Axure - a powerful prototyping tool
November 10, 2016

Axure - a powerful prototyping tool

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Axure

We use Axure RP in our user experience design projects for our clients to create interactive prototypes (low - high fidelity). We use it to show concept animations in the product to full fledged pages.
  • Axure is a great tool if you want to create interactive prototypes using real data. You can import data and use it as working prototype.
  • With Axure's new release, it's easier to work with your design team. Axure's team feature makes it easy for teams to collaborate on the same project.
  • Axure has a great community support and tutorials for any newbies. They are pretty good with responding to any request and/or issues with your files.
  • It's easy to share the prototype with Axshare - and every time you make changes to the prototype, you are still using the same link. So this means, you can create a unique link and share it with the clients. After any changes that are made to the file, just save the same link and clients will be able to see the changes.
  • Another nice feature of Axure is you can package all the prototype into HTML and hand it over to dev team. The code sometimes gets wonky though.
  • Built-in libraries as well as easy way to import libraries makes it easier to create user flow diagrams, animations and build pages
  • Apart from all the above great features that my team frequently uses, Axure's Preview feature is a good way to see your work in progress prototype on a browser.
  • Even though you can package the prototype into HTML, it sometimes creates wonky code which can't be completely used (especially if your prototype is a detailed one).
  • If the prototype is a high-fidelity one with complex data like charts and diagrams, you may encounter bugs while loading the pages in browser.
  • Axure can improve on its stylizing feature by including typographic elements.
  • Clients love looking at interactive prototypes. We have a pretty positive impact.
We also use some other prototyping tools like InVision, but Axure works great on projects where you start from low-fidelity wireframes (so just boxes and dummy text), creating simple animations, testing out the concepts with users and stakeholders - then translating the same into high-fidelity wireframes. It's definitely more robust than Balsamiq.
Axure is great if you are creating low-fidelity prototypes and want to take the same into high-fidelity ones. This means you can use real data, create animations, add hotspots and have a robust experience. Axure is not suitable if you want to add more UI elements like emphasis on typography, color, create vectors, posters and other graphic elements. I look at it not as a design based tool (like Illustrator or Sketch) but more as a development based design tool.