What do you use to make usable prototypes?
I was wondering what are the best tools to make prototypes if you have an idea? I am a coder but I need something simple to be able to make quick prototypes that I can share with a small number of users.
My first idea was to use Google Sheets but maybe there are better options or approaches possible...
Bootstrap and Rails.
Usable prototypes?
These days, it's generally Elixir + Phoenix + LiveView + TailwindCSS. I can build out something like a blog with user auth, chat and some other basics in an afternoon. The most time-consuming part is the styling
Sometimes I add Vue or GraphQL later after an app is growing.
Thanks. I heard about Elixir+Phoenix but never had the time to try it out. How steep is the learning curve?
Totally depends on what you already know, but I found it easier than most.
I like prototyping in Balsamiq wireframes. It also has basic interactions, and their cloud version supports sharing/collaboration. https://balsamiq.com/wireframes
Thanks. I used balsamiq in the past for wireframing and it was really good.
I have used bubble.io briefly and it’s reasonable. You can create a wide variety of ideas on it but somethings are harder than if I just coded it. Worth a try
Thanks. This looks really good. I will try this...
My product divjoy.com may help if you want to whip up a quick coded prototype with a landing page, auth, etc. If you're looking to avoid code then check out InVision.
I have used https://marvelapp.com/ and was quite satisfied with it.
This looks very nice. Thanks for the recommendation. I will test it out.
Mine is https://sketchsheets.com/. Old fashioned maybe, but as versatile as it gets when you have enough crayons.
https://www.invisionapp.com/studio You might like this one.
Something more than a sketch, design, power point? Webflow
I used figma and invision, they are cool but those two are a really complex systems to build detailed prototypes.
Right now, I'm using proto.io - it's a much simpler system and, this is what I searched for, allows you to download the prototype and put it in an iframe in my demo product.