Top 9 AI-Based Design and Prototyping Tools

Design and prototyping tools help you seamlessly turn your vision and ideas into a project that you can digitally visualize.

Therefore, turning things from your mind into a digital product takes work and these tools can help get you closer to your vision.

While there is a huge choice of such tools, in this article, you’ll find the top 9 design & prototype tools and platforms.

Any of these will be a great pick and you only need to decide which one of these would fit your ideas the best.

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Top 9 AI-Based Prototyping Tools and Platforms

While these platforms might look similar, there are small but important differences. Therefore, you should check out each one of these tools and platforms to make the best choice for your personal needs.

And if you’re about to make your first prototype, checking out platforms that are easy to use and convenient could also be a great starting point.

1. Figma – Best for Planning and Prototyping

Figma is a tool designed to provide collaboration features in the designing process for teams looking for a tool that can help them collaborate in real-time. Therefore, Figma works effortlessly in 3 steps. The first step is to brainstorm and explore all your ideas together. This is a huge advantage Figma has over other tools since this is something you usually have to do on your own with your in-house team or use any other software such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams for your brainstorming sessions. With the latest developments in the AI world, Figma also helps you take advantage of that by generating AI boards, using AI stickies, or relying on the Jambot FigJam. Therefore, Figma AI improves the platform for its users in terms of accuracy, data usage, and the amount of responsibilities platform handles for the users.

Figma integrates this into the tool since it’s definitely an important part of the designing process. Therefore, you’ll be able to find diagrams, digital sticky notes, workshops, and an online whiteboard. With these features, you’ll have all necessities you would usually use if you met up with your team in person. After that, you can bring those ideas to life with the help of designing features. You can get your designs ready in real-time while collaborating with your team side by side. It’s worth mentioning that Figma is great in both the office and remotely.

So, when you create your designs and are confident, you’re onto something good, you can build your first prototypes. The building process is centralized so you can find all styles and assets in one place so the entire team and company can have access and take part in making the prototype. Another Figma’s advantage over other competitors is the community aspect which helps you find like-minded designers, get help, provide help to others, or simply get inspired in the forums.

2. Mockitt – Best for Scaling Prototype Designs

Mockitt is one of Wondershares’ biggest assets since it’s a tool that doesn’t only provide prototype designing features but it also provides flowchart and mind map features. With such a combination, Mockitt provides a very simple and intuitive designer where you can create real-life interactive prototypes that you can deliver to your clients.

You can create these prototypes with your team thanks to the collaborative features, and one of its strongest designing features is the handoff. Handoff is a process where you can design your prototype visually and then turn those pixels into code. With such access, you don’t need any coding experience but you can further upgrade your code by sending it off to a developer. With collaborative features that involve users in every step of the designing process, you will be able to keep communication open, receive feedback, and keep iterations moving between developers and designers.

If you’d like to take things to the next level, you can use Mockitt’s AI prototyping feature that can help you generate protos, flowcharts, mind maps, tables, charts, and more. There are also a couple of AI-based tools such as the Magic Fill, and there’s even an AI chatbot integration so you can quickly get help. There are plenty of assets you can choose from and you can literally drag and drop them using Mockitt’s editor. Therefore, you can turn your visions and ideas into your first prototype without ever having to write a single line of code.

3. Moqups – Best for Creating Prototyping Concepts

Moqups is a place where you get to share your ideas and create your concept with the help of wireframes, diagrams, and prototypes to turn your vision into a digital product. What’s great about Moqups is that it’s a web-based app that is very simple to use and you can get started straight after creating your account.

You get to follow the designing process, planning process, and prototyping. Each step of the process is followed by collaborative features that help you to communicate in real-time so that the flexible design solution helps adapt to your team and your workflow. What’s also great about Moqups is that you can work remotely in the cloud and you will feel as if you were working in the office. Moqups is one of the easiest prototyping and designing tools to learn and you and your team will have an easy learning curve to handle.

Moqups is also one of the platforms that leverages the existing artificial intelligence. You can use the AI  text-to-image feature to create graphics and visual assets to use in the prototypes.  This will accelerate your designing and prototyping process since you’ll be able to transfer your ideas and visions directly into a digital asset with the help of tools and frameworks in place.

4. Adobe XD – Best for Advanced Prototype Designs

If you’re looking for a bit more advanced version of a design and prototyping tool, Adobe XD is a good choice. It’s an advanced tool that’s built by Adobe from scratch and it can help you create prototypes that feel almost like the real deal. With the help of a vector-based designing platform, you can collaboratively take your vision to craft a prototype that you can present to your clients.

There are integrated components and states that you can use as elements in the designer. XD takes things further by featuring even the ability to turn your designs into 3D transforms. Since this tool is provided by Adobe, just like with any of their tools, you can rely on the community. This means that Adobe XD comes with a library database where you can find more elements and designs or you can share your libraries with others. All designs you create are fully responsive and with additional plugins, you can easily create designs based on real data that can function almost like a real digital asset you have envisioned.

Auto-animation, scroll groups, anchor links, triggers, inputs, and real-time preview will help you replicate what you have in mind as closely as possible and with sharing options, you can get the feedback you require during the designing process. Adobe XD was also one of the platforms to first jump on the artificial intelligence wave. With the help of AI, you can now generate fictional images in Adobe XD, make avatars in seconds, and use a bunch of plugins that enable even more AI benefits.

5. Webflow – Best for Prototyping on the Web

When you want to design and create an attractive website from scratch and yet you don’t want to write a single line of code, Webflow is a choice to consider.

Webflow is a web-based tool that can help you create and scale attractive websites you can create from scratch using the interactive visual editor. This drag-and-drop editor can serve as your canvas and you won’t ever have to write a single line of code. Webflow uses AI to help users improve visual learning development and besides asking the AI chatbot questions, you can also create assets much faster than ever before. There are also AI customized templates that can help you quickly start creating your prototypes, while keeping them very unique to your project.

However, what’s also great is that Webflow comes with collaborative features that help you work on your websites with a team in real-time, which is ideal for working remotely as you will get a feel as if you’re working in the office. Webflow fits web designers, marketers, and even developers since it provides creativity that doesn’t only rely on templates but on building elements so you get to create what you’ve envisioned with full control over your canvas.

And since Webflow is highly focused on designing, it is still backed by marketing so you can use it to optimize it for search engines, marketplace and eCommerce, and even content-based websites.

6. Origami Studio – Best for All-in-One Prototype Designs

Origami Studio is an all-in-one type of designing and prototyping tool that can help you design, animate, and prototype in the same process with only one tool. This tool is a desktop tool and its main design interface is called Canvas. Whatever you’ve envisioned, you can visually lay it all out in a way of freeform drawing and even text. This is the most significant advantage over other tools of similar type.

Of course, there are also visual components and elements that come pre-built and can be edited further to speed up the process and ease the learning curve. What’s also significant is that you can create in-app prototype interactions by building interactive components. On top of that, Origami Studio can take things to an advanced level for the skilled ones by allowing you to touch on native hardware APIs to ensure your prototype feels like a real digital asset on any device. To make things even more comprehensive and interesting, Origami Studio features AI-powered virtual assistant to make workflow smoother, which can also serve as a voice recognition assistant.

This helps you take advantage of the device’s features such as movements, haptic feedback, photo library, audios, and more to integrate it into your prototypes. And if you happen to work with any other tools such as Sketch or Figma, you can easily import your work and take it to the next level in Origami Studio.

7. Sketch – Best for Visual Prototypes

Sketch is one of the simplest web-based apps that you can use to get started quickly, but it also comes with a native macOS app so you can take full advantage of your hardware.

Its designer is an all-in-one toolkit that allows you to create concepts from your ideas, craft your ideas further and create seamless prototypes. On top of that, you can even create beautiful app icons since Sketch supports native font rendering, P3 color profiles, and even an optimized Apple Silicon performance. On top of that, you can benefit from a real-time collaboration feature if you are a part of a team. Getting work done quicker, being more productive, brainstorming together, and improving the concept together are just some of the abilities thanks to integrated collaborative features.

What’s even better yet is that you can integrate third-party apps to customize your workflow and get all your work done within Sketch. Of course, there’s also the ability to hand off your projects to a developer and have them get anything done for you which is still a great possibility. There’s also the latest update, an introduction of the AI features. Sketch now allows you to turn your hand drawings into art with the help of artificial intelligence so you can use them in your mockups and prototypes.

8. ProtoPie – Best for Realistic Prototypes

ProtoPie is a simple and all-in-one prototyping platform that can help you create very realistic prototypes without any coding requirements. You can get started for free and yet you can import any designs from tools such as XD, Sketch, or Figma, or you can create a prototype from scratch using ProtoPie’s builder.

What’s great about ProtoPie is that it allows you to create any type of prototype that you can test for useability, but you can even create interactions with hardware and APIs. Therefore, you can create prototypes for mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, and even TVs, and more. You can make anything from games to apps that support any industry such as automotive. Now, you can make prototypes by prompting the commands and get the work done much faster than ever before, thanks to ProtoPie’s AI interaction designer.

Since ProtoPie allows you to connect with APIs and hardware, you can use the smartphone’s full functionality such as a microphone, and translation, and have it behaved almost like an end product. Being so close to a polished prototype can help you deliver and present clients with a realistic prototype that can make a huge difference.

9. Proto.io – Best for Most Functional Prototypes

Proto.io is one of the easiest-to-learn prototyping tools that can help you create your prototype in no time without having to code a single line. You won’t have to start from scratch either. Proto.io comes with pre-built templates and elements that you can use to build your prototype as if you’re building using blocks.

Therefore, you can take advantage of over a thousand templates, 6000+ digital assets, and 250+ user interface components. With such help, you can create a very interactive prototype that is realistic and very close to a final result. Proto.io helps you to add functionality behind the visuals so you will be able to test your prototype for useability and feel the trial of what could potentially be a finished product.

This prototyping tool also supports collaboration so you will be able to preview, share, and get feedback on your prototypes. With that being said, you will be able to get help developing a fully functional product even after you’ve done with your prototype. Proto.io is also versatile since you can import your existing designs from third-party apps, but you can also create prototypes for almost any device and hardware, import content from the web, use integrated fonts, reuse components, and create variables without coding.

FAQs

How fhese cesign and prototyping tools and platforms help you develop?

Since these design and prototyping tools and platforms don’t require you to code anything, you can focus on visuals, creating faster, making better choices for the process, investing less money in a design, and having an eye on compliance requirements during designs.

This way, you can create designs and prototypes faster, present them much better, and don’t require to learn a programming language to be able to make anything from minor to complex changes. Therefore, most challenges are removed and you can be more efficient.

What can you use these tools and apps for?

These designing and prototyping tools and apps can help you solve a problem, and present a solution in a way of an app while targeting a market or users who are having problems or difficulties.

Through one simple prototype, you can take your ideas and turn them visual and functional, and even take it further if your idea is good enough.

How to start designing and prototyping with these tools?

No matter which tool you choose, you can start designing and prototyping in a couple of steps. It’s important to start from the inside out by sorting the basic framework, navigation, and layout.

Prototype only things you need to showcase its benefits and problem-solving ability. It’s best to focus on user scenarios and then get the right users for testing so you know how to polish the prototype and turn it into a fully functional app you can release on the market.

Conclusion

What once used to be a long, hard, and difficult thing to do, designing and prototyping is made simple with the help of these tools.

No matter which one you choose, you will be able to start prototyping within the web browser or through a desktop app in minutes without needing any coding knowledge.

These tools are super advanced and you will be able to nearly create a fully functional prototype which is more than enough to test, get feedback, and turn into a fully functional app.

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