Axure is great for smaller prototypes
December 01, 2018
Axure is great for smaller prototypes
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Axure RP
We use Axure RP to concept and prototype new product and features or enhance current product or features. We also use Axure generated prototypes for early usability testing of prototypes with users. It is used by just our department. It allows us to create rapidly build concepts of our products and share those with our users and allow us to analyze the validity of the feature or product.
- Provides tools to build an interactive wireframe/prototype of a small product of feature.
- Generate a package of the interactive wireframe that can be deployed to a remote location for sharing.
- Create a reusable library of patterns/components that could be reused in other prototypes
- Notes and documentation can be embedded and displayed along with the interactive wire and connected to the components.
- Sharing and versioning of the prototypes when working with multiple designers. It uses Subversion to checkout pages and components while they are being worked on, but issues and errors occur frequently.
- The functions that allow interactions can be basic and cumbersome so when it comes to complex animations or transitions, Axure could really use improvements. . Collision can happen with interactions causing unintended results. Workarounds have to be made to create a complex interaction to describe how the interaction should function.
- Too many interactions or a large prototype can cause slow performance. So its better to keep the prototype small. However, a larger project would need a different solution or approach to manage features. Can be difficult when aiming for consistency within the interactive wire.
- When understanding the minimal needs to describe multiple dimensions of UX using this tool, a designer can very quickly create a prototype using this tool and can help reduce the time needed to assess very usability requirements and business validity for an application.
- The generated files source code absolutely cannot be used in the application code. Measures should be taken to ensure the code is not used in the application code or else you risk rework in development/implementation.
Since Axure RP is a desktop software that can work without a cloud connection, it is easy to have approved within a highly restricted corporate environment for a low cost with a small team. iRise is a solution that requires greater amounts of management, best service a group of designers in a corporate environment. InVision is cloud-based and, although not impossible, would require a long-term agreement to be made between the corporate and InVision. These could take years. Origami is free and desktop based and has great control of the transitions and data - but is so granular that additional time commitments may have to be made to make a prototype of this fidelity.