Infographic: UI Prototyping and Its Importance in Website designing

User interface (UI) prototyping is an iterative analysis technique in which users are actively involved in the mocking-up of the UI for a system like in website designing. UI prototyping is a process that can help you plan your project better, avoid usability flaws and make your design more users friendly.  Here is an infographic on importance of UI prototyping in web design.

InVision's prototyping tools let you create interactive wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes. Share your work and get instant feedback right on-screen. Transform your designs into beautiful, interactive web and mobile mockups.

UI Prototyping Tools: Winning Contracts

Debates over UI prototyping tools tend to get heated. It is useful then to start at the beginning and select a tool that’s perfect for building desktop, mobile and web applications.

By definition, a prototype is a working model of the finished product. A prototype then should allow the client to see the color scheme, navigate through pages, and use any functionality required of the finished product. If it can do that, the client can make an objective decision on the project.

If those functions sound ideal, you’re looking for Invision. Web designers and app developers both are interested in creating the best project they can to win the client’s approval. With nothing more than the old black and white static wireframes at their disposal, how can a developer win that approval?

This is all changed. The new UI prototyping tool actually allows you to create a functional prototype. It works with your existing graphics programs, as long as the exported file is a JPG, GIF or PNG file. Making a new prototype project is easy, and making a wireframe is simple. Drag and drop in the graphic element and move it where you please. Add and link hotspots to add navigation from one page to another. Play around with the design until it’s created just right. All of this is possible now with this UI prototyping tool.

The UI prototyping tool is invaluable for collaboration. Team members all work on the same prototype simultaneously. There’s no time wasted in e-mails and phone calls or spent syncing versions of the project files. Everything works right there on the screen. It can be tested in real time and any bugs can be noted and fixed on the spot.

To experience the Invision UI prototyping tool you need only download the free trial from the developer today. It’s software as a service, so it’s always up to date.

Invision: Expanding the Creativity of Web Design

A Prototyping tool, provided you choose the right one, eliminates most of the tedious busywork involved with website and app creation and allows creativity to take the fore. Designing a website or app is divided into two sides – creativity and routine. The routine is the manual creation of wireframes, navigation and writing prototype code repeatedly. An advanced prototyping tool helps with the wireframes and more.

Prototyping tool

A designer will be able to create elements using their favorite design software, and drag and drop them into place on a wireframe without issue. They can set navigation with a simple click, no code writing. With a different click, the project can be shared across the entire development team.

What results is the difference between ‘creating’ and ‘building’ a website. The act of creation is a pleasure; the act of building is a chore. Invision does most of the mechanical steps for the designer, allowing them to spend their time creating. This is time well spent. It lets the developers run wild with their ideas, and the final project benefits from this freedom more than you expect.

The result is that the development team and the client both experience a fully interactive prototype. Buttons work when clicked. Apps designed to send texts will actually send texts. App projects can be accessed directly from mobile devices, allowing hands on testing. A prototyping tool can handle screen layouts and color schemes as well.

Invision makes it easy to switch from one wireframe to another. The prototype can be tested from the point of view of an actual user, and any bugs can be noted and fixed on the spot.

Wireframe tools may or may not give free updates. They may limit you to a certain number of computers. None of these restrictions applies to using the prototyping tool on the web. Pay for the subscription plan you need, and spend the money you save on more projects. You can rest assured that you’re always using the most updated version of the software.

Why Invision is Preferred over Wireframes

While Invision no doubt helps to create wireframes, its primary use is in making a fully interactive prototype. It helps to build a working model of the website or app your developers are making, be it for mobiles, iPhones or iPads. With a prototype, clients can test a hands-on version of the site that works just the way as the finished product will, and can make sure everything works the way they want it to.

prototype tool

Old wireframes were little more than static black and white drawings of the website under development. With this prototype tool, developers can create a fully interactive model of the site or app with full color, allowing foolproof testing and ensuring when the project goes live it does so without a hitch. Every bit of design and navigation is present in a form that's representative of the final form. The website or mobile app looks and feels like the finished product, and is a huge first step in winning over a client. When the choice is between black and white wireframes on paper or a fully interactive prototype generated by a prototype tool, how can they say no?

This new prototype tool has a number of additional features, each of which helps a developer save time and money. Everyone working on the project can work on the same project at once – allowing all collaboration and commenting to take place in a single location, which in turn saves time and money spent syncing. Designers can use whatever tools they prefer, and import their work into the prototype from a .jpg, .gif or .png file. As long as the element is ready, it can be added to the wireframe. A hotspot can be set in seconds, linking any element to another page.

Using the new prototype tool allows designers to focus on creativity instead of the tedious details of wireframes and coding. Any configuration can be made into a template, allowing easy creation of multiple pages. The tool is even smart enough to predict favorite themes for a project. Using the tool from the web, or grabbing the free trial, is the best way to keep up to date with this powerful software.

Make Interactive Mockups: Presenting the True Experience

sometimes a web designer simply needs to make interactive mockups . With an interactive mockup, the client can understand exactly how the final project is shaping up and how it will look when it’s done. If the client has a better grasp of the project, they can approve it faster, and the project gets to save money in development.

make interactive mockups

Since the beginning of web design, website prototypes have almost literally been wireframes; dull black and white concept drawings that are off-putting for customers who don’t quite grasp the difference between a trial product and the finished version. 


This new prototyping tool avoids this problem and allows a designer to make interactive mockups. Interactive isn’t just a buzzword – these interactive prototypes are as functional as the finished product should be. This allows the client and anyone else involved in the project to play around with the site or app, experiencing it as it will appear live. 


When you can make interactive mockups, the skies are no longer the limit. Teams can share the project across everyone involved, posting comments or directives on the spot. There’s no tedious sharing and syncing – it’s all one project. The project leader can set security levels to wall off parts of the project if necessary.


Where these wireframes excel is in navigation flow. It’s as simple as setting up hotspots in the wireframe with a link to the target frame, with just a couple of clicks. Changing these hotspots takes seconds. Web designers can mock up the site’s full interactivity with only a few hours of work, rather than days of tedious coding. At any stage in the process, the project is accessible with any mobile device and tested on the fly.


All of these features are available in one prototyping tool that follows the SaaS model, or Software as a Service. The tool can be rented for around $25 a month, with which it can support up to five projects with online help and security. Not convinced? The free trial is an excellent way to try before you commit.

Interactive Wireframes: Put Life into your Prototypes

Interactive wireframes have caused a refreshing change in web design. No longer are you stuck with Photoshop mockups and static images. With interactive wireframes, you have a rich prototype that functions just like the real thing. They can be rich in color, with all the layout work completed, before a client even puts hands on them. The client can test an interactive wireframe prototype of a website or app to their hearts content, using it just as if they were using the real thing.

Interactive wireframes

Any prototype will have bugs, that’s a given. With interactive wireframes, designers catch and fix those bugs before the product ever goes live. With the old static wireframes, designers had no choice in the matter. They were as much drawings and concepts as they were anything and no one can say whether a drawn button will work the way it should. In the worst cases, buggy websites would go live. Their developers would panic and code again from the start, which was an unnecessary hassle and a waste of time and money.


Interactive wireframes are active and complete. If you’re developing an iPhone app, you can view the prototype from an iPhone and interact with it in its entirety. You can use a text-messaging element to actually send a text message, even though it’s a prototype. You’ll be able to experience the finished product before it’s finished, and know exactly how everything will behave.


Interactive wireframes work well with development teams as well. A single wireframe project is usable and shareable by the entire team. Project leaders can even set security permission levels for various parts, in case aspects of the project need to be secure. It saves money and time. There's no time wasted in phone calls and e-mail exchanges spent syncing project files. There's no time wasted waiting for someone who is out of date. Every aspect of the project is shared online, and everyone is working on it at the same time. Comments can be posted and bugs fixed in real time.


Interactive wireframes are a true WYSIWYG tool. You can design it exactly the way you want it to look and act. It takes the guesswork out of web design. Check out the developer’s free trial offer and experience interactive wireframes yourself.

A UI Prototyping Tool that Changes the Designer Client Relationship

The life of a designer is a constant process of revision and design. The cycle is repeated over and over; create design wireframes, interlink and demonstrate the prototype for a client, receive feedback and revise or restart from scratch. This process can take ages and is limited by the tools available to the designer. It's easy to see why a new ui prototyping tool could change the equation.

ui prototyping tool

There's a new tool just recently released that addresses this very problem. It's designed for designers from the ground up. It's geared specifically to help mobile application and web designers create exceptionally realistic prototypes of the finished product. These prototypes look and feel like the real thing, complete with clickable interfaces. This allows clients to do more than simulate action using wireframe mockups -- they can actually experience what the final product would be like. This new tool even includes messaging capability, so designers and clients can communicate in real time as they use the prototype. This new tool is InVision.

This means of communication reduces costs effectively. It eliminates text documents, e-mails and phone conversations that take the specificity out of feedback. With the project in front of both parties, communication can be clearer than it's ever been before.

With InVision’s ui prototyping tool, designers can create these prototypes without writing a single line of code. No longer do designers have to write tedious code just to create mockups of the final product -- code that is wasted in the long run. This saves time and allows companies to assign fewer people to the project.

Combining these two factors allows the tool to greatly improve the interaction between designers and clients. It reduces the number of iterations of the feedback cycle by allowing real time communication. Designers don't waste time in rewriting code for new prototypes. They just interact with the project currently open.

The best part is, InVision’s ui prototyping tool , interacts directly with the tools designers already use, like Adobe products and design studios. Designers are used to working in Photoshop, Fireworks or Illustrator -- common tools of the trade. With this new prototyping tool, these designers can continue using the same suite of software for the entire project. No learning new software just for prototypes. No tedious coding in an arbitrary programming language. Just a simple transition from program to program using the same data.

As a designer, there's no better tool available for ui prototyping. It's simple, it's effective, and it eliminates large amounts of time and stress from the design process. It's a benefit to all involved, and truly does change the client-designer relationship.