Best Prototyping Tools Review

We know how hard it can be to explain what you want your website or app to look like. Sometimes even designers may find it challenging to communicate their vision of the project, especially if all they have is a simple wireframe that doesn’t show any interactions or give you a deep understanding of how everything works. Prototypes bridge this communicative gap, providing a clear picture of the app or website’s designs and interactions. Black-and-white prototypes and clickable mockups are a great solution for the initial stages of the app development process; they give you an opportunity to focus on functionality instead of wasting your precious time on approving colour schemes and graphic elements.

Here are three popular tools from our designers for prototyping that our clients find the most efficient and easy to use. If you’re thinking about app development, we know you’ll find them really helpful.

Moqups

This is a hugely popular tool for creating prototypes. It’s based on HTML5 and is absolutely free. Moqups is great for creating simple SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) wireframes and mockups, which give you a great start before proceeding to the more advanced UX stages. 

With Moqups you can:

• add your own images and files;
• interconnect pages with links;
• integrate other basic features that help you show your ideas to everyone involved in the discussion of your new software project.

Balsamiq Mockups

Try it once, and you won’t be able to do without it. Balsamiq Mockups isn’t a universal enterprise tool with hundreds of features, but it’s definitely worth your attention. Balsamiq is able to meet your prototyping needs, especially if you’re looking for an affordable solution with UI stencils for mobile and web development. Moreover, it comes with excellent support, which makes it the best prototyping tool in the ‘cheap and cheerful’ category. One extra feature that may be extremely helpful in terms of cloud collaboration is Balsamiq’s integration with Google Drive, which allows you to edit wireframes directly from Google’s cloud storage.

Axure RP

Probably the most powerful and most expensive tool on the market. Its main specs include:

• collaboration features
• online sharing
• various widgets for extended functionality such as Android and iPhone stencils

Another advantage of Axure is its awesome tutorials which without doubt will help you master the program in no time. If you’re looking for an enterprise solution with advanced features catering to IT industry experts, Axure RP is the tool that will accommodate all your needs and even more.

We’re confident that you’ll find your perfect match in one of these prototyping tools. At Magora, we always use systems for prototype and mockup creation because they enable us to provide you with a true-to-life vision of the end product, even at the earliest stages of development.

Max Summers

January 17, 2018