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Principle vs Flinto for Mac

over 5 years ago from

I've been using Principle and Flinto for Mac over the last few days, and even though I might be jumping here, I've come to the following conclusion:

Principle is really great for doing single view animations with interplay between elements in the same view (i.e. Drivers). Flinto is really great for doing transitions between multiple views (i.e. Transition Designer).

Here are two examples of what I'm talking about: Principle and Flinto.

Now this might be a case of me not doing it right, but as soon as I try it the other way around (simple multi-view transitioning in Principle, or single view animations in Flinto) things tend to get really, really messy.

If I could just have one tool that did both these things (yes, yes, Framer.js and to some extent Pixate) as intuitively as they currently stand alone, I'll give you all the money.

What are your initial thoughts?

22 comments

  • Marc EdwardsMarc Edwards, over 5 years ago

    What are your initial thoughts?

    Buy both. Never compromise.

    20 points
    • Petter SilfverPetter Silfver, over 5 years ago (edited over 5 years ago )

      Oh I will, no doubt about it. It would just be nice to have one resource when I do usability studies.

      Having several is no biggie for design collaboration.

      2 points
      • Tamara Rendulić, over 4 years ago

        Actually, there is a way to do both – prototyping and usability testing through one app. With Koncept (https://konceptapp.com) you can create high-fidelity prototypes in minutes, assign tasks to target specific user behaviour and then optimize in accordance with the accurate metrics (task acceptance and completion rates, completion times, etc.) as well as heatmaps. There is a 7-days free trial (https://do.konceptapp.com), so you can check it out.

        Hope I helped. :)

        0 points
  • Duke CavinskiDuke Cavinski, over 5 years ago

    I can't help but suspect Invision will ramp up their prototyping tools with all this competition around (especially if they're getting serious about user testing).

    8 points
  • Bady QbBady Qb, over 5 years ago

    Downloaded & tried both also. Here's what I did with flinto and here's with Principle . I quite agree with you that reverse animation is pretty messy/ laggy. I hope they will improve this in the future. I think flinto would be best if you want to prototype all the screens. And Principle is good for prototyping some of the interactions.

    Has anyone tried prototyping with a lot of screens here?

    4 points
  • Bruno FelicioBruno Felicio, almost 5 years ago

    Making transition animation between screens/artboards can be tricky when you have a lot of screens because you have to duplicate the exact same content in each one in order to do a smooth transition... that is one of the caveats right now.

    Another thing are the drivers, which can also be cumbersome for projects with a lot of layers... and keep track of where one start and the other one ends...

    As it was told here already I think Principle is amazing to work with small interaction prototypes, but as the prototype grows it can be a little confusing sometimes.

    1 point
  • Andrew CornettAndrew Cornett, over 5 years ago

    Can you elaborate on the transitions between multiple views? I've been working with Principle a lot and have found a few tricks to have alternate "back" transitions etc. Just curious what you're trying to recreate, maybe I can help!

    1 point
    • Petter SilfverPetter Silfver, over 5 years ago

      Oh, I hope that you can! Referring to the (Flinto example in the OP. In Flinto, I simply have the two art boards and the applications does the rest (except for fine tuning of course). When I try to do this in Principle there is a lot of duplication of elements going on. Hopefully, I'm doing it wrong :P

      0 points
  • Fredo Tan, over 2 years ago

    Time to try out ProtoPie.

    https://protopie.io

    More control than the aforementioned tools here, easier, more powerful.

    0 points
  • Sean R, almost 3 years ago

    This is an old post I know. I’m just wondering if any of these issues have been updated since then with new versions? Or can protopie bridge the gap between the two?

    0 points
  • Dom Tak, over 5 years ago

    I made a prototype of a fairly large app recently with Flinto and found it very capable for the purpose. Prior to that I was looking at Principle but felt it was better for individual interactions within an app. Same with Pixate.

    I've used Proto.io and that seems to offer both but I've had issues with caching and other browser related problems.

    One which could offer both is Tumult Hype. This lets you split pages but allows for detailed interactions within each page. When I demo'd it, it felt like a desktop version of Proto.io

    0 points
  • Peter Klaas VrieswijkPeter Klaas Vrieswijk, over 5 years ago

    I really love Principle. I made a few animations with it so far and I guess I ran into the max it is useful for. A short video of the app I created with it for fun: Dictionary app add flow. For this flow there were quite some artboards and animations.

    0 points
  • J FJ F, over 5 years ago (edited over 5 years ago )

    I tried both for a recent project, I like principles AtoB style (like flash) but the lack layers from sketch really killed it for me.

    Flinto was great but didnt have a export to gif or video so I had to screen grab it. It also doesnt allow you animate things without a tap which is kind of annoying.

    Heres the flinto project I made.

    https://vimeo.com/137425477/

    0 points
  • Chris SlowikChris Slowik, over 5 years ago (edited over 5 years ago )

    Been using Principle on a few client and internal projects already, and probably won't use Flinto. I've found that some things are definitely tricky in Principle, but there's usually a way to do it. Yesterday I delivered a few multi-screen multi-interaction prototypes to a client, all made in principle. Here's an example of the animations for a file browser one that lets you scroll, change sections, select items, etc. (http://prntscr.com/899qe1)

    The only thing that's impossible from what i've seen so far is any shape-changing animations other than simple width/height, or anything requiring a conditional or variable.

    Unfortunately can't currently share what I've made for clients, but I'm happy to talk about how to solve certain problems!

    0 points
    • Bady QbBady Qb, over 5 years ago

      Hi Crhis, since you've used principle for few projects. Do you think it can prototype all screens (for an app for example)? because flinto basically similar to invision but new it has more control on the animation/ transition

      0 points
  • Matthew Pence, over 5 years ago

    I intend to try flinto out but, does anyone know if can you manipulate elements based on scroll like you can with principle?

    0 points
  • Rahul Nihalani, over 5 years ago

    Have you tried, Proto.io? It is not a desktop client so if that bothers you then no go, but it does allow you to create both of the above experiences without coding. Let me know if you get a chance to check it out -- would love your honest thoughts.

    0 points
  • Stephen MeszarosStephen Meszaros, over 5 years ago

    Great experiment, I haven't had a chance to dig into Flinto myself just yet. But after playing with Principle a bit I drew the same conclusion almost immediately. What I love about Principle is how native it feels, it feels fast—which is awesome!

    I'm a big fan of Pixate, simply because I've used it the most though I do wish at times the UI was a bit more native feeling to the Mac OS.

    0 points