With the digital world making its presence felt everywhere, it is not surprising to see that designing has become one of the most sought-after skills. Whether you are looking at creating web pages, an app, or animations for any type of business, designing plays a vital role. Now when we talk about designing, there are two major elements – user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). The UI focuses on various aesthetic elements, such as colors, layout, typography, etc. The UX focuses on how the product is being used by the user.
Whether you want to focus on either of these two elements individually or together, you need to have access to the right software. In this post, we have listed down the top 10 UX software for designing and prototyping.
Table of Contents
What is Prototyping?
Before we take a look at the various software and their features, let us understand what prototyping is. Prototyping is the process of creating a draft version of the final product. It is a modern technique that allows the stakeholders to find out if there are any inadequacies and rectify them, determine potential risks and benefits, estimate costs, etc.
Top 10 UX Software for Designing and Prototyping
Here are our top 10 recommendations for UX software for designing and prototyping.
Sketch
If you require an all-in-one platform that meets your designing, collaboration, and prototyping needs, then do give Sketch a try! Ideal for use by freelancers as well as established organizations, this UX software allows you to create static designs. There is a lot that you can do with this tool, such as automating workflows, conducting user research, receiving design feedback, etc.
Features
- Access to 700+ extensions
- Store files and share ideas easily with team members
- Design hi-fi prototypes by adding layers to the artboards
Figma
Figma is definitely one of the best UX software for designing and prototyping. This easy-to-use tool can be used by beginners as well as it does not require any coding skills. Using this software, you can build prototypes and access them through mobile devices as well. You can also integrate the tool with third-party apps like Mae, Confluence, Pendo, and Zeplin.
Features
- Advanced tools enabling smart animation and inserting transitions
- Ability to create dynamic overlays
- Auto layout feature, which involves less manual resizing for easy responsive design
InVision
InVision is one of the most popular software among designers. It offers a wide range of well-designed tools that enable designers to create and they share their prototypes easily and quickly. From a handy vector drawing tool to repeatable components that are changeable sitewide to creating dynamic visual effects, there is a lot that you do with InVision.
Features
- Hotspot feature to create powerful hi-fi prototypes for web and mobile
- Live-embed feature enables embedding the prototype in any tool/website
- User-friendly click-and-edit prototype builders
Adobe XD
Adobe XD is known for its really smart and cool features that allow users to create designs, prototypes, and animations. Suitable for businesses of all sizes, this UX software is a complete solution for rendering lo-fi to hi-fi prototypes. Known to be the best in the category of creating realistic prototypes, this UX software also works well with other Adobe products like Photoshop and Illustrator.
Features
- Drag-and-drop editor to create dynamic prototypes.
- Ability to duplicate assets and reuse them with just one click
- Single click to connect artboards
Framer
Framer is another sought-after website-building tool that enables designers to build and design websites quickly. The tool is equipped with pre-made interactive components, layout tools, etc., that allow users to design UI for web and mobile devices. You can also collaborate with other developers and designers in real-time.
Features
- Bring static screen to life by adding interactions, transitions, and animations.
- Seamless integration with user testing tools for prototype validation
- Join screens with a click to add layers to the elements
Marvel
Bring your digital product idea to life with the help of Marvel. This design prototyping tool allows users to create stunning interfaces within no time and without any coding. You can use this software to perform several functionalities, such as conducting user testing, receiving feedback, automated handoff from the design team to developers, and more.
Features
- Use a visual editor to create hi-fi prototypes and wireframes
- Generate a shareable link to preview the prototype on any device
- Improve productivity by integrating with tools like JIRA, Sketch, etc.
Balsamiq
Balsamiq is an easy-to-use tool for creating low-fi paper prototypes and wireframes. You can take advantage of several features offered by the tool, such as drag-and-drop editor, pre-added assets, etc. Also, this tool is considered as one of the best for beginners as it has little to no learning curve. You can use Balsamiq for sketching product designs, web apps, etc.
Features
- Easy export of wireframes to PDF with just one click
- Access to 100+ icons and built-in UI components
- Offers integration with JIRA, Google Drive, and Confluences
Justinmind
With the option to access more than 4,000 components, Justinmind is considered as one of the most user-friendly UX software for building hi-fi prototypes. It offers several valuable features that enable its users to build prototypes rapidly. Another USP of this software is that it offers its designing tools for free without any limitation on a number of projects.
Features
- Paid plans offer unlimited cloud storage.
- Reduce repetitive work by reusing assets and layouts
- Import artboards and organized layers from other tools like Photoshop and Illustrator
Proto.io
Known to be the best in the category of drag and drop prototyping, Proto.io makes it easy for any one – from UX designers to product managers to marketers to entrepreneurs to build designs rapidly. This tool gives you access to 1,000+ templates, icons, 6,000+ digital assets, 250+ drag-and-drop UI components, audio/video integrations, and more.
Features
- You can access the builder through a web browser which means there is no need to download the software
- You can preview the designs on different screen sizes through the Android or iOS app
- Export your prototype to any format, such as PNG, PDF, HTML, etc.
Axure RP
The last software on our list of top 10 UX software for designing and prototyping tool is Axure RP – a powerful prototyping tool that requires no coding. Along with creating your UX prototypes, you can also use the tool to create customer journeys, diagrams, UX documentation, wireframes, etc.
Features
- Drag-and-drop editor for creating scalable vector-based screens to build hi-fi prototypes
- Create data-driven prototypes using the conditional logic and math functions
- Allows simultaneous collaboration and co-editing
Conclusion
Using a prototyping tool enables you to minimize the risk involved while launching a product or its successive updates. With these tools, you can get feedback in real-time and make the necessary changes in a timely manner. We hope this list of top 10 UX software for designing and prototyping in 2022 helps you find the right software for your design requirements. You can also check out other designing tools on SaaSworthy!
