toolbox
Happy to work in your preferred tool but here's my POV on each...and why.
axure
Proficiency: Advanced
My POV:
The best prototyping tool around. Enables the most "real-life" prototypes.
In fact, it's a one-stop-shop for all UX deliverables including wireframes, maps/flows, even an interactive design ssytem and component library.
It's steep learning curve is likely the reason it's not as popular as other tools but it’s absolutely worth the time investment
(Overkill if all you need is wireframes.)
Rationale for POV
Multiple actions on click/tap
Conditional logic
Realistic, robust filtering
Component overrides
figma
Proficiency: Competant
My POV:
Limited prototyping capabilities. It's a fan favorite of Graphic Designers but it's not a great UX design and prototyping tool. It cannot perform more than one action on click/tap, cannot have more than one panel reveal on each canvas, and does not have conditional logic.
Modern interfaces need to be able to have multiple things occur on any event. You don't want your prototyping tool to limit your design vision.
Rationale for POV
Multiple actions on click/tap
Conditional logic
Realistic, robust filtering
Component overrides
sketch
Proficiency: Advanced
My POV:
Years ago, Sketch was the leading tool but Figma has surpassed it. And Sketch has even fewer prototyping features than Figma does.
Some recent upgrades are also not actually that great.
.
Rationale for POV
Multiple actions on click/tap
Conditional logic
Realistic, robust filtering
Component overrides
adobe xd
Proficiency: Beginner
My POV:
Haven't needed XD on any projects yet but have tinkered with it. For a long time it wasn't preferable to Sketch because it didn't have component overrides. Now that it has them I'm revisiting it.
But its prototyping features are still limited.
Rationale for POV
Multiple actions on click/tap
Conditional logic
Realistic, robust filtering
Component overrides
invision
Proficiency: Competant (but they're out of business)
My POV:
Kudos to InVision for being one of the first companies to recognize the need for prototypes without a huge learning curve and providing something that simulated prototyping.
But it doesn’t prototype. Flat designs and design fragments need to be uploaded. (A tedious process.) Then “hotspots” are defined to simulate interactions but it doesn’t actually create a prototype.
.
Rationale for POV
Multiple actions on click/tap
Conditional logic
Realistic, robust filtering
Component overrides
ux pin
Proficiency: Competant
My POV:
Fairly robust and easier to learn than Axure but after weeks of work, it corrupted my prototype and the support team has never been able to figure out what happened. Forced me to explore other prototyping tools to find something stable and reliable.
(Overkill if all you need is wireframes.)
Rationale for POV
Multiple actions on click/tap
Conditional logic
Realistic, robust filtering
Component overrides
omnigraffle
Proficiency: Advanced
My POV:
As one of the oldest design tools it was great for wireframes and provided the ability to click from one screen to another. Given its age, it should have blazed the trail as a prototyping tool.
But it has been left in the dust by so many other tools.
Rationale for POV