You have got a great mobile app idea but not sure how to proceed on it. Lets see how to reach from a great mobile app idea to a presentable App prototype in just few quick steps without doing any programming and only by using your mobile phone .
Process of prototype creation starts with drawing of wire-frames/visual designs for screens. These designs can be created on computer (using a software of your choice like Paint, Photoshop, PowerPoint etc) or can be simply drawn by hand using a pen and a paper. You can also use mobile apps like Skitch which allows to capture images and draw figures.
Once screen designs are ready, next step is to convert these drawing into a usable prototype with clickable screens. This part we will be doing using free mobile apps.
There are free mobile apps which can make it very easy to create a working prototype just in few clicks. We checked three such apps – Pop, Marvel and Conceptly. Best part was that all these three free apps had almost same process to create prototypes. Following are the basic steps –
1) Create A Project –
Your work starts with clicking on the plus (+) icon to add a new project. You can choose to host your project online (click enable web sharing option) which makes it easier to showcase your prototype to others.
Choose the supported resolution for your project by choosing a device type. Supported devices can be – iPhone 4/4S/5/5S/6/6 Plus, Apple Watch, Android Nexus 5 etc.
Then comes to choose screen layout based on orientation (Portrait or Landscape) for the project (Pop app). Once you finish all these steps you will have an empty project ready.
2) Add Screen Drawings –
Next phase comes to add screens, open your project > click on the bottom plus icon within a project > add a new screen. Here the general options would be to import screen images from image gallery, click pictures of drawings, in some cases you can even draw within the application (). Here we have to import our screen drawings into the application.
3) Set clickable HotSpot –
Once you get all the drawing imported within the project, next step is to link all these screens and set sequences of screens. You will need to add clickable hotspots on every screen. Such as if you have a ‘Next’ button which takes user to the next screen, make a hotspot over ‘Next’ option. Link this area to the next screen, you can also choose the transition effects for the next screen such as Fade away or Slide Left/Right, Slid Up/Down, Flip, Pop etc.
On every screen you can create multiple clickable hotspots, which can take user to linked screens.
4) Share Your App Idea –
Once you are done with creation of prototype and you are satisfied with functions you would like to show your mobile app idea to world. All these apps give you option to share a working prototype with other people. You can share link to run your prototype and users can also share their feedback.
Because of these free and easy to use mobile apps it has become a child’s play to create prototype and show the world your business and mobile app idea. These great apps are available for multiple mobile platform (such as iOS and Android). Following is a list of these mobile apps with a link to download them on your mobile –
1) Pop – Apple Store, Google Play Store .
2) Marvel – Apple Store, Play Store .
3) Concept.ly – Apple Store .