Finding a great wireframing tool that gives you the flexibility you need can be challenging. In some cases you may want to create lo-fi wireframes to quickly demonstrate ideas and page flows or hi-fi wireframes and prototypes to create a clickable and interactive approximation of a digital experience.
We take a look at some of the industry leading tools, their strengths and weaknesses and when to use them.
A great tool for upfront planning, workshopping, journey mapping and lo-fi wireframes. Miro is the perfect tool for the upfront work of defining what needs to be done and roughly planning a project. The lack of wire-framing precision forces users to only represent the core essence or functionality of an app without getting caught up with design.
Miro acts as a planning and collaboration tool or e-whiteboard and does not really allow for the creation of hi-fi or interactive wireframe prototypes.
You can put together wireframes in UXPin at top speed by dragging and dropping custom elements. There are regularly updated libraries for Bootstrap, Foundation, iOS and Android, and your wireframes can be quickly converted to high-fidelity mockups. From there you can create fully interactive and animated prototypes of your final product. You can also start your designs in Figma, Adobe XD or Sketch and import into UXPin for prototyping.
The main reason UX pin can be good is when it comes to advanced interaction and the use of variables and clickable fields. If you are prototyping a form or design that needs to carry data from one page to the next or perform a basic calculation, UXPin is great for this.
Figma really has come to lead the design tool pack and is now a competent wireframing, prototyping and end to end design tool. Filling the function that Sketch + Invision fill as well as taking on design system management it’s no wonder Figma is gaining so much traction among designers.
Turn your static design files into an interactive experience—no coding required.
Intuitive build: Simply connect UI elements and choose your interactions and animations.
Interactions: Define subtle interactions, like on click, while hovering, while pressing a button, and more.
Mobile-optimized: Details like device frames and momentum scrolling make your prototypes feel like the real experience.
Figma doesn’t currently support interactive fields or stored variables so may be too basic for some wireframe and prototype designs, but will be perfect for most and with the added workflow bump of using one tool for your UX and UI design it’s a good place to start.
Sketch and Invision have both been somewhat victims of their own success, having shifted the design community away from the Adobe world they have both floundered in recent years failing to adapt.
That said if you are still using this combination they are more than adequate
Conclusion
Ultimately, the best way to get familiar with a tool is to get hands-on with the platform and practice. As a UX Designer, it is important to familiarise yourself with different tools to identify the right tool for different design needs.
