, the paid subscription starts at $8 per month, billed annually.

15. Principle

Principle is a prototyping tool that specializes in the design of high-quality interactive prototypes. It is very similar to Sketch and has features such as alignment, screen connections, real-time previews, etc. It does not provide collaboration for team works; however, it offers an option to work offline, which makes up for the shortfall. Its attention to motion and interactivity makes it find a place among the best prototyping tools for designers.

Principle licenses are priced at $129 for each computer on which you intend to use the tool.

16. Mockplus 

Mockplus is a prototyping, collaboration and code handoff tool that keeps everything a team needs inside one app. No more app switching, you can plan on the Storyboard. No more design switching, you can design in their high-fidelity prototyping tab, creating interactive components, animations and transitions. For front end developers you can export code in CSS and get code snippets in Objective-C, Swift and XML. When finished you can share your project online by simply sending your client a link. On top of the main features, you can use plugins for Sketch, XD, Photoshop, Axure and Figma if you need.

On the collaboration side of things, there is built in task management across all pages of your project – from Storyboard to design to the review. Comments are also deeply integrated, so much as that you can comment on specific layers and components. Mockplus has really created a versatile and comprehensive piece of kit here.

Mockplus provides a free plan, and for those interested in additional features, the paid subscription starts at $59 per year.

Optimize Your Design Workflow with the Right Prototyping Tool

Here you have a comprehensive list of the best prototyping tools. Selecting the ideal tool for your business hinges on various factors such as usage, scope, budget, and required fidelity. At Aufait UX, our prototyping arsenal includes various tools, but we primarily rely on Figma and Webflow. These platforms serve as highly effective design companions in our projects. So, its crucial to comprehend the features of each tool to meet clients' expectations effectively. Utilize the provided list to choose the prototyping tool that aligns with your design journey and project needs.

Aufait UX is among the top UI UX design companies in India that offer research, design, and development services. We provide realistic and best-in-class UX prototyping services for all types of projects, from novice to advanced.

FAQ

1. What is prototyping in UX?

Prototyping is a crucial stage in the UX design process where design teams transform conceptual ideas into tangible forms, moving from initial sketches to digital representations. Using prototypes of different fidelity levels, designers systematically evaluate how well design concepts align with user needs. This iterative process enables designers to refine and validate their designs, ensuring they precisely meet user expectations before a brand launches the final product.

2. Why is Figma the best prototyping tool?

  • Figma consolidates the entire prototyping workflow within a single platform, eliminating the need to switch between different tools.
  • Figma's prototyping capabilities stand out with its ability to create complex interactions and animations.
  • Figma works well on any platform.
  • Collaboration in Figma is simple and familiar, enhancing team productivity.
  • Figma's sharing features are uncomplicated and flexible, facilitating easy collaboration with stakeholders.
  • Embedded Figma files provide real-time updating, ensuring everyone has access to the latest version.
  • Figma is excellent for design review feedback, streamlining the review process.
  • Figma project files are centralized online, making them easily accessible and organized.
  • Prototyping in Figma is straightforward and intuitive, even for users new to the platform.
  • Figma's team libraries are ideal for design systems, promoting consistency and efficiency.

3. What are the three forms of prototyping?

Prototypes are categorized into three distinct types based on fidelity levels: low fidelity, medium fidelity, and high fidelity.

4. Why Figma is better than Adobe XD?

Designers are increasingly gravitating towards Figma due to its ease of use, cross-platform compatibility, and availability. Let's see some more reasons as to why Figma is preferred over Adobe XD.

Supported Platforms:

  • Figma is web-based and works on any platform (Windows, macOS, Linux) with internet connectivity.
  • Adobe XD is a desktop app available for Windows and macOS, with collaboration features reliant on an online connection.

Design and Layout Tools:

  • Figma offers more flexible vector design tools, allowing for the creation of complex shapes without complex operations.
  • Adobe XD requires additional steps like grouping or complex Boolean operations for similar tasks.

Responsive Design:

  • Figma's Auto Layout tool allows for dynamic, responsive interfaces based on set rules.
  • Adobe XD's Responsive Resize feature, while automatic, may require manual adjustments for precise control.

Creating and Managing Design Systems:

  • Figma allows local or team-based design systems with global styles for easy application across projects.
  • Adobe XD requires publishing assets as a Creative Cloud Library for broader sharing, leveraging the Adobe ecosystem.

Collaboration and Sharing:

  • Figma excels in real-time collaboration, offering a centralized hub for project access, live design, and version control.
  • Adobe XD provides collaboration features when saved in the Cloud, with customizable share links for specific viewing permissions.

Developer Handoff:

  • Figma provides comprehensive developer handoff specs within the design file, making it easier for developers to understand the design.
  • dobe XD requires exporting CSS code through a separate link outside the app interface.

5. Is Figma free to use?

Figma is a free and online UI tool, offering a range of functionalities including design creation, collaboration, prototyping, and handoff processes.

6. What is the difference between wireframing and prototyping?

  • A wireframe is a quick and simple low-fidelity representation, requiring less time for creation. On the other hand, a prototype is a detailed high-fidelity model, demanding more time investment.
  • Wireframes serve to present a broad, conceptual overview of the product idea. In contrast, a prototype simulates the anticipated behavior and functionality of the final product.
  • Wireframes utilize placeholders and emphasize the overall structure, while prototypes incorporate the actual design elements.
  • Wireframes are employed to obtain approval from stakeholders. Prototypes, on the other hand, facilitate testing of user experience and garnering feedback through user interactions.

7. What is the best prototyping methodology?

The choice of the best prototyping methodology often depends on the specific project requirements, team preferences, and the stage of the design process. Here are a few commonly used prototyping methodologies:

Throwaway/Rapid Prototyping:

  • In this type of prototyping, designers quickly create a prototype with the primary goal of validating ideas and concepts.
  • Rapid prototyping enables fast iteration, useful for early-stage design validation.

Evolutionary Prototyping:

  • It involves gradually refining and evolving a prototype based on feedback and user testing.
  • Allows for continuous improvement, suitable for projects with evolving requirements.

Incremental Prototyping:

  • Involves building a prototype in smaller, functional increments, gradually adding features.
  • Allows for testing and validation of individual features, easier to manage changes.

Extreme Prototyping:

  • This prototyping combines elements of both throwaway and evolutionary prototyping to quickly iterate and refine.
  • Balances speed and refinement, suitable for projects with tight deadlines.

Paper Prototyping:

  • In this type of prototyping, designers create low-fidelity, hand-drawn or printed representations of the interface.
  • Quick and cost-effective for early-stage ideation and validation.

Digital Prototyping:

  • Uses specialized tools to create interactive and realistic representations of the final product.
  • Allows for testing interactive elements, and provides a more realistic user experience.
Aparna K S

Aparna is a content creator who is passionate about UX design. Her works are informed by her deep knowledge and understanding of the field. She blends creativity and her unique perspective of the field to create engaging and informative articles. Aparna seeks to inspire and educate readers by providing valuable insights into the world of UX design. Connect with Aparna via www.linkedin.com/in/aparna-k-s-7aaa2576

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