What are the best prototyping tools?

Question

Best overall which uses different file types have more than just prototype software, able to collaborate with others. Also which allows designers to design as well as have full preparation for developers to do their work?

Fredo Tan · Accepted Answer

In our opinion, a prototype without hi-fi interactions is rather useless. For anyone.

Hence, we built ProtoPie, the hi-fi prototyping tool that enables designers to create superior prototypes containing the most sophisticated interactions you could imagine as easy as pie without having to get your hands dirty with code.

The gradual learning curve of ProtoPie is due to its intuitive UI which is based on the concept model and philosophy behind the product.

This concept model entails that an interaction consists of an object, a trigger and a response, simplifying the whole process of prototyping.

Other strong suits:
- Fully utilize sensors in your smart devices for your prototypes easily.
- Share and deploy your prototypes anywhere and anytime using the ProtoPie Player app or simply any web browser.
- Seamless integration with Sketch and Adobe XD CC allowing you to go back and forth between design and prototyping hassle-free.

More features (e.g. collaboration) and other cool stuff are on the way at this moment ;)

If you have any questions, fire away :)

Stefan Theofilos · Answer

Invision is a fantastic prototyping tool that I'd recommend to anyone.

Yara Nevmerzhitskaya · Answer

Like this tool. Easy for using. Allows sharing your ideas with team members or clients to collect feedback right on the prototype! All the edits will be displayed online. Really a lot of ready-made blocks and prototype templates. 
Draftium is free (with amazing PRO package).
The best prototyping tool I've used for web.

Sam Rye · Answer

I believe one of the best prototyping tools we have available to us are stories. Craft allows you to collaboratively develop, prioritise and order user stories, and acts as a boundary object between Devs and designers.

Byungwoo Yoon · Answer

I use Protopie and this application is excellent. 
Easy to use and make a interaction.

I can share the project's prototype to our client, and they easily image the interaction.

Really helpful

Jevin Sew · Answer

You could try this one!

Karthik Mahadevan · Answer

I used to mostly rely on Sketch, Marvel and Keynote for prototyping, but very recently I tried Figma and found it to be a breeze. I especially loved how easy it was for me to handover to the programmer. It's all online so sharing and collaborating was pretty easy as well.

Sam Rye · Answer

Great for animating your designs - early or later in the process

Brandon Elwood · Answer

Feels like the real thing. Before we build an app, we build it from the ground up using proto.io.

Kunal Bhatia · Answer

I'm in love with Atomic and the team. They are very forward-thinking and build some great features that will help you communicate your intent with your team. Especially since you are new to UX Design, Atomic has both the tools and a newsletter (Product Design Weekly) to help you get better. You can read my Medium articles about prototyping tools to see Atomic in action compared to a few others.

Sam Rye · Answer

I love paper & pen to digital prototype flows! Fast and dirty - ideal for early stages!

Sam Rye · Answer

Amazing Sketch (and now Photoshop?) Plugin which brings your designs into InVision

Kyle W. Ludwig · Answer

Wait! There's more. Use Sketch to make the prototypes, then put them into Craft by Invision to make clickable prototypes you can share on the web to get localized comments from collaborators on your design. You can also use Inspect by Invision to hand off the fonts, color palettes, and assets from designers to the developers. I've tried Adobe XD for over a year but for over $20/mo, the features haven't caught up to the value this Sketch stack gets me for a single $100 payment plus freemium Invision subscription - and Adobe still has a long way to go.

Jakub Budzyński · Answer

Fast and easy animations based on Sketch designs. Frequent updates.

Mammad Emin · Answer

It's best tool for prototyping I guess

Natali Rodriguez · Answer

I use Invision and Principle, but it will depend on the platform and how complex your prototype will be. Principle allows you to do custom animation without code. Here is a good list of prototype tools depending on learning curve, platforms  and complexity. 
https://www.cooper.com/prototyping-tools

Maurice Koks · Answer

I use this almost every day, This is absolutely a must have tool for and not only Mock Up's but real Prototyping and much, much more

Sabes™ · Answer

I used Justinmind in the past (just use Xcode and Sketch now) but I thought it was a solid mock-up builder 👍

David Adamu · Answer

As a Product designer, Framer does it for me.

Jenil Gogari · Answer

I started using Origami recently and it's pretty neat!

Dhruv Agrawal · Answer

It's pretty good too, close to Invision

Rajat Patel · Answer

Super simple Prototyping tool. I use it and have no issues with it so far. Must try for all the designers.

Sam Rye · Answer

Oh and take a look at Framer - design and development combined.

Yutaka Ishii · Answer

STUDIO has whole new way of designing and prototyping with using real code.

Grace · Answer

Visualized interaction by drag-and-drop, fast design with rich resources, fast testing on native device, fast learning of code-free and real-time team collaboration.

Denis Plugatar · Answer

It really helps me to save a lot of time and mental resources at the beginning of the development process. Less pointless discussions I have with a customer, more time for real meaningful work. That's a dream!

Answer

Principle is a little rough around the edges but the animations you can produce are really stellar.

Cody S · Answer

Requires a minimal amount of coding, but it's powerful.

Sam Rye · Answer

Figma is dynamite, especially now it has prototyping baked in.

I wish Figma would integrate with some of the animation tools (Principal et al), as sometimes the prototyping functionality just isn't enough.

Davide Petrillo · Answer

Rapid tool to create interactive prototypes starting from your hand sketches, visuals from Sketch (there's a direct integration) and others, or wireframes created with the Prott editor. Ready to then be shared with the team or user tested on web or on the Prott mobile apps. Disclaimer: I'm the Prott PM:)

Veronica Belmont · Answer

One of my favorite tools, and a huge plus is getting emails from Clark (obviously)!

Sam Rye · Answer

There's something about seeing a product mocked up in a real environment that I've found super useful to land it for others. Placeit allows you to upload an image / video and does all the hard work of angling and reflections automatically.

Joe McLean · Answer

Adobe XD is not only a prototype tool but it's a design AND prototyping tool!

Sam Rye · Answer

Fuse is looking at the intersection of design and code, where you can export the code for designs and transitions you've created, or push them to a project for an iOS / Android project