UX Prototyping Tools: How to Pick the Right One (2021)

You've asked for it, so here it is... the 2021 edition of the latest and greatest UX and product design prototyping tool walkthrough.

As a designer (product, UX etc.) you probably found it hard to keep up with every single tool in the market. Every year there is a brand new tool that allows designers to craft their prototypes in a different way. In this video, I'll walk you through a handful of criteria/principles (consistent from the previous video) that allow me to pick the right UX tool for the right project, budget, occasion etc. You'll also find out my thinking behind evaluating which tools are worth the time to invest and learn based on asymmetrical opportunity/Lindy effect.

The tools I'm walking through and highlighting some of the recent developments:

🙌 If you like this video, you'll definitely like what comes next;

🚀. I started this channel in 2018 to upskill my design team on user experience methods, rapid UX prototyping, service design, and more at a scale. Gladly the material I use is also relevant for other people across the globe (like yourself).

🧔 Who am I: UX research and design team manager, experience design lead, strategist, and design educator. I love complex services, enterprise UX tools, human decision support and AI tools.

[shaun]

shoot, I posed a question about Figma vs. Axure before this vid went alive. Somehow it got deleted. Oh well. Good points in this vid. Good stuff, VAX. Damn, it's just hard for me to revisit Gosling's early career, I much prefer to see him as the "Officer K" in the BR 2049, what a film, pure visual porn from frame 1 to frame N....🤪 Serious question. What would be a good wireframing tool work well with Design/Proto tools today? I have people(mostly product/dev team people) using Balsamiq, OmniGraffle, even Miro...

[divyanshkumar]

Are you going to make an updated one @vaexperience

[faranakvn]

that notebook movie snippet was hilarious! 🤣

[notschaele]

Love it, I hope you will do an update again some day (maybe you did already but I couldn't find it).

[OneBrighDay]

I really enjoy Figma but I am super curious/interested in using Framer. I design and code, mostly in React now so it seems like the perfect tool. I wish there was more learning resources out there for it.

[JR-wurx]

Could you briefly explain why Figma is a higher fidelity prototyping tool than Protopie? That's really hard for me to believe.

[marksmith]

Miro? Just watched a video on wire framing in Miro and it looked quite awesome. No idea what the price is though.

[JulianHarris]

Figma is listed at the same level of prototyping ability as Framer. How’s that so? Figma has no data state at all only component state. So if you want to, say, test the selection of items in a list you have to create an instance for every single permutation. 10 items in your list? 10 screens.

[DXmaryoOD]

that joke w adobe was *chef’s kiss* i died 😂

[LifeinGlow]

Interesting video thank you! I am new to UX/UI just started learning a bit. And looking for a free or affordable app to create a prototype for an app and simple software (to offer them as products later). Kind of hard for a beginner to even estimate if those projects are manageable to fulfill on a small budget. If you can recommend a video on that, would be glad to watch.

[ketoweightloss]

Any thoughts on the latest Axure RP 10 version?

[Tech-heartsong]

What are your thoughts on Sketch + Anima? Anima is a plug-in but for bigger teams my company would need to purchase to expand on project/screen numbers and code export options. Is it worth it?

And the company I work for is migrating from Sketch to Figma. In the meantime I'll be working in Sketch 😭 Sketch feels so flat, limited, and backwards from what I'm used to with Figma and plug-ins. I really want to request some software to help give Sketch prototypes some "wow", some movement and purpose. For now it's Sketch + Craft + InVision 😴 Feels so limited in micro animations, code hand-off, and other interactions. I love Framer's text input fields and I think Framer has so much potential to add more interactions. I just want all the happy functional stuff at my fingertips. Especially since it will help in convincing stakeholders.

I would love Sketch + Framer/Principle + InVision. Or, Sketch + Anima + InVision.

My software requests might not get approved but what would you recommend I request - with the team learning it in mind?

This company is big, but it needs some UX tlc in my department.

[gilbertumeh]

Do Axure and Origami render prototypes to code? I want to know, please. And thanks for this video.

[beyourahi]

Figma VS Framer
which one's better?

[rohitslb]

Thanks, mate 🙌🏻 Helpfull Video update.

[markinmotion]

The best one is the one that works for you and does what you need it to do

[jamiepeterson]

Lol this video aged well in regards to the news Adobe acquiring Figma

[martinui]

hay alguien que diseñe en Protopie ??? creo que es el gran problema con los UX, que no conocen las herramientas realmente. podrías comprar Figma, adobe XD, Invisión o Sketch, pero protopie o y origami son para crear prototipos de alta. son herramientas diferente.

[axelhunger]

We need your Advice 2024

IAS.

FIGMA
FIGJAM - MIRO

MAZE

The best with all features, the possible in one, simplified and easy to use and quickly learn without much effort and mental energy. Beyond the principles and good smart practices ux and ui. Surveys, qualitative and quantitative research, insights, discovery, ideas, collaboration, methods, frameworks, templates, and testing.


--

UIZARD?
RELUME?