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How does your prototyping workflow look like?

over 2 years ago from , CEO & Co-founder at Avocode

Hello Community!

I'm pretty sure everyone has a different prototyping workflow. Some of you might prototype in Sketch, XD or Figma. Some might use Marvel, InVision. Or perhaps you go with ProtoPie, Principle, or Framer. The opportunities are endless, but everyone has different preferences.

A lot of designers have asked us to provide prototype hand-off inside of Avocode so developers could get more context before they start coding. In order to build this feature right, we need your help.

We prepared a small survey to understand your prototyping workflow and to reflect it in the Avocode UX. Can you help?

https://bit.ly/2ICvpoh

If you have a few minutes to spare, I'll be very happy to hear all about your prototyping preference.

12 comments

  • Jaewoo Kim, over 2 years ago

    I was not able to complete the survey due to many of the questions being leading questions. Seems like Avocode already has the solution in mind for what was being planned for development and the survey was merely a means to prioritize the features planned. Thus, the options listed were not applicable for my needs. Would have liked an "other" option for each question, and an additional comments section at the end of the survey. This is just my opinion, but I felt that a lot of "ideas (questions)" presented in the Survey were already available in your competitor's products.

    1. No, I currently do not use Avocode (If no, what do you currently use?)
    2. Other, We use Axure RP 8 to create prototypes (If other, why?)
    3. UX Designer, (What is your definition of a prototype? Text Area)
    4. Couldn't answer this question, none were applicable. And all options listed already exist in your competitor's products. So wasn't sure why I would want the same feature in Avocode if it was already working well for me elsewhere
    5. 0, Device frames like iPhone are not important
    6. 5, Scrollable and fixed components are very important
    7. 1, Animated transitions are not important (Especially if it is baked in effects. Could be more useful if we can specify the transition speed, duration, move, style, etc)
    8. X, It's very important to be able to view the prototype on the right device. If we are designing a mobile app, it should be viewable on a mobile device. If web, it should be viewable on a monitor. If touch device, on a touch-capable device. And so on...
    9. X, Depends on how you execute this feature. Is it like Figma linking of screens for the purpose of creating basic screen-to-screen prototypes? Or is it to display the flow of the application? (Needs a text area for additional comments)
    10. No, with the questions in this survey, i would not. Because all the features listed here makes me imagine a product that already exists elsewhere.
    10 points
    • Vu Hoang AnhVu Hoang Anh, over 2 years ago

      Hello Jaewoo, thank you for taking the time on such an elaborative answer.

      As I mentioned above, this survey's purpose is to help us understand the prototyping toolkit and workflow of designers, so we could cover it in Avocode. You're correct that we're also would like to use the results to optimize our feature roadmap and the good news is that the whole project is already in the works.

      While we understand that other tools already cover prototyping pretty well, we're listening to our user base and people who would like to use Avocode, but are still missing prototype hand-off as an integral part of their workflow. To share a bit from the results, most designers are prototyping in Sketch and seem to prefer having prototype support as a part of hand-off tools.

      Since we have already gathered a lot of answers - which we are super-grateful for - we cannot significantly change the survey at the moment. However, we added an open question at the end and also added "If no, what do you currently use" to the first question.

      Thank you for all other recommendations. We'll consider them in our upcoming surveys.

      0 points
  • Philip A, over 2 years ago

    Why is there always such a focus on mobile apps when it comes to talking about prototyping? I'm a web designer and use html/css/js for prototyping, no options for that at all :/

    6 points
    • Andrew C, over 2 years ago

      This. The desktop browser is a massively underserved platform by nouveau design tools.

      2 points
      • Michael ParapettiMichael Parapetti, over 2 years ago

        Lets not forget email. Browser based, but a million more clients. If you haven't done work with email, you'd be surprised how challenging it is to look right across the board....and you only get 1 shot.

        2 points
  • Vu Hoang AnhVu Hoang Anh, over 2 years ago

    Thanks everyone for participating. Here are the results from our survey: https://www.designernews.co/stories/98381

    1 point
  • Duke CavinskiDuke Cavinski, over 2 years ago

    this is an arms race

    1 point
  • Bree Chapin, over 2 years ago

    Be happy to :)

    1 point
  • Artur Eldib, over 2 years ago

    Overlays, PLEASE

    0 points
  • Cristian MoiseiCristian Moisei, over 2 years ago

    I answered the survey, I think this could give you a shot at the market if you could create prototypes inside it and use it for lower fidelity stuff. Otherwise, I am growing weary of using third party tools (InVision failed on us two days ago and it consistently has problems), so I would be more open to native solutions (like the built in tools in Sketch or XD). So a third party tool would have an uphill battle going against the many existing ones doing the same thing.

    0 points
    • Vu Hoang AnhVu Hoang Anh, over 2 years ago

      Thank you Cristian. We do plan to start with the low fidelity stuff. Just like you we're observing a shift from third party tools to design tools, however what seems to be a timeless issue is the incompatibility of tools.

      For example, companies having different teams working with different design tool and trying to keep versions in sync or manage design systems. Or developers still having to buy design tools to open design files.

      We're aiming to cover all formats and allowing anyone to open design files and prototypes just like you open a SVG or a PDF in the browser. We believe that the future of third party tools like ours is covering the differences between design formats.

      0 points