Prototyping with Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD
By: Oluwapelumi Adeyemi
Tags: Prototyping, Design, UI, UX, Resources

How to Prototype

Sketch

Adding a link — The quickest way to create a Prototype is to add a Link between two Artboards. You can add Links from any layer to any Artboard. To add a Link in Sketch, select a layer, choose + next to Prototyping in the Inspector (or press W), then click on an artboard you’d like to link your layer to.

In the inspector, you can choose how a Link’s transition will look using the Animation buttons and change which Artboard a Link takes you to using the Target drop-down menu.

Select “Previous Artboard” in the Target drop-down menu, to tell Sketch to return to whichever Artboard you were previewing before the current one. This is helpful when you have lots of Links leading to a single Artboard.

You can remove a link by choosing Prototyping > Remove Links from Selection, set your Link’s target to “None” or click the trash icon in the Prototyping section of the Inspector to remove a Link.

Choosing a start point — Start Points let you choose which Artboard your Prototype starts with when you preview it. To set a Start Point, open your Prototype in the Preview window, select an Artboard from the drop-down menu, and click the flag button next to it.

Previewing Prototypes — There are three ways to preview Prototypes — in the Sketch app, on your iOS device using Sketch Mirror (App Store), or in Sketch Cloud where you can share prototypes with others.

There are three ways to preview Prototypes — in the Sketch app, on your iOS device using Sketch Mirror (App Store), or in Sketch Cloud where you can share prototypes with others. Handoff to developer and engineers — Sketch just recently announced an in-browser inspector for developer handoff. It’s still in beta but it’s scheduled for release early this year. This is a new development as sketch didn’t use to have any means for developer handoff and it solely depended on external tools like zeplin, Invision, Avocado and sketch Measure. Read press release.

Pro and cons of prototyping with Sketch

Pretty simple prototyping tool, very easy to learn.

No auto-animation tool.

No component states or mouse gesture triggers.

No native developer handoff tool.

No collaboration.

Prototyping in sketch is quite basic compared to other design tools and it currently cannot handle handoff with engineers, it still relies on external tools.

For more information on prototyping with sketch — https://www.sketch.com/docs/prototyping/

Figma

Adding a link — To add a Link in figma, switch to prototype mode through the sidebar

Select a layer, drag the dot by the right-side of the layer and drop it on the artboard you’d like to link your layer to. Within the sidebar, you can select what type of animation would occur while transitioning between artboards.

Choosing a start point — To set a Start Point, drag the play icon on your preferred artboard.

Previewing Prototypes — There are two ways to preview Prototypes in figma — in the figma app, or on your mobile device (iOS & android) using Figma Mirror (App Store)

There are two ways to preview Prototypes in figma — in the figma app, or on your mobile device (iOS & android) using Figma Mirror (App Store) Handoff to developer and engineers — Click on the share button on the top-right corner, and share with your engineers.

Pro and cons of prototyping with figma

Best collaborating system

The mirror app is quite slow and does not render the animation frame rates properly

Auto-animate feature is not the best

It’s fully cloud based and it’s available on almost every notable desktop platform (windows, mac, linux and on a browser). But that also means “no internet no figma”.

Handoff works perfectly.

Figma is a well rounded product, it handles prototyping pretty well. Sharing prototypes and handing off to developers is quite easy and straightforward. Although it lacks a bit of sophistication compared to Adobe XD and Invision Studio, it’s still pretty decent.

For more information on prototyping with figma — https://www.figma.com/file/IPlvaZWmxh5koplBxkbxM2/Prototyping-in-Figma

Adobe XD

Adding a link — Switch to Prototype mode and click the layer you want to link. A connecting handle with an arrow appears from the layer. When you hover your mouse over the handle, the cursor changes to a connector.

Click and start dragging your mouse to see the connector. Release your mouse on the destination artboard. When you wire up the first element, the artboard of that element is set as the home artboard.

Previewing Prototypes — You can either preview prototypes live on your mobile device (https://helpx.adobe.com/xd/help/preview-mobile.html) or upload to your adobe cloud account for sharing with others.

You can either preview prototypes live on your mobile device (https://helpx.adobe.com/xd/help/preview-mobile.html) or upload to your adobe cloud account for sharing with others. Handoff to developer and engineers — Before sharing, adobe XD asks who you would like to share the prototype with. There’s an option for developers which provides a smooth handoff process with engineers.

Pro and cons of prototyping with Adobe XD

Prototyping is amazing! You don’t need any extra plugins or services to create high fidelity clickable prototype.

Adobe always makes sure their creative suite of applications are linked, so that would give XD a boost — Designers would be able to have more options/tools with the involvement of other adobe applications.

With the introduction of Anchor links, Audio Playback,Multiple actions on a Tap trigger and so many other features, prototyping is more advanced on XD.

No Scrollable Area feature, the whole artboard acts as one.

Lastly, here are some other prototyping tools to check out:

Invision

Protopie

Marvel

Framer X

Origami Studio

Principle

Proto.io

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