Framer supports animation and interaction prototyping for multiple devices, ranging from desktop apps to web apps and mobile platforms. There are already 8 pre-installed devices to choose from, or developers can create their own setup quickly.
Framer Studio uses CoffeeScript for prototyping the UI of an app. This can be a problem for designers who don't know CoffeeScript since they would be forced to learn a new programming language in order to use Framer.
As the interface is very clean and simple, it enables you to create interactions by combining objects, triggers and responses just like that. No need for wireframing or shitty mockups, just get to hi-fi prototyping right away.
Sharing is very easy via the cloud. Open the prototype in desktop or mobile browser, or deploy the prototype on the ProtoPie Player app. All is possible.
No coding needed to do interactions for your prototypes. You just choose the objects and link them with the triggers and responses you want to based on your preferred interactions.
It only uses their proprietary pie extension, so others you share it with have to have the app as well to view it. There are workarounds, like recording your screen to create a movie file.
Origami was actually built to help Facebook designers work on Paper, one of Facebook's latest apps. Every animation that is coded into Origami was first made for Paper. It uses powerful 3D effects and some of the most advanced features for scrolling, tapping and swiping to create a faithful and interactive prototype.
Since Origami is not an app in and on itself, but a plugin for Quartz Composer, which is built by Apple. Therefore, Origami is only available for Mac and for a developer to download and use it, they need to register as an Apple Developer.
XD allows you to wire any object to any destination page so that clicking a button asset will take you to a page that you specify.
Mockups can also simulate a scrolling page or window.
Creating a list of items is simple with "repeat grid." Just create one and use repeat grid to duplicate that item vertically or horizontally. Then drag and drop text or images to create unique entries for each repeated item.
Invision allows clients, stakeholders or any team members to leave comments and feedback inside the design which will be displayed as a point on the page itself. These paints can be discussed or even be turned into tasks. This makes it easy for designers to go through what they need to work on, and once it's done, the task can be checked off.
Invision is a tool for building click through prototypes and getting feedback on them, you need to design everything in another app and upload them, it isn't a design tool.
These times, teams are not using just a single app or tool for everything. It's not unheard of for teams to be using up to a dozen different tools for their work. Invision works as an all-in-one environment for product design and unfortunately it does not integrate with other tools. This may be a nuisance for teams that want to integrate different tools in their workflow.
Live Share allows you to collaborate in real-time using an in-browser screen share. Each collaborator gets their own mouse, so you can easily point and see what someone is talking about. You can also sketch, and chat right inside the Live Share interface.
Invision's Live Share gives team members the ability to collaborate in real-time through a screen share inside their browser. Each collaborator has their cursor which they can use and edit or add notes in real-time. On top of that, Invision also has a VOIP chat which works inside the browser.
Once uploaded on Invision, the screen will be presented in a way that will behave as an actual web page. This is especially easy for showing the work to clients, more so if compared to just showing them a .PDF, which may make it look like the page is "too crowded"
Invision uses Invision Sync or Dropbox to automatically save design files on the cloud. Furthermore, it has version control built in. This is especially helpful if a team is going through different versions for a specific design and they want to return again and again to previous designs.
Hotspot links can be created for every page, and once it's done, for each one of them gestures and transitions can be registered.
Invision supports various gesture types: swiping, double tapping, sliding, etc.
Invision offers a free plan to anyone that is limited to one project. While the free plan is a bit limited it does allow the user to trial the software for as long as they like to decide on its merits and whether it is worth paying for the more robust options.
FluidUI does not have clear documentation that describes the full features of the tool. This can make discovering new features, and utilizing features to their fullest difficult to accomplish.
FluidUI was built from the ground-up with mobile prototyping in mind, resulting in plenty of touch gestures and animations that mimic the real effects. It's designed to keep pace with the quickly evolving area of mobile development.
FluidUI has no dependencies because it runs in the browser. This makes setup easy, just a matter of going to the link. Due to FluidUI being live, regular updates are automatic rather than requiring downloading.
Keynote has a solid library of animation where you can affect the timing and duration. With the drag-and-drop interface as well as copy and paste from Sketch/Photoshop, mocking up new interactions takes very little time.
Proto supports one of the (if not the) largest gestural support libraries out of all the prototyping tools. With gestures such as:
Pinchin/out
Swipes
Double tap
Tap
Hold
Release
and more...
Developers can build prototypes through the browser with Proto, but the testing itself is done on the devices. Proto has released native apps for both iOS and Android that developers to test their designs right on the native device itself.
Proto is very easy to use even for beginners, or programmers who are not well-versed in Photoshop or Sketch or any other drawing application. With it's easy drag-and-drop interface and with a wide library of commonly used UI elements for Android and iOS, prototyping with Proto is very simple.
Other prototyping tools offer free plans to trial as long as one wants, but Proto only offers a trial that while has full functionality has a 15 day time limit.
Proto's animations and interactions are very detailed. As far as prototyping goes Proto is probably the best tool to get as close to the actual app as possible. But this brings the downside that prototyping with Proto becomes quite slow and can take several hours to finish to get everything to work perfectly.
$29 per user/mo ($350 pa) will soon rack up compared to a standalone product like Axure PRO ($450) which has a license that lasts years (they have given out free updates for the last 2 versions).
UXPin offers elements from a wide range libraries. This includes responsive frameworks such as Bootstrap and Foundation, and libraries specific to mobile prototyping.
Adobe After Effects is quite an old tool with a lot of experienced designers that use it on a day-to-day basis. As such, there are a lot of tutorials on using it online.
HotGloo's interface is designed to be intuitive. You won't have to invest a lot of time in trying to figure out how it works. You can jump straight into work and rely on the abundance of tutorials, webinars, and documentation in case you get stuck.
Animation Desk allows businessmen, students, organizations and many others to draw their design structure or strategies. It is used for education purpose in schools as well. It is a nice fit for anyone that has been thinking about giving voice to the creations of their mind.
Prototypes made on PoP are based on sketches made on paper or a whiteboard, which are later photographed or scanned and uploaded into the app. Once that's done, hotspots can then be added, which register tapping or several gestures.
PoP is built to be a tool for quick prototyping, especially in participatory design sessions. For complex prototypes with a lot of screens it would require a large number of images to be used and this can make any project hard to maintain.
There is very little learning material available online for Briefs. The community of active user is small, making it difficult to get any questions you may have answered.
You can quickly build interactive prototypes using the drag and drop. A set of pre-designed components, including pop-up panel, stack panel, scroll box, sliding drawer and image carousel, helps you create the prototype faster.
Mockplus has a very intuitive interface that lets you quickly build your prototypes with no programming needed. You are able to create interactive components with the drag and drop feature.
Currently Pixate does not offer a way to interact with the design on ones PC, all testing must be done on a mobile device, which may become time consuming or tiresome.
Pixate offers a free plan that entails one project and one prototype. While the amount of functionality is limited, it does give a user a chance to trial the software for as long as they want in order to see if it is worthwhile.