According to a famous author and founder of the Wujec group, Tom Wujec: “Prototyping is the conversation you have with your ideas.” This is completely true because prototyping mobile apps give you an opportunity to take a test-drive of the app design, before the actual development process starts.
There are numerous mobile app prototyping tools available in the market such as InVision, Justinmind, Flinto, etc. These all tools use virtual gestures and help designers to create a wireframe of mobile applications easily and efficiently.
But what is the reason for which most of the professional designers and big brands are using these mobile app prototyping tools? Let’s explore a few reasons for this popularity in the article.
- Give A Life To Your Designs
In these prototyping tools for mobile apps, the mockup designs are offered as Sketch or Photoshop files. The designers just have to use these mock-ups to include different actions to the user interface of the mobile application. These actions can be gestures, navigations, animations, scrolling, transitions, etc.
All these tools have their own set of functionality. For instance, in the case of InVision, you have to initially generate mock-ups with the help of third party tools. Then you can use them by importing them to the tool. But Justinmind lets you produce mock-ups with the help of its pre-loaded UI kits and templates within the app only.
- Curtail The Feedback Cycle
With the help of creating mobile app prototypes, it becomes a lot easier for you to keep all the clients, stakeholders, developers, product managers, and other relevant people on the same page. They can easily assess the clickable and functional prototype and review it so that to give their valuable feedback.
This allows you to cut down the feedback cycle and easily reach all the people who are required to evaluate the app designs. Also, prototyping opens the doors for sharing the designs in real-time between different teams.
- Amend The Designs Before Starting Actual Development
After converting mock-ups into functional designs, they can be shared with others in the team in order to get the feedback. With the help of the received reviews the prototype can be modified and enhanced with the help of mobile app prototyping tools. In this way, you can tweak the design-in-action before the actual development process starts.
- Build Design For Any Kind Of Apps For Specific Devices
Once you are done with creating a design, it is mandatory for you to verify that if it functions smoothly on the platform for which you have created it. For instance, you can build a design specifically for iOS or Android platforms. These prototyping tools let you generate downloadable files that are compatible with any of these specific devices.
In order to elaborate it with the help of an example, let’s take Flinto. With the help of this tool you can create mobile app prototypes for the iPhone, touch Pad, Android, iPad Touch, iPad, etc. After creating the mobile app prototype you can check it by downloading and running it on one of the specific devices so that to see whether it’s functioning smoothly.
- A Golden Opportunity To Enhance User Experience (UX)
When you create a prototype of a mobile application and test its design by presenting it to the users, they don’t give feedback only on its look and feel. But you also get reviews about its functionality and how it interacts with the users. You get answers to the following questions:
- Is your mobile app easy to use?
- Whether you require an app walkthrough in order to explain the functionality of the app to the users?
- How smoothly can the users navigate and browse within the app?
- Whether it’s difficult for them to discover the required features?
There are two ways through which you can find answers to these important questions. First is by sharing the prototype with a specific set of users. Or, you can take help of one of the mobile app prototyping tools that can provide you with valuable feedback by integrating with third party tools.
- Seek Funding For The Tangible Product
A prototype gives everyone an idea of the functional prototype of the end product. When you share it with the potential stakeholders and investors it acts as a tangible product. This product prototype can tell about its potential and how it would interact with the end users. This will provide the investors with an idea of what your product actually is and what they can expect from it. If they will find it worthwhile, you will definitely get funding for your product.
- Rigorous Testing Of App Designs & Ideas
These mobile app prototyping tools provide you with a secured platform to test your app designs and ideas. For instance, the designs that you create with the help of prototyping tools such as Flinto or Justinmind are all protected with passwords. This means that only the authorize set of users can access those designs and no one else can have a look at them before they are finally out in the market.
The mobile app prototyping tools are not only significant for designers, but they are also equally important to the entrepreneurs so that they can maintain a balance throughout the development cycle. With so many alternatives available, you can pick the best one by consulting with professional designers and developers so that to give your app prototype the edge it demands.
