An afternoon with InVision

InVision is a prototyping tool that allows you to create interactive mockups to share with clients and team members. The company’s value proposition is “Design Better. Faster. Together”. That had me sold.

I’m always looking to improve my work. Project managers love it when work goes out of the door quicker. Getting clients involved with their projects is a good thing. So, using InVision is a win win win situation. Or is it?

Having used InVision on and off over the last year, I finally got to grips with the app on a recent project and it is a wonderful piece of kit made up of many great components.

Here’s three of the my favourite features:

It’s all about context

Displaying web visuals and wireframes inside the browser is much better than presenting flat artwork. InVision makes this task simple and easy. In the past we have gone to great lengths to present our work in context. And while our previous presentation efforts have been worthwhile, they are time consuming.

Being able to upload our visuals to InVision and present them at actual size allows us to get better feedback. Also, being able to prototype wireframes and navigation options using InVision is faster than using standard software. Everything is in context. And, we can turn around amends for clients in record time.

An afternoon with InVision screen

InVision allows you to upload a whole host of image types

Hitting the spot

Traditionally, we would present flat web visuals to a client with annotations to describe how the page would function. A key feature of the app is being able to add basic behaviours to our visuals to mimic how particular modules and pages function. No coding knowledge needed.

We add this layer of functionality with the help of “hotspots”. Inside the app you can highlight a part of the page and add a hover or click behaviour to it. There are number of behaviours you can apply. All you need is the necessary visuals with the appropriate hover/click states applied and you’re good to go.

All feedback is good feedback

Whatever. No designer likes to hear bad things about their work. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise :)

Getting a client involved with your project can be extremely beneficial. InVision has an amazing commenting and feedback system baked into it’s core functionality. Once you’ve uploaded your visuals, added your behaviours and got your visuals acting how they should, you can share them with other people – clients! And clients can feedback too, in one place. This helps project leaders collate feedback in manageable, quick and simple way.

It’s easy to be reactive to client comments. Each project has goals and making a client happy is just one of them. So striking a balance between how much you show a client and when you show it is key.

Adding comments in context helps, A LOT

Adding comments in context helps, A LOT

A must have in any designer’s toolkit

Using InVision in our recent project has proved invaluable. It quickly become clear that it will form part of all of our future design projects. As with most applications, the more you use them, the more features you discover. The three features I outlined above are merely a small fraction of what InVision has to offer. It is definitely a win, win, win.

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