Freehand by InVision

InVision works well for designs that have different development components that need to be highlighted.

InVision Freehand works really well for collaboration which is why our company started using it as we sometimes have multiple Business Analysts working on one wireframe at a time. It works well for wireframes and what we want the product to have.

I love InVision Freehand for it's easy-to-use interface. It does the job well for me to provide feedback to artists. It could, however, have a better use of grid and structure so each document can be easily organized visually.

In the brainstorming sessions when many people dive into a call, we earlier used to lose context because the conversation would divert, so in such cases it works excellently. Also, when we revisit to any project after a while to see what we did and why and when, InVision Freehand helps in giving the context and the boards too.

Our team uses Invision Freehand for planning out individual products - with user flows, journey maps, screen flows, brainstorming, and planning. These are created by designers and often shared with non-design team members. The boards are also used for research affinity mapping and reflection. Finally, we also use them for team social meetings for our book club, jeopardy, and other team games or activities.

Good: Gathering feedback and continuing discussion on design artifacts. Providing design annotations and specs along with design deliverables. Collaborate in realtime and brainstorm freehand Putting together quick wireframes or other sketches Less appropriate: Collecting a variety of types of data content, documents, and files (probably better suited for Google Apps, Notion, Dropbox) Directly accessing design specs from Figma and its prototypes (probably better done natively in Figma, or via other spec tools like Zeplin)

Without a doubt, InVision Freehand sets the table for excellent live workshopping that plays an important role in business today. This becomes even more of a necessity as a tool in today's remote - non-in-person business environment. This approach to getting work done today is no longer a nice-to-have, it's an absolute must! The access to working across remote team member groups and using InVision Freehand helps us feel secure in setting up meetings. We know that we will have a much more positive working session with the collaborative workspace that InVision Freehand gives us. We haven't found any instances that Freehand wouldn't be a positive component to a productive workshop, brainstorming or even just capturing thoughts from meeting discussions. Freehand is a pretty flexible platform for us to work in. What it comes down to for us is that with Freehand we don't have to think at all about the platform we're using. We just use it intuitively and instinctively. As it should be.

I've been using InVision Freehand for close to 4 years. I've used it when designing for responsive sites and native apps and it has helped, especially with the large variety of complex enterprise projects I've worked on. So far, it has been great for collaborating and sharing with the team during brainstorming, user flow diagram, and wireframing sessions in the early planning stages. In the research stage, it has also helped with creating and sharing affinity maps, feedback grids, and being able to color code when multiple team members are working together to document possible solutions has also been great! Overall, I definitely appreciate how much they've stood out on top of making improvements to simplify the whiteboarding and even automate some parts of the process. One feature I appreciate most is the ability to use templates so more time-consuming parts (like commonly used icons) are readily available. I didn't give a full 10 because, for me, the scrolling is something I have to get used to each time I use it since it's opposite from how I regularly scroll. It would also be great to have more color and opacity options, but it's definitely not a deal-breaker.

Well suited scenarios: Brainstorming Mapping out workflows Presentations Sharing ideas Icebreaker activities Less appropriate scenarios: Design handoff Managing documents w/ large amounts of text

Works well in small to medium-sized groups with a targeted purpose but wouldn't want to use it with a large group or a general meeting.

Well suited for simple brainstorming activities.

Not as well suited for larger multi-day design sprints

InVision Freehand is really well suited for lo-fi mocks and wireframes. It's so helpful to be able to get an initial rendering of a product to give developers a general idea of the product they are going to build, as well as share the concept with stakeholders. InVision Freehand is not well suited for situations where you need a very detailed mock-up, with fonts, padding, spacing, etc.

I love collaborating and creating wireframes, concepts, etc., within InVision Freehand with remote teams. However, I would not use Freehand to prototype or create any hi-fi here.

We use this tool to collaborate on virtual calls. It's nice to have a visual format for brainstorming sessions. I enjoy having another means of interacting and engaging with colleagues. That being said, at times it can be visually overwhelming if you're collaborating with a bunch of people in real-time since you see each person's mouse movements. It can feel a little overwhelming, in that sense.

It's perfect for when I want to quickly see what designs UX has come up with and then it allows me to easily provide feedback. They can then respond to that feedback or quickly replace the UX. This sort of back-and-forth makes collaborating really easy. It's not as good at making prototypes that can go on a mobile phone without a lot of hassle.

If you are trying to do something low fidelity or collaborate with the team on something, it works great. If you need more high-fidelity designs or a more structured collaboration environment, it might not be the best tool for you.

InVision Freehand has quickly evolved to be a very robust solution for our pre-design process and collaboration with stakeholders and other product teams. It has brought a lot more hands-on workshopping opportunities and created engaging spaces for cross functional teams. Internally to our design org we are able to prototype ideas faster and generate insights or changes BEFORE going into more hi-fidelity design tools or processes.

Well Suited: Collaboration is made easy when working with different teams but when coming to prototypes not having enough flexibility is bad.

As a UI designer, it's great for sharing user flows with many screens, showing multiple options, and notating feedback right on the screens themselves. It's also good for collecting inspiration and ideas in a flexible format. Most of all, it allows my team to work in one file and have a single source of truth.

InVision freehand is a very good option for companies that have large teams working from different locations, thanks to this tool we can all be connected and keep up to date with any updates in the designs. However, I think InVision freehand sometimes falls short and does not let us upload some heavier designs.

I use Invision to collaborate with remote teams and it has been fantastic as a communication tool! Easy collaboration amongst remote teams, as well as a great presentation resource. I love the comments feature on the design prototypes. This allows for much more efficient feedback loops when you can comment directly on the prototype and keeps conversation streams clear. I have also began using the moodboards on the platform which has been fantastic for project kickoffs. Less appropriate would be for product design because you can't organize 30 flows

Freehand has been well suited for creating process maps and getting stakeholder feedback. It has also been good for brainstorming and "freehand" board creation.
Some of the templates are hard to customize for specific needs so it's sometimes better to build your own from scratch.
There are a lot of navigational issues with larger boards that require zooming in/out and navigating to different sections.

It's great when sketching or discussing topics at a high level and wanting to have something to look at or speak to. It's also very helpful when trying to assimilate and categorize feedback from research or focus groups. I like putting tidbits of info into boxes that we can then sort and organize thematically and identify where our biggest opportunities may be. We tried using it a bit as a road mapping/project management tool, and don't feel it was well suited for that.

I would recommend InVision Freehand, 9 out of 10! The reason for this 9 score, is that I have been using it for quite some time now and found that there are some slight competitive advantages between freehand and its competitors. Freehand's competitors, such as Figma, MIRO, and Mural, all have different features that are slightly different. Each software does a few things better than the others, but there's not one that does everything super well.

Freehand is best suited for: Remote teams Working fast and dirty, Incorporating notes and flows with design mockups Freehand is not great for Complex illustrations (looking at you, sitemaps) High Fidelity comps where the details matter, Scenarios where you need archival data. Things change a lot and can get deleted easily.