Product Overview of InVision
InVision is a comprehensive, cloud-based digital product design platform designed to support the entire design process, from brainstorming and designing to testing, collaborating, and delivering. Here’s a detailed look at what InVision does and its key features.
What InVision Does
InVision is built by designers for designers, focusing on enhancing collaboration and streamlining the design workflow. It is widely used by over 7 million users, including teams from Fortune 500 companies such as Airbnb, Slack, Starbucks, and Uber. The platform helps teams create interactive prototypes, manage design systems, and collaborate effectively throughout the design process.
Key Features and Functionality
Prototyping
InVision allows users to create high-fidelity, interactive prototypes quickly and efficiently. You can design mockups for your project using a drag-and-drop method, adding various elements such as photos, drawings, and designs from different sources. These prototypes can be made clickable and accessible to both designers and clients, enabling real-time feedback.
Design Tools
- InVision Studio: This is InVision’s core design tool, offering vector graphics and pixel-level design capabilities. It supports layers, animation features like transitions and gestures, and timeline editing. Studio also integrates with Sketch and Photoshop through the Craft plugin, allowing seamless import and synchronization of designs.
Collaboration
InVision is renowned for its robust collaboration features. It enables real-time collaboration through “Live Share,” where multiple designers can work together over a conference call or multi-person chat, controlling a single mouse pointer to make changes to the design simultaneously. The platform also supports commenting and feedback directly on the designs, facilitating clear communication among team members and stakeholders.
Design System Management (DSM)
The Design System Manager (DSM) is a central library where you can store and manage design elements and styles. This ensures consistency across the project by allowing updates to be applied universally from a single “Master” component. DSM is accessible via InVision Studio and the Craft plugin, making it easy for teams to maintain a unified design language.
Project Management
InVision offers tools for managing projects effectively. You can organize screens, assign tasks, and create to-do lists. The Activity tab allows product owners to track project progress, set deadlines, and use color labels for enhanced visibility. This helps in keeping the project on track and ensuring all stakeholders are informed.
Client Presentations
The InVision Tours feature allows you to take stakeholders on a virtual tour of your prototype, presenting the UX, listing project features, and addressing any queries. This feature is particularly useful for justifying design approaches and demonstrating changes or revisions made to the project.
Animation and Interactions
InVision Studio makes adding animations to your designs straightforward. You can create swipe transitions, edit timelines, and automatically link layers to avoid animation implementation issues. This feature enhances the interactive nature of your prototypes, making them more engaging and realistic.
Mobile Prototyping
InVision supports both desktop and mobile prototyping. You can create mobile prototype slides that can be controlled through gestures such as double-tapping, screen dissolving, swiping, and sliding. This ensures a seamless user experience across different screen sizes and shapes.
Integration and Syncing
The platform integrates with various tools like Google Drive, Box, and Dropbox, allowing easy loading of designs. The Craft plugin also enables synchronization of designs from Sketch and Photoshop, ensuring that all team members have access to the latest versions of the project. This syncing capability helps in managing different iterations of the project efficiently.
In summary, InVision is a powerful tool that encompasses a wide range of features to support every stage of the digital product design process. Its focus on collaboration, prototyping, design system management, and project management makes it an indispensable tool for designers and development teams aiming to create high-quality, user-friendly products.