Prototypes are invaluable tools in a designer’s arsenal. When made well, they let you express your innovative ideas and convince stakeholders that your product is feasible.

 for human-machine interaction (HMI) can be complex, designers in the field have long taken a backseat to developers and engineers.

Why designers should build automotive prototypes.

, an IDEO partner, once said that “if a picture is worth 1000 words, a prototype is worth 1000 meetings.”

This is one statement that I truly believe in.

When validating product ideas, you need more than back-to-back meetings with static UX designs and complex tech jargon that help little in bringing ideas to life.

It’s clear that when designers are in the front seat of prototyping, companies are better off. Here’s why. 

Prototyping helps you communicate your design ideas before you implement them. When you know what works and what doesn’t in the pre-implementation stage, it saves your team and company engineering resources and time.

With prototyping, you can explore and validate many design possibilities. As designers, we may sometimes lose direction and need more confidence before bringing our ideas to the team. Prototypes help us convince both ourselves and others that our ideas have merit.

Prototyping is the most cost-effective way to get feedback from real target users. So many product launches have failed because they didn’t accurately predict what people wanted. To ensure your product’s success, you need feedback - which means the users need to try the real thing.

Yet despite these benefits, designers in the automotive industry struggle to build 

Often, automotive designers rely on unrealistic click-through prototypes or leave the prototyping to developers.

But, that doesn’t have to be the case. 

Watch the following video about Prototyping for Automotive HMI to learn more.

HMI is more complex - and so is prototyping.

Well, you may ask - aren’t today’s digital products more complex? Yes, they are! Especially in terms of HMI.

There are three factors that explain why 

 has become increasingly more complex in recent years. Let’s look at each one.

Human-machine interactions are far from linear. Today, people interact with multiple machines that are interconnected to each other.

The number of IoT-connected devices installed worldwide has 

. Statistics predict that by 2025, the average person will have nine connected devices - including smartphones, wearables, smart meters, and other machines.

Have you heard of the Lucid Air car? It’s a great example of how the integration of HMI software and hardware in-car UX has made the prototyping process a little more complicated. 

The car has four HMI displays in the driving seat and several physical buttons on the steering wheel.

All of these components communicate with each other for a seamless user experience.

Modern HMI offers multi-modality, which means you can use not only touch screens, but also voice commands and hand gestures. Some luxury vehicles support haptic feedback upon users’ inputs or sensor signals.

 includes an intelligent AI assistant that supports both voice commands and hand gestures.

These new features are great for the user - not so great for the non-tech-enabled automotive UX designer.

8 out of 10 designers in the industry found high-fidelity prototyping “very hard.”

Most designers are heavily dependent on engineers.

So, that leaves the question - how can we make automotive UX for HMI software easier for designers?

High-fidelity automotive prototyping does not have to be complicated.

So far, I have established that human-machine interactions, especially in the automotive industry, are a lot more complex today.

Let’s see some examples of prototypes made with ProtoPie.

ProtoPie allows you to integrate with any custom hardware, including Arduino. I made this for Bosch. When you turn the physical knobs, the dials on the screen rotate accordingly. 

    2.   ProtoPie support 52 languages and dialects thanks to a collaboration with the Google Assistant UX team. You can build voice commands in your mother tongue. The machine can understand what you’re saying and take the right actions based on what you just said. As a 
result, you can communicate with your machine verbally. 

   3.  Real car integration is also possible. In this demo, I received the signals through the OBD2 port, showing the speedometer, RPM gauge, gas gauge, and so on in the dashboard prototype. 

   4.   This demo for Piki Burger shows how multiple devices can communicate with each other. I made a very simple version of a kiosk mobile payment system. You can select the meal, and every time you interact with the kiosk, it sends a signal to the device on the left-hand side. 

Design multilateral automotive HMI experiences without engineers.

Prototyping is an extremely valuable process that both can and should be led by designers in the front seat.

With methods based on human language, we can find more intuitive ways to prototype.

The intuitive way should be scalable to adapt to complex and high-fidelity prototyping.

In this way, designers can prototype multilateral HMI experience without the support of engineers.

 today to discover how ProtoPie makes this possible!

Learn from ProtoPie's CEO, Tony Kim, how designers can take the lead in automotive prototyping.

Prototyping for Automotive HMI: Designers in the Driver's Seat

UX prototyping is a key part of any UX design workflow. Concrete UX prototyping processes mean the difference between a product that hits the mark and a potential dead-on-arrival dud. But in a marketplace where time is often of the essence due to financial constraints or trying to beat the competition to a successful launch, how can you correctly test and iterate without getting bogged down in development hell

Rapid prototyping is the UX and UI designers' answer to agile prototyping - but are the potential sacrifices worth the rapid outcomes?

Rapid prototyping in design thinking is a part of the UI design workflow that allows fast testing and iterating. UX and UI designers can quickly validate their prototypes, by creating multiple iterations and organizing usability tests at regular intervals.

Traditionally, rapid prototyping in design thinking is associated with low-fidelity prototypes, but we’ll see later on that you no longer have to sacrifice the quality of your prototypes when choosing rapid prototyping.

Rapid prototyping appeared in the manufacturing world before the terminology was officially borrowed for UX prototyping. In manufacturing, the rise of new tools such as 3D printers encouraged an agile approach to creating prototypes. Rather than sending design patterns and instructions to a manufacturer, product designers can now quickly iterate their prototypes with a 3D printer and some ingenuity.

In the world of UX prototyping, you can really take rapid prototyping to the next level with no physical products involved. We live in a digital world, where apps, websites, and all sorts of digital tools can be designed, developed and tested as part of a seamless process.

Rapid prototyping in UX is not only a possibility but is now clearly an essential piece of any UI design puzzle.

Rapid prototyping in UX design has the simple goal of quickly learning what works and what’s missing from your prototypes. Anyone creating a new product or trying to improve their existing offering should at least be sporadically prototyping throughout the design process.

In design thinking, rapid prototyping is not restricted to a specific job title or role. It’s a process that should repeat throughout a UX design workflow: test and iterate often. This means that rapid prototyping in design thinking can be used by any company building an app, a website, a videogame, or any kind of digital interaction.

We like to think that we’re only limited in design by our imagination and dreams. The same goes for technology, and as new tech appears, keeping up and even getting ahead of the pack is a crucial part of any product roadmap.

. Some label the 2014 CES event as the year of the smartwatch due to the high number of releases. Since then and the release of Android Wear and other OS, smartwatches can do so much more. With the large variety of smartwatches available and their different operating systems, rapid prototyping takes on a whole new meaning. You can use a strong UX prototyping tool with purpose-built smartwatch functionality such as ProtoPie to import your designs and add key interactions. Within no time, you’ll have a number of realistic prototypes that are ready for rapid prototyping across platforms.

Another huge advantage of specialised prototyping tools is that rapid prototyping no longer means low-fidelity. This is a game changer.

What is the difference between prototyping and rapid prototyping?

Rapid prototyping is a method of prototyping that was widely regarded as low quality and to be used internally only. The traditional use case for rapid prototyping in UX design was to create low-fidelity designs to test simple UX flows.

This has changed drastically thanks to the growing popularity of prototyping, the growth of digital products, and the emergence of powerful UX prototyping tools such as ProtoPie. Prototyping, and specifically UX prototyping, allows the UX designer to test interactions and make sure everything makes sense. The process can take time, especially when working with high-fidelity prototypes, as they require a UI designer.

Rapid prototyping removed the UI design aspect. UX designers worked with rudimentary wireframes, and built rapid prototypes that they could test quickly, and iterate on without too much hassle.

ProtoPie breaks down the barriers between prototyping and rapid prototyping. The technology that we have built allows UX and UI designers to work together on high-fidelity prototypes without dragging out the design process. This is achieved through a combination of creative functionality paired with communication and collaboration enablement.

Simply import your highest quality UI designs from a third-party platform such as Figma or Adobe XD and start creating powerful UX flows that fit every purpose. You can now prove interaction concepts in a high-fidelity environment but with all the benefits of rapid prototyping. This to a revolution in product design:

Create high-fidelity prototypes in no time

Collaborate with other designers and developers effortlessly

 thanks to built-in functionality and third-party interfaces

Rapid prototyping in a high-fidelity environment leads to stronger usability testing feedback

Thanks to tools like ProtoPie and the innovations they bring, we can comfortably say that rapid prototyping and prototyping can now be one and the same in design thinking.

What are the different types of rapid prototyping?

Rapid prototyping doesn’t break down into different types or categories. However, we can distinguish different use cases, especially when it comes to low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes.

A distinction can also be made depending on the stage you’re at in your design cycle. If you are only doing internal user testing, your rapid prototyping will have a greater emphasis on speed over granularity.

Rapid prototyping low-fidelity prototypes

Although we said that you don’t have to do low-fidelity prototypes anymore thanks to solutions like ProtoPie, you may still want to. You’re probably creating low-fidelity prototypes without labelling them as such. How often do you start your UX design with pen and paper? That’s the basic form of low-fidelity prototyping.

You can take it a step further and build some basic prototypes with some simple wireframes using basic software too. In fact, 

 are great for low-fidelity prototyping with simple interactions on simple UI designs.

Rapid prototyping and low-fidelity prototypes go hand-in-hand, as the simplicity of tools used and desired levels of UX interactions equals a speedy outcome. Particularly adapted to the earliest stage of product design, the goal here is to eliminate poor design choices whilst quickly identifying the best options to pursue further.

Rapid prototyping high-fidelity prototypes

Usually used towards the end-game of product design, high-fidelity prototyping and rapid prototyping weren’t mutually possible for a long time. Each high-fidelity prototype required:

UI and UX designers working together towards a final outcome

Meetings, emails, and the use of multiple solutions to get the job done

Every wave of user testing feedback could prompt more changes, and more back and forth

Although high-fidelity prototypes still require the same levels of attention and care, we’ve gotten better at doing it faster. This means that where you would use low-fidelity prototyping in the past to narrow down the UX design you want to pursue, you have the choice to use high-fidelity prototypes.

Being able to achieve the amazing outcomes of rapid prototyping with high-fidelity prototypes increases the likelihood that your end product will hit the mark.

What are the advantages of rapid prototyping with high-fidelity prototypes?

Usability testing takes on a new dimension: the quality of feedback you receive increases as your testers get to play with a 

realistic prototype that looks and feels like the end product

Testing new features leaves nothing to the imagination: a low-fidelity prototype can leave the user testing a shell with simple interactions. Being able to make quick changes to high-fidelity prototypes keeps interpretation to a minimum.

Realistic prototypes provide better buy-in: using high-fidelity prototypes in a rapid prototyping environment will help your whole team share the same vision and improve collaboration.

Identify if your prototype has a market: by sharing a realistic prototype during user testing you will have a strong idea of how (if at all) your product will meet the needs of an audience.

Rapid prototyping doesn’t have specific steps in sequential order. Testing and iterating should constantly be taking place during product design, with rapid prototyping a key part of the process.

Here are some of the different rapid prototyping process steps that should include in your design workflow:

Make quick designs: you can use software or just a pen & paper to make rapid sketches.

Test often and with specific goals: don’t just share designs to different stakeholders. Have other internal teams test your prototypes as often as possible and gather key feedback.

Move onto usability testing as soon as possible: by using tools such as ProtoPie you can easily create realistic prototypes in a rapid prototyping environment. Organise regular usability testing sessions with external participants and let them test prototypes that resemble your end product.

Iterate, test again, iterate again, repeat: until you are satisfied with the feedback you obtain from testing, do not consider moving into final development. The transition from prototyping to final development is so simple with ProtoPie that you can afford to focus on testing and iterating.

When working on the final prototype, double down on everything: take the time for deep usability tests and make sure that the development teams are involved early for a smooth transition.

In a rapid prototyping environment, the transition from low-fidelity to high-fidelity prototypes used to be a formal step. UI designs would be incorporated into the mix, with UX interactions added using specialized functionality or software.

Today, the process is a lot lighter, and the transition is seamless. We’ve touched on this throughout this article: rapid prototyping high-fidelity prototypes is a reality and is the future of UI/UX design.

Of course, any product design should start with a pen & paper prototype. This is the base of our work and as prototyping specialists, we would never recommend forgoing it. But being able to collaborate between UI and UX designers from the get-go, and incorporating high-fidelity UI designs into your prototyping workflow is a no-brainer.

Rapid prototyping has long been relegated to the initial stages of prototyping. Today, smart digital solutions exist that bring rapid prototyping to the forefront of your design processes. Ready to change your view on rapid prototyping?

Rapid prototyping in UX and UI design

Usability testing is a key part of the UX professionals’ toolkit and should not be overlooked. The good news is that you do not need to look towards expensive usability testing services to get the right information. In fact, you can gather invaluable usability testing data from your existing software stack. That’s if you are using a 

Let’s explore usability testing and how it fits in the broader user testing processes. We’ll take a look at how to get the best results, both with and without specialised usability testing services and solutions.

Usability testing is having real people (as opposed to the solution developers) interact with a product. During this process, you gather precious data from their verbal and non-verbal reactions. At the end of a usability test, you can also request feedback in free form or through guided questions. The goal is simple: to understand how potential customers will use your product, and if it meets the needs identified from user testing.

Running a usability test is the best way to avoid overlooking potential design faux-pas that you and your team did not consider. It’s an important part of any design workflow and is a great way to test and iterate a high-fidelity prototype.

Although every Usability test is different, with factors ranging from different users to different specific UX designs to test, the objectives remain similar:

Can the usability test be completed as intended?

Which emotions and reactions did the user show during the usability test?

Did we identify any new or existing problems and did the user overcome them?

By sticking to some of these basic principles of usability testing, UX designers and product managers can truly find solutions to real usability problems.

So what is user testing and how is it different?

User testing is part of the idea validation process for a product. It answers the question “does my product solve a need, or reply to a demand?”. At least, this is the common interpretation of user testing in the industry.

The great thing about product management and design is that many modern notions are new. In fact, they are so new that they were never officially defined. Who can define them? It’s not like there is an international product design and management body that debates nomenclature.

As this is the most common interpretation of user testing, we’ll stick with it. Others also freely use user testing as any user test, which by definition includes usability testing. It is important to note that usability testing and user testing remain different. Usability testing is a specific process designed to obtain specific feedback on a product or parts of a product.

Having real users test your product before launch is a great way to identify any potential oversights. You spend months designing a product. You’ll have UI designers, UX designers, software developers, product managers, and more involved. Everyone will develop a level of knowledge and fluidity that will impact judgement on product functionality.

Enter the usability test. Gather a handful of willing participants (testers cannot remain impartial under duress!) and let them loose on your product prototype. There are multiple ways of running a usability test, with varying levels of guidance.

Inviting a user to sit an in-person usability test where they use your high-fidelity prototype and you take notes is the basic example of usability testing. Since the world’s push for digitalization and being able to do everything over Zoom and Google Meet, remote usability testing has gained in popularity.

Remote usability testing has many advantages:

Usability tests can take place in a natural environment allowing for accurate results

Less hassle for the tester, leading to more willing participation

At a time when people don’t want to come into the office, product designers were worried that usability testing would become harder. The opposite effect happened, with usability testing being more accessible and refined than ever.

The growing need for solutions that complete high-fidelity prototyping and allow the same levels of scrutiny in testing led to the emergence of specialised tools for the job. In fact, high-fidelity prototyping tools started building usability testing functionality into their tools and design workflow options. This was a logical step forward, especially with the huge drive for more connectivity and communication in the space.

Prototype usability testing: picking apart your high-fidelity prototypes

If you’re in the rapid prototyping phase of your product development, you may not be ready for usability testing. But if you’re working with realistic prototypes in mind, and using a tool such as ProtoPie, you’ll be creating a number of high-fidelity prototypes in no time.

Each high-fidelity prototype will need to be tested

. Usability testing doesn’t necessarily involve external testers. You can do the first wave internally with stakeholders of different backgrounds and fields. ProtoPie has got an amazing set of usability testing tools built-in. From a single solution, you can create or import your UI designs, build amazing high-fidelity prototypes, and then test them before doing usability tests.

Usability testing high-fidelity prototypes with your prototyping tools

Before exploring the more expensive usability testing options, you can always check out the extended functionality of your prototyping tools. Tools like Invision and ProtoPie are great for light testing, 

because of the ease of sharing prototypes

If you’re a ProtoPie user, you can easily set up some simple remote unmoderated usability testing. The setup process is super straightforward, and can be used internally or with external testers.

Once you’ve built your realistic prototype, you can simply generate a URL link that will give any chosen participant access to the prototype for testing. You’ll also need to quickly modify the access settings if you’re working with external usability testers. This is an extra security measure that you can switch on and off in order to keep prototypes in-house only. We’ve even included password protection for enhanced security and peace of mind. Schedule a test, provide the link and password, and when everything is done simply change the password.

The great thing about usability testing is just how easily it ties into UX design workflows. Especially now that testing has for the most part gone digital. Picturing user testing not so long ago was imagining a square room with no distractions and a tester trying out a new prototype. In the same room, you would have cameras or a moderator taking notes and guiding the process.

In the same way that UX design has testing and iterating at every corner, so do usability tests. The entire test workflow is based on acquiring feedback and using that feedback to make meaningful changes.

Usability testing 101 - test, iterate, go again.

Want a usability testing template or plan? There isn’t one. Or at least there shouldn’t be. Each product is different, and so the requirements and information you need to gather will be too. However, you can template your process in order to rapidly iterate and not get bogged down in information overload.

What do you want to test, and how do you want to test it? The idea is to be specific and to prioritize multiple small tests of specific elements vs a single large test with many testers.

Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group highlights that the optimal returns are from multiple small usability tests with five users maximum. Beyond three users, you’re already starting to learn fewer new things with each usability test of the same parameters. They’ve put together a 

scientific deep dive into the best parameters for usability testing

, we recommend you check it out to learn more.

“The how” concerns the scope of your test. Do not leave it too broad. Build a navigational journey that the test user can take, and make sure you’re testing a specific element of your UX design in a single test for optimal results.

A simple usability test example is navigation. Every application, menu, or website requires the user to navigate between screens in order to complete a process or a journey. You can set up specific usability tests solely for the navigation of your application. This includes recording how the user navigates, and identifying any frustrations they may experience from unintuitive gestures such as swiping or oddly positioned clickable interaction points.

Planning a usability test and the journey the user will take, also means building clear steps along the way. This also means having clear goals and objectives, and not overwhelming the user with too much functionality.

To obtain the best data, keep the number of goals down to a minimum, and make sure the test can be done in less than an hour. Instructions can be needed, but for optimal results, you want to create usability tests that allow the user to figure everything out themselves.

If your testers are sitting in silence and not providing any verbal or emotional information, then you’re not gathering enough valuable information. The ideal process is to not intervene during the test but to make sure you have test users who are comfortable with describing their feeling out loud in real-time.

The specialised tools that make usability testing that much more powerful

As prototyping tools have evolved, so have usability testing solutions. What ProtoPie can offer is just the tip of the iceberg. There are some specialised solutions out there that turn usability testing into an art form.

There are a lot of names out there such as UserZoom and HotJar, that bring amazing functionality to your usability testing environment. Even though we’ve got our own functionality at ProtoPie, we know that sometimes you need more. We’ve gone ahead and made it just as simple to use these tools, as it would be to use ProtoPie for your high-fidelity usability tests.

You can find out more about how ProtoPie works with 

, to bring you the ultimate prototyping + usability testing combo.

Why should you run usability tests when prototyping?

Usability Testing for High-Fidelity Prototypes

Prototyping tools are not only purpose-built or standalone solutions. Leading UI  design tools have built-in functionality acting as a rapid prototyping tool. For everything hi-fi prototyping and beyond, a specialized prototyping tool such as ProtoPie is the best way to bring your UI designs to life.

Let’s take a look at the top 4 all-in-one UI design tools available on the market today. We'll see how they compare to each other as both complete design tools and prototyping tools.

For a deeper dive, we can factor in connectivity to other solutions. This is a great way to measure a solution's flexibility and to see if it will benefit from third-party prototyping tools like ProtoPie.

Figma - the most popular all-in-one design tool today

Figma is an all-in-one design tool built as a collaborative platform. It can handle everything from wireframing to hi-fi prototyping and developer hand-off. Doing web design or app building, Figma is a staple name in the industry and the most popular UI design solution.

Hard to believe they only launched in late 2016. The 

The solution excels as a UI design tool and allows for a great rapid prototyping experience. Figma is a pillar in the industry for low barrier-to-entry prototyping tools for simple jobs. The solution is pick-up and play, providing key UI prototyping functionality such as:

: build amazing website designs and make the most of cutting-edge UI prototyping tools

: time-saving prototyping tools such as Auto Layout and Plugins, to simple interactions and click-throughs

: keep all your assets in one simple and searchable place, creating expansive design systems that speed up iterating and improve collaboration

: FigJam is one part of the great collaboration tools Figma has put in place

With all this great functionality, it’s no wonder that Figma is the primary UI prototyping tool for 81% of core Figma users. Nuance is important when deciding on the best prototyping tool for your needs. Although Figma may fit the bill for simple prototypes with few interactions, it can become untidy and unpractical.

As prototypes grow in complexity, prototyping tools that work well for simple prototypes can start to struggle. For the more complex, multi-screen and multi-interaction prototypes, you can combine solutions. It's easier to improve the prototyping process rather than replace the UI design tool.

Using Figma and Protopie together is a great way to get realistic prototypes. Hi-fi prototyping is a step-up from what Figma can achieve, and is where ProtoPie excels.

 means unlocking a prototyping tool like no other. Use Figma for your UI design, then import the designs into ProtoPie. Build realistic prototypes that truly represent your dream user experience.

InVision: from the most popular prototyping tool to losing steam

InVision’s fall from the most used prototyping tool in 2017 to barely making the top three in 2021 shows how disruptive innovation is. Figma had 10% of the industry back then whereas InVision had 60% of the market.

From a billion-dollar valuation to trying to turn things around. What happened to InVision and what can you achieve with this prototyping tool?

InVision is a prototyping tool offering a simple approach to web-based prototyping. If you’re looking to build low-fidelity prototypes or straightforward designs, it can do an amazing job. The low learning curve was always appreciated by users, allowing the UI designer to build quick screen-to-screen designs with a limited number of actions and transitions.

This prototyping tool’s shortfalls were more development and back-end functionality related: the updates simply did not come quickly enough. And with innovative solutions such as Figma and ProtoPie breaking onto the scene, InVision’s users lost patience.

InVision is still a good prototyping tool for what it does, and the integrations with Sketch make it a great pairing if you’re using MacOS. But even this process through the Craft plugin is not as seamless as other solutions, such as pairing Figma with ProtoPie, or even using 

. Simple things like showing how one screen flows to the next work, but as soon as interactions multiply, InVision loses steam.

If you’re a MacOS user running Sketch instead of Figma and building simple designs with single interactions between screens, then InVision is a great solution. But outside of this niche case, it seems like what was once an industry giant, is fast losing momentum. The most recent figures have InVision mainly used as a secondary tool, whereas Figma and Adobe XD are main daily drivers.

The industry is shifting from simplicity to more complex designs, requiring cutting-edge prototyping tools that can rapidly build realistic prototypes that represent the end product. This is clearly illustrated by the rise of solutions such as 

, who when used in tandem with a UI prototyping tool like Figma, can make magic happen.

AdobeXD: a vector-based UI and UX design tool alternative

AdobeXD is developed by Adobe Systems, one of the giants of software development famous for the precursors to prototyping tools: Photoshop and Illustrator. Their modern-day solution is packed with features that make it a great alternative to Figma for an all-in-one UI prototyping tool with some UX functionality.

Their approach is a vector-based UI and UX design tool that allows the user to build anything from websites to apps that work across devices. They’ve even included innovative functionality for what is essentially a UI-building tool in the form of voice interactions.

Some of the key functionality that makes Adobe XD a good prototyping tool:

Content-Aware Layout which is the name of their fancy auto-resizing functionality

Repeat Grid which can create sets of duplicate elements in one click and drag motion

Auto-animate functionality to add interactions and transitions during the design process without leaving the tool

Adobe XD essentially has a lot of the features available in Figma, but with a different interface. The Adobe XD prototyping tool interface has a vertical bar versus the horizontal layout of Figma’s UI design. But this doesn’t explain why Figma is three or four times more popular than Adobe XD. So what does?

Figma is available on both web browsers and as a desktop app, whereas Adobe XD is only available on desktop. Figma also wins the pricing battle, being more accessible both with their entry-level and enterprise packages. It’s no wonder that Figma is the solution of choice for a number of Fortune 500 companies when looking for a UI design tool.

A special mention here for Adobe XD’s collaboration tools, which although slightly more restrive than Figma’s, are still great to use and allow all stakeholders from UI and UX designers to the developers implementing the designs to work together seamlessly.

Whether Adobe XD or Figma, they both only offer a limited range of interactive prototyping capabilities. Creating simple animations or connecting interactive areas to other screens using wires is straightforward. As soon as more complex interactions are required specialised prototyping tools such as Framer, Principle, and ProtoPie shine.

At ProtoPie, we quickly identified that tools such as Adobe XD and Figma are crucial to the design process. A key element of any designer’s workflow, we knew we needed to build strong integrations with both solutions, giving you the freedom to choose the UI design tool that suits your needs, and for us to provide a strong UX prototyping tool for your realistic prototypes.

, you’ll benefit from the full range of Adobe XD’s design tools, as well as ProtoPie’s industry-leading prototyping tool with functionality such as:

Import your initial designs from Adobe XD to ProtoPie with the ProtoPie Plugin and create your realistic prototypes today.

Sketch: “the” macOS exclusive design tool

For a long period of time preceding the rapid rise of Figma, Sketch was the go-to UI design tool for macOS users. The platform exclusivity allowed the developers to build a solid design and UI prototyping tool that worked almost flawlessly on macOS devices.

Where Adobe XD has gone for the horizontal UI design, Sketch shares Figma’s vertical approach to UI, leaving designers feeling at home switching between the two design tools. Sketch stands out with its simple approach to hierarchy: at the top you have pages, which contain artboards, containing layers. Figma is more versatile with its nested frames approach, essentially allowing users to separate key components such as headers, footers, and menus.

We’ve mentioned collaborations multiple times already. They are a vital part of any product design process, with multiple stakeholders involved from initial ideation all the way to developer handoff. Sketch used to be an awful solution for collaborating between team members. Thankfully they have turned this around, and launched in 2021 their real-time collaboration functionality, making it a UI design tool that can finally take-on Figma and Adobe XD in a larger team environment.

Sketch’s collaboration tool allows for real-time invitation-based collaboration during the design process. Furthermore, their shared libraries provide everyone synchronized access to the same content, in real-time. Sketch goes one step further and offers a free developer tool allowing developers to get what they need for free. From inspecting ongoing prototyping to downloading assets in a click, the developer handoff has been streamlined.

As a pure UX prototyping tool, Sketch cannot compete with the likes of ProtoPie, but holds its own against Adobe XD and Figma. Create overlays and simple interactions between different artboards by using links and hotspots to create your UX journey. Combining Sketch with InVision through the Craft app clearly improves the pair's potential as an all-in-one design and prototyping tool. But we’re still not convinced they have the functionality to take on a Figma + ProtoPie pairing.

What makes ProtoPie the most used specialized prototyping tool?

As a prototyping tool, ProtoPie was built with realistic prototypes in mind. We’ve said it before, UI designs are getting more complex, as are UX flows, and the requirements for prototyping tools have gone from simple wires between screens to complex multi-interaction, multi-screen UX designs which include voice and video elements.

With ProtoPie, you can achieve all this and more, without the steep learning curve that usually comes with a solution solving a complex problem. The idea is not to compete against Figma or Adobe XD. There is a reason their all-in-one UI design tools are industry-leading. By building simple plugins and streamlining the UI design import process, you can do rapid prototyping in a hi-fi prototyping environment.

Don’t just take our word for it, click the button below and try our functionality for free, whether you use Figma, Adobe XD, or Sketch, you’ll take your prototyping to the next level.

Industry Guide

Prototyping for Automotive HMI: Designers in the Driver's Seat

Rapid prototyping in UX and UI design

Usability Testing for High-Fidelity Prototypes

Top 4 All in One Design Tools

UX Design is Shifting towards Realistic Prototyping

6 UX Reasons to Prototype for Wearables

5 Ways to Use Lottie Animations in High-Fidelity Prototypes

Optimize Your High-Fidelity Prototypes with User Testing

3 High-Fidelity Prototyping Principles Designers Need to Know

The Importance of Prototyping and Your Design Stack

How to Test Early and Often During the Entire Product Development Process

Systems Thinking for Designers 101

The Differences Between Low Fidelity vs. High Fidelity Prototyping

An Introduction to Digital Prototyping

Prototyping for Voice - Blending Interaction & Conversation Design

Touchscreen Prototyping in a Way You Haven’t Before

How to Maximize Your Prototyping While Working Remotely

Lead the future of interactive product design