To prototype or not? Prototyping web interfaces is becoming very popular, especially if your team wants to iterate thinly to create fast outcomes. Whether you’re looking for an online tool for rapid prototyping, wireframing software or simply searching for a UI design software free download, there are quite a few options out there.
In this article we’ll cover some of the best wireframe tools and prototyping applications.
InDesign CC
Available for a trial version for a limited time, Indesign can be either purchased as a part of Adobe Creative Cloud or can be used individually with a basic plan starting from $19.99 per month. It allows you to create interactive wireframes consisting of videos, animated objects which can be exported as pdf. The best part of this software is the ability to store reusable elements in the library.
Moqups
This is a free WebUI Mockup tool that seamlessly enables you to create mockups and real-time wireframes and share them with your team. Apart from providing all the regular features, it also presents a built-in library with hundreds of predesigned icons.
The pricing starts from $13 per month for a single user, billed annually. For 3 users, it is priced at $19 per month with an additional $6 for extra users.
Balsamiq – Create simple wireframes and prototypes with clicks
Price: 30-day free trial; $9 per month
Platform: Windows & Mac
Make prototypes for: Mobiles & Websites
Balsamiq is a rapid wireframing tool that allows you to create web/app wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes with simple clicks. It reproduces the experience of sketching everything on a notepad or whiteboard by using a computer.
Pros:
- Provide hundreds of built-in UI components and icons
- Drag and drop to create simple prototypes
- Link pages to make simple interactions
- Share your designs with PDF or PNG images
- Integrate with Confluence and JIRA
Cons:
- Focus on the main structures and contents of webs/apps only
- Limited sharing and collaborating features
- Limited interactive prototyping
So, it is good to visualize and iterate your design ideas quickly on your own at the very early design stage.
Of course, if you love the feeling of drawing everything out on a notepad or whiteboard, this tool is also perfect for you.
Axure RP 9
Axure RP 9 puts the power of wireframing and prototyping all in one package. It allows designers to create low to high resolution interactive prototypes of websites and apps, all without having to code.
Along with what you need to build the visuals, interactivity, and organization, Axure RP 9 also offers a comprehensive documentation tool, which makes keeping track of notes, tasks, and other important assets organized and accessible to those who need to see it.
Axure RP 9 also facilitates a better handoff to developers by letting a prototype be published on their cloud, with all of the code, specifications, and other assets they would need to build it.
Built for professionals, with attention to all of the intricacies of building functional prototypes, Axure RP 9 is for those designers who demand more from their prototyping tools.
Origami Studio
If you’re Facebook and your designers don’t have an app that they need, you build it for them. Origami Studio was created for Facebook designers out of necessity, and Facebook so graciously shared it with the rest of the design world.
For designers who need a more advanced system, Origami Studio offers powerful prototyping tools for websites and mobile apps. Central to Origami Studio is a patch editor that lets you build logic, behaviors, animations, and interactions. It comes with many prebuilt patches, and the site says you’ll most likely use just 15–20 of these for most of your prototyping work.
Origami Studio does have a bit of a learning curve that can be daunting at first. But the payoff of knowing how to use their prototyping tools and pulling off sophisticated prototypes makes it well worth learning. This power, along with its compatibility in working with Sketch, makes Origami Studio an important tool for designers who want to go above and beyond standard prototyping.
Justinmind
Justinmind has been gathering momentum as a popular prototyping tool. There are quite a few reasons why, from drag-and-drop functionality, the capabilities to create the simplest to most sophisticated of apps and web prototypes, and plenty of support, like videos and blogs to help you learn how to use it. Justinmind isn’t as huge as some of the other prototyping tools out there, but they’re certainly an up-and-comer.
Justinmind comes with UI libraries and templates, as well as many other practical features. It lets you create the logic for conditional navigation, allows for user testing, facilitates design team management, and more. There’s also a number of integrations that let you use Justinmind with Sketch, Adobe Suite, Azure DevOps Server, and Jira in your workflow.
Its simple interface makes it a great starting point for a beginner UX designer but also offers enough for more advanced designers.
Mockplus
This tool helps you to design your wireframes effortlessly with more than 3,000 icons and 200 components. All you need to do is to drag them on the canvas according to your ideas and within some time, your design will be ready.
For individual users, the tool is priced at $35.40 per year after the trial period is over.
MockFlow
This is another free wireframe tool where the elements in the library are arranged in a categoric manner. For example, for creating the prototype of a webpage, you can access the Web component pack. Once you create the project, you can move it to different stages like “in progress” or “completed.”
the limited functionalities can be used for free while the premium version starts from $14 per month.
Invision
Invision provides a cloud-based Web UI Mockup tool that allows you to design wireframes for desktop as well as handheld devices. What makes it special is an inbuilt collaboration tool where your teammates can share their feedback along with an intuitive and sleek interface. It even allows testers to navigate through the prototype and find out if all the navigations and links are working as expected. The tool is free for one project but for creating multiple projects the pricing starts from $15 per month.
Gravit
Gravit has become popular among designers because of its cross-platform compatibility and an easy to use interface. You can also create pixel perfect designs because of its ability to create vector designs.
The tool can be accessed via browser or downloaded as an app compatible to your OS. It’s completely free of cost.
Xara Designer Pro
Design Pro is the flagship product of Xara and it enables the user to perform everything like editing photos, drawing illustrations and design the layout of a webpage. The reason behind its popularity is its way of offering a single integrated solution for your works.
The tool offers a 7-day free trial after which you have to pay $299 for accessing all its features.
Lucidchart
This cloud-based free Web UI Mockup tool provides a free version where you can create a single project with a maximum of 60 objects. For using the upgraded features, the plan starts from $5 per month for a single user and $20 per month for a team. The tool offers quite a lot of templates which can be integrated into your design as well as the ability to customize your personal workspace.
Pidoco
For creating interactive UX prototypes and static wireframes, Pidoco is the perfect solution. The wireframes can be simulated in handheld devices also. Like all other tools, it also enables you to share your work with your team.
The tool can be used for free, where you can work on only 1 project. The premium plan starts from $19 per month.
Axure – Create professional and real-life prototypes
Price: 30-day free trial; $29 for a one-month license
Platform: Mac & Windows
Make prototypes for: Mobiles & Websites
Axure is used by most UI/UX designers to create professional and real-life prototypes. It offers powerful and comprehensive features to create dynamic contents, conditional flows, animations, adaptive view and more. Product team can also comment and collaborate designs online.
It provides powerful prototyping without the need for coding. It has features such as dynamic content, conditional flow statements, match functions, data-driven sorting, adaptive views, interactive prototypes, and animations. Also, you can share a mobile app prototype with your team or client easily with just a click of a button. It also publishes your prototypes and diagrams to Axure Share on the cloud or on-premises.
Pros:
- Powerful component libraries to create prototypes from scratch
- Rich animation options to make smart interactions
- Create prototypes in different fidelity levels with ease
- Build interactions from Sketch assets
- Easily share and gather feedback
Cons:
- Work slowly with large files or images
- It is complicated for design beginners to learn and use
Conclusion
Prototyping is the way to go, especially in the design process. It helps you visualise your idea and show it off to your potential clients or investors. Plus, it’s faster than taking the time to make the entire thing. There are websites like Balsamiq that let you create wireframes that are pretty good, but if you want something free then you can check out these online prototyping tools.