Table of Contents
The Best UI Prototyping Tools are a must-have for any UI creator. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a good prototype is worth a thousand talks. To make development and handoff go smoothly and quickly, it is important to be able to share clear examples that everyone can follow and understand. Successful UI development keeps designers and clients on the same page by showing clients what is being made and giving them a chance to give feedback.
There are many UI prototyping tools on the market, and there is no one perfect solution that will work for every product or every step of its development. Each of the best UI design tools has its own benefits and often has features that the others don’t have. This means that the best UI prototyping tool for you will depend on your needs in terms of fidelity, adaptability, teamwork, ease of use, and, of course, cost. Most likely, you’ll want to know how to use at least a few of the tools on our list so you can use them when they’re right for the job.
We’ve rated each one based on our own reviews and the experiences of the UI designers we work with, including some of the people who teach our essential online UX design course. If you want a chance to win a spot on the course, take our two-minute online survey.
Best UI Prototyping Tools Comparison Table
Product Name | Description |
---|---|
Figma | Collaborative interface design tool for teams |
InVision Studio | Design, animate, and prototype user interfaces for web and mobile applications |
Marvel | Create prototypes and wireframes for web and mobile applications |
UXPin | Design and prototyping tool for creating wireframes, mockups, and prototypes |
Adobe Experience Design | Design and prototyping tool for creating user interfaces for web and mobile applications |
Sketch | Professional design tool for creating user interfaces for web and mobile applications |
Balsamiq | Rapid wireframing tool for creating user interfaces for web and mobile applications |
Figma
Feature | Description |
---|---|
Collaborative Design | Real-time collaboration with team members |
Prototyping | Create interactive prototypes with animations and transitions |
Design Components | Reusable design elements for consistent styles |
Version Control | Keep track of design iterations and changes |
Developer Handoff | Generate design specs and assets for developers |
Plugins and Integrations | Extend functionality with third-party plugins |
Figma is an all-in-one tool that makes it easy for UX designers, developers, and anyone else on a team to work together and be accessible. It runs in a browser and is stored in the cloud. If you’ve used Sketch before, Figma will feel very similar, which will make it easy to get started.
In web design, consistency is very important. Figma’s flexible styles let you decide how text, grids, and other elements look across a project. Figma’s usefulness is also improved by a number of useful plugins, such as Autoflow for showing user flows and Figmotion for making animations, among others.
The Good
- Collaboration that works well has
- Capabilities for making strong prototypes
- Components that are easy to use
- Version control that works
- Easy handoff between developers
- Extensive plugin ecosystem
The Bad
- Beginners will have to learn more quickly.
- Compared to specialized tools, it has fewer options for editing vectors.
- It doesn’t have some of the advanced features that other tools do.
InVision Studio
Feature | Description |
---|---|
Design and Animation | Create interactive animations and microinteractions |
Responsive Design | Design for multiple screen sizes and devices |
Real-time Collaboration | Collaborate with team members and stakeholders in real-time |
Prototype Sharing | Share and gather feedback on interactive prototypes |
Design Systems | Create and maintain design systems for consistency |
Sketch Import | Import Sketch files and seamlessly continue working on them |
InVision has been around since 2011. It has a good image, and many designers like it because they are always adding new features and improving their design platform. With a variety of well-made tools, InVision gives designers the ability to put together and share working prototypes quickly.
It has a lot of nice features, like a handy vector drawing tool, repeatable components that can be changed site-wide, and tools for making animations and other dynamic visual effects.InVision is also good at helping people work together and talk to each other. Members of a team can use Freehand to draw, add notes, and give comments.
The Good
- Powerful ability to animate
- Support for responsive design is built in
- Collaboration in real time for smooth teamwork
- Making prototypes easy to share and get feedback on
- Efficient design system management
- Sketch files fit together well.
The Bad
- Animation features can be hard for newcomers to understand.
- Large files can sometimes slow down the computer.
- Fewer options for editing vectors than with specialized tools
Marvel
Feature | Description |
---|---|
Prototyping | Create interactive prototypes with intuitive design tools |
Collaboration | Collaborate with team members and stakeholders on projects |
User Testing | Gather feedback and user insights through usability testing |
Design Handoff | Export design specs and assets for developers |
Integrations | Connect with other tools and services for streamlined workflow |
Design Libraries | Maintain design consistency with reusable components |
Marvel is one of the easiest and most intuitive prototyping tools out there. It’s a great choice for making simple prototypes that link screens if you don’t need to test more complicated microinteractions. It works directly from PSD or Sketch files that have already been created, so visual drafts don’t need to be converted.
We think it’s the easiest app for people who aren’t artists to use, which makes it very easy to get started. It’s also easy for people to use to share their thoughts. You can only use an online app, but the design is very easy to use, and it has testing tools, which aren’t usually part of UI prototyping tools. This lets you test your designs inside of Marvel.
The Good
- Features that make prototyping easy to use
- Team members can work together easily, and there are built-in tools for user testing.
- Effective handoff from designers to developers
- There are a lot of integrations to improve workflow.
- Consistent design elements can be helped by a design library.
The Bad
- Few innovative design features
- Can be less good for animations with lots of moving parts.
UXPin
Feature | Description |
---|---|
Responsive Design | Design for multiple screen sizes and devices |
Interactive Prototyping | Create interactive prototypes with advanced interactions |
Design Systems | Establish and maintain design systems for consistent styles |
Collaboration | Collaborate with team members and stakeholders in real-time |
User Testing | Conduct usability testing and gather feedback |
Developer Handoff | Generate design specs and assets for developers |
UXPin is a great UI prototyping tool if you need an end-to-end solution or want to show powerful movements that look like the real thing instead of just linking screens together. With just a few clicks, you can make a prototype of animations, tabs, and navigation, and it’s easy to add a layer of logic and set rules for when interactions should happen. This makes it a good tool for showing how interactions will really work in the finished product.
You can also use JavaScript to make things like shopping carts that are computerized. UXPin also has tools for working together and automatically generates specs for handoff. This makes it a complete package that can be used from the beginning of the design process all the way through delivery. It’s based on React, but you can work more closely with code that’s ready for production, which can help make sure it’s the same as the final result.
The Good
- Powerful capabilities for responsive design
- Options for advanced interactive prototyping
- Efficient design system management
- Collaboration in real time for smooth teamwork
- Added features for user testing
- Handoff to developers goes smoothly
The Bad
- Beginners will have to learn more quickly.
- Some users sometimes report performance problems.
- There aren’t many ways to edit vectors.
Adobe Experience Design
Feature | Description |
---|---|
Design and Prototyping | Design interfaces and create interactive prototypes |
Auto-Animate | Create animations and transitions with ease |
Design Components | Build and reuse design elements for consistent styles |
Collaboration | Collaborate with team members and stakeholders in real-time |
Responsive Design | Design for multiple screen sizes and devices |
Plugin Ecosystem | Extend functionality with third-party plugins |
With Adobe XD, you can draw, reuse, and remix vector and build artwork to make wireframes, screen layouts, interactive prototypes, and production-ready assets, all in the same app. We can easily switch from designing to making a prototype without leaving the app. Also, add interactions and transitions and share your design with your team and key partners to test how it looks and feels.
One of the best things about an Adobe product is that it can work with other Adobe products like Photoshop and After Effects. Designers can be more busy if they can easily import files from their Adobe tools.When you share directly, clients can comment on your ideas and see how they look on real devices in real time.
The Good
- Capabilities for both designing and making prototypes
- Making animations and transitions is easy.
- Efficient design component system
- Collaboration that goes smoothly has
- Support for responsive design
- Wide range of available plugins
The Bad
- Complex projects can use a lot of resources.
- Beginners will have to learn more quickly.
- Compared to specialized tools, there aren’t as many options for advanced vector editing.
Sketch
Feature | Description |
---|---|
Vector Editing | Powerful vector editing capabilities for precise designs |
Artboards | Easily manage and organize design iterations |
Design Libraries | Maintain design consistency with reusable components |
Plugin Ecosystem | Extend functionality with third-party plugins |
Prototyping | Create interactive prototypes with intuitive tools |
Collaborative Features | Collaborate with team members and stakeholders in real-time |
In many ways, WebSketch is analogous to Photoshop in that it enables users to edit and transform digital photographs. You can skip a lot of laborious hand-tweaking because to the flexibility of Sketch’s Vector shapes, which can quickly adapt to different styles, sizes, and layouts.
The fact that Sketch’s process is entirely based on vectors makes it a breeze to create artwork that is both beautiful and of excellent quality from start to end. Repeating elements is a highly popular practice in user interface design; examples include buttons, bars, bubbles, and a whole host of other things. The sketch app makes it possible to instantly copy and paste reusable elements such as these.
The Good
- Strong tools for editing vectors
- Artboards are a good way to organize things.
- Support for the Seamless Design Library
- Extensive plugin ecosystem
- Features that make prototyping easy to use
- Effective ways to work together
The Bad
- Limited support for platforms other than Mac
- It doesn’t have some of the advanced features that other tools have.
- Compared to other tools, it puts less emphasis on sharing and getting feedback.
Balsamiq
Feature | Description |
---|---|
Wireframing | Create low-fidelity wireframes quickly and easily |
Sketch-Style Libraries | Use pre-built UI elements for rapid wireframe creation |
Collaborative Editing | Simultaneously edit wireframes with team members |
Version History | Track and manage design iterations and changes |
Project Sharing | Share and gather feedback on wireframes |
Export and Integration | Export wireframes and integrate with other tools and formats |
Balsamiq is a quick tool for wireframing and testing that lets you connect your screens to show how simple user flows work. Balsamiq is easy to use and makes a product that you can show to your team early on to get feedback on your user flows and content strategy. This tool will help you lay out your app and get feedback before you change the designs.
These are a step up from low-fidelity prototypes because they look like digitized paper samples. Linking elements in a wireframe here works like a simple clickable prototype, with the only action being a transition to another screen (there are no overlays, animations, or unique transitions). One cool thing to keep in mind is that if you share your Balsamiq prototype as a PDF, the embedded links will still work.
The Good
- Making a wireframe is quick and easy.
- UI libraries that are ready to be used for quick prototyping
- Real-time collaborative editing capabilities
- Version control that works well for design iterations
- Easy sharing of projects and gathering of feedback
- Options for exporting and integrating
The Bad
- Limited visual design capabilities
- May not be good for designs with a lot of detail
- Compared to more modern tools, the interface can feel old.
FAQs
A: UI prototyping tools are software programs or applications that designers use to create interactive prototypes of user interfaces for websites or mobile applications.
A: UI prototyping tools help designers to create and visualize interactive and functional prototypes of their designs. They can test and refine the design before it goes into development, saving time and money in the long run.
A: Some popular UI prototyping tools include Sketch, Adobe XD, Figma, InVision Studio, Axure, Proto.io, Marvel, and Justinmind.