InVision: Design, UX & Dev Tools That Will Save You Tons Of Cash & Time

3 years ago I worked for a startup that had been acquired by a large corporation. We were using the daylights out of a rapid prototyping tool named InVisionApp. It had completely changed the way our team designed.

Fast forward a year, and a team member at InVision reached out about a job opening at the company. I took the plunge and joined a team of dedicated, crazy talented people who loved the product, but most importantly loved having the opportunity to positively impact the daily lives of designers all over the world.

When I interviewed 2 years ago, there were 50 employees. 2 years later, we’re a team of 350+. Our weekly newsletter now goes out to 2.5 million subscribers. And our product has gone from a rapid prototyping tool, to an entire suite of tools. It’s wild, some people hear InVisionApp and think of the original rapid prototyping tool that it was when I started. We’ve had an INSANE number of additions in the last 2 years, and I’d like to highlight a couple of my favs that many people don’t realize are part of the product.

1. Boards: We have this awesome tool called boards built right into the product. You can create gorgeous mood boards and stakeholder presentations in seconds.
2. Workflow: There’s an integrated design workflow tracking tool. Need to keep up with your progress? Add cards to workflow and drag them to the appropriate columns as you complete your tasks.
3. Freehand: I used to use several tools to bang out wireframes. They worked ok, but I wished there was something lighter to use. We’ve got a new tool called Freehand that lets you create wireframes in minutes. You can also pull in mockups and conduct collaborative feedback sessions with your team. (And as an added bonus it’s just really fun to play with.) 🙂
4. Prototyping Inside Sketch: We have a plugin named Craft that lets you hook up your clickable prototypes right inside Sketch, and then send them to InVision with a click using Sync. It’s a MASSIVE time saver!
5. Stock: You can test out images from Getty and iStock right in your design before you purchase them. Then you can purchase them with a click if you find one you love.(There are a ton of other hugely time saving features in the Craft Plugin that you should def checkout. For the sake of keeping this post shortish, I’ll stop there!)
6. UserTesting.com Recording Baked In: A lot of people don’t realize this, but we have UserTesting.com recording baked right into the product! You just activate it and you can record your usability testing sessions with a click.
7. Inspect: Once you are feeling good about your design and you’re ready to handoff to the engineering team (or to yourself if you’re a 1 woman/man show) you can fire up Inspect and it will pull all the specs out of your prototype. Automagically. It’s the best.

So there are a zillion other awesome features and tools built in to InVision & Craft, but I’m going to stop there for now. If you get a sec, I definitely recommend playing with the new features. They’ll save you an insane amount of time, as well as crazy cash since they replace a giant stack of different products in a shot. You can just stay in product and do all of the things. I think you’re going to really love it. 🙂

(Disclaimer: In case you didn’t catch it, I work at InVision now. And love my job. And we’re hiring.) 🙂

Then my kiddo asked, “What’s the difference between UX & UI?”

The Difference Between UX and UI

A year ago I was burning the midnight oil working on a project. My daughter snuck up behind me and peeked over my shoulder.

“Wait… isn’t your job doing UX?” she asked.

“Yep,” I replied.

She responded very innocently, “So why does that screen say UI? Are they the same thing? What’s the difference between UX and UI?”

I sat back in my chair and stared at her for a sec, and said, “You know what? Give me a minute.”

I was suddenly struck with the realization that even folks who are professional designers have a tough time explaining the difference to each other, let alone trying to explain it to family and friends. And kids (mine included), know IMMEDIATELY if you’re BSing, and they aren’t afraid to call you out.

Post-its and Sharpies to the Rescue

After giving it some serious thought I whipped out my trusty Sharpie and some Post-it notes and started to doodle.

I wound up with a little dude with spikey hair on a bicycle.

Boom.

My daughter looked it over and said, “Oh! So the UI is the part you use, and UX is how you feel when you use it.”

I was so pumped. Clearly it wasn’t a comprehensive explanation of every nuance between the two, but she grasped the high level concept in seconds.

Sharing is Caring

At that point I decided, on a whim, to post a pic of the doodle on Twitter. I had never posted a single one of my doodles anywhere on the internet in my entire life, because, not going to lie, stick figures are the extent of my artistic skill, but I figured that maybe some parents somewhere could use it to explain what they do to their kiddos too.

Ummm…

I got up the next morning and flipped open my Twitter app and was astounded to discover that over a hundred people had retweeted my doodle. This was back in the day when I only had about 1000 followers, so the number was crazy to me. I manically started replying to each person thanking them for their retweets, and wished A LOT that I had branded my blog URL on the doodle. Lesson learned.

3 Days Later…

3 days later thousands of people had tweeted, retweeted, shared, favorited liked and posted my Post-it note doodle all over the inter webs. Folks had even begun translating it in to other languages!

Crazy Town

All of a sudden, I started getting a flood of emails related to the doodle. People began asking to use it in articles and presentations. Professors emailed asking if they could include it in their design curriculums. A publisher contacted me and asked if I would consider writing a book about user experience. Not one, but 2 authors asked if I would illustrate their books. A flood of requests came in asking for t-shirts and mugs and wall prints. My blog blew up. I went from a few hundred readers each month to an audience of thousands of readers each month.

It was by far the most excessively random thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.

Doodling Is Awesome

Never under estimate the power of doodling. Even a picture of a stick figure on a death trap bicycle can get a concept across. Who knows what kinds of concepts your doodles could could bring clarity to.

Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to start sharing your doodles! And especially don’t fear doodle haters. There are people out there who hate Picasso paintings, while others pay millions to own one. Art is in the eye of the beholder, so just man up and share your work! There could be far more power in your doodles than you’d expect!

User Experience Rocks Is Officially 2 Years Old!

User Experience Rocks is officially 2 years old, and I just wanted to take a moment to express my deepest thanks to each and every person who has taken the time to read my articles over the course of the past 2 years! I can’t even begin to express how much it has meant to me. You folks are the absolute best! ❤ Cheers to a fabulous 2015 to come!

When Your MacBook Won’t Boot First Thing In The Morning

I just had one of those extreme panic moments. I grabbed my morning cup of coffee, hit the power button on my Mac… and it spun and spun and spun and spun… and didn’t boot. Thank goodness for Dropbox or I probably would have had a coronary on the spot. I legit felt like someone had sawed off my right arm.

I wound up having to steal my daughter’s Windows 8 machine for about an hour… and I after using it for about 10 minutes I wanted to die. I didn’t really realize how deeply immersed in Apple land I am, until I tried to actually get work done in a Windows 8 environment.

I am happy to report that after some doctoring my beloved MacBook Pro has returned to its fully functioning happy self, but holy adrenaline rush first thing in the morning.

Stop Asking For Photo Access During The App Install Process!

So when iOS8 came out, I had to clear a boatload of misc apps and photos and such to install the over the air update. (I realize I could have plugged in and done it through iTunes, but deleting 8654 apps sounded like less of a hassle at the time.)

I deleted Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, then reinstalled them once my phone finished updating.

Twitter! How could you?!
During the reinstall process I discovered a shocking truth. One of my most used apps, Twitter, STILL asks for photo access immediately after install! And it still feels shady and invasive. I immediately said no, even though I upload pictures to Twitter pretty much daily.

UX Fail
It’s a definite UX fail, which bums me out because they made some really fab enhancements this release. I’m loving being able to click on sender faces to open their profiles in the messages area. It’s a beautiful UX change. I’m loving the new profile look and feel too.

Kudos LinkedIn and Facebook
LinkedIn and Facebook both did the right thing, and waited to ask for photo access until I actually wanted to add a photo to a post. At that point it’s just a natural feeling part of the upload flow.

“You want to add a photo? No prob, just give me access to your photos so we can get this done.”

“Of course app that doesn’t seem shady and invasive, I obviously have to give you access to complete the task I want to finish. I’m invested in the process, and the request feels natural.”

Twitter: Now Jump Through Hoops Because Our Install Process Was Shady
Since Twitter was all sketchy at install, when I finally did want to post a picture I got that annoying message telling me I’d need to go through the 92 step process required to enable it.

UX Pros: Take A Stand
As UX pros, can we all just agree that asking for photo access during install is just generally obnoxious? It creates a negative initial user experience and creates a feeling of brand distrust right off the bat.

Small details like privacy setting request flows can have a big impact on brand trust. Stop making your brand seem seem untrustworthy by fixing your on-boarding experiences!

Sharpie Addiction: The Struggle Is Real

I was just sitting in my office and picked up my purse and wondered why it was getting so heavy. I reached inside and pulled out a rainbow assortment of 11 (Yes, 11!) Sharpies.

It was like a clown car situation, they just kept coming and coming.

You know you’re a designer when…

#SharpieAddiction #TheStruggleIsReal

Usability Testing: The Money Saving Ego Killer

Ever had a feature idea, tested it and had clients hate on the idea so hard during usability testing that it completely crushed your ego?

It happens. But the thing to remember when it happens is that if you hadn’t tested it, you’d have spent a ton of cash in wasted man hours developing something no one wants!

Better to have just your ego crushed early, rather than your ego AND your wallet crushed later!

Reason #9072 You Should Always Record Usability Tester Facial Video and Audio

We’ve all been there right? You’re conducting a usability test, and your tester is slamming the mouse around angrily until he or she FINALLY figures out how to complete the assigned task. 

Then, when asked to rate the task, the tester smiles politely and says it was “easy”. 

It’s obviously not true, but if you don’t record audio and video, and only go on tester rating, you’ll never know to fix the issue. 

Audio and video allow you to look past verbal responses into what is really going on with your testers. You can look for facial expressions relating to frustration and anger, listen for under the breath profanity, and just generally get a more holistic view of how your testers really feel. 

Not recording tester audio and video does you a huge disservice. 

Give it a shot. It’ll help you uncover the testers who are lying, consciously or subconsciously, and will give you better data. 

You’re a software designer? Awesome! Come fix my hardware!

Attack of the Killer Feature Bloat

So have you ever used a an early adaptation of a product, V1 or V2, and absolutely LOVED it? A best thing since sliced bread, completely awesome, wonder how you lived without it product?

Then V3 comes out and all of a sudden there is all this extra… stuff. And the charm is suddenly gone. Now you’re digging through a layer of crazy to get to the underlying base features that you loved in the first place.

You stare at the screen thinking, “What happened here?” Then move on to a different, simpler product.

I’ll tell you exactly what happened. We like to call it feature bloat. It’s when a company starts out with a great simple concept with awesome UX, and moves into “design by committee” mode as the product expands.

They start tacking on all kinds of random features, and bells and whistles, until the original concept is barely recognizable.

Then users start to bail on the product, so the company panics and tosses on another layer of miscellaneous stuff no one wants.

Eventually the product and sometimes entire company, explode into oblivion and wind up in that great big startup grave yard in the sky.

Sounds… horrible, right? So how do you avoid the terrifying feature bloat implosion scenario?

All it takes is a qualified, experienced product manager who can see through the fluff, and who isn’t afraid to say, “No.”

We are fortunate enough to have absolutely phenomenal product managers on our staff, along with absolutely incredible senior management. They’re so in tune with the true needs of our users that we sometimes accuse them of being psychic.

So if your company is expanding out of startup mode, do yourself a favor and land a quality product manager ASAP!