Wondershare’s Mockitt and how it compares
There are seemingly more and more options for design tools as we continue to navigate the ever-changing tides of society. Technology continues to strive, humans continue to innovate, and information continues to be distributed. Today I am going to talk about a design tool that is trying to improve the process of co-creation with the capability for rapid iteration through synchronized prototyping and testing.
It is a concentrated market to enter, and yet, there is always room for improvement, especially as the world adjusts to working remotely up to 100% of the time. Below you will find a brief walkthrough into the world of productivity and creative possibility, including but not limited to the following topics:
- The landscape that Mockitt is entering and what they’re doing to stand out.
- How Mockitt has done their research and found gaps in the competitors and built a platform that solves for tomorrow's needs.
- The ways in which workflow and cross-department congruency create the atmosphere in which we operate, and therefore influence all that we do.
I began my design journey using the Adobe Suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, In-Design, and Final Cut. It was when I joined a team that was using Sketch, that I realized the potentiality within our design tools. Design is becoming ever more nuanced and with the number of people that are fulfilling these growingly specific roles within the department, there is a crucial need to have platforms that nurture a cross-department and collaborative process. What once was a few graphic designers’ jobs is now fractured into the roles of UX Researcher, UX Designer, UI Designer, Information Architect, Visual Designer, UX Writer, Developer, etc. With each of the specific roles being fulfilled, there is the potential for a tremendous amount of complexity and depth to be brought to the company, as they divvy up the roles to specialized individuals. The potential for growth expands 10-fold, however, there also exists a very important crux.
If you divvy up the work but don't connect the creators through the process, you end up with fractured artifacts rather than the complexly researched and designed, cohesive artifacts that you get from using collaborative design tools. Without using the potential that comes from having so many people involved, it depletes the value of the work.
Mockitt is definitely catering to this process of expansive and collaborative design, setting up the groundwork for the Agile Methodology. Mockitt offers folks the ability to create teams within each project, organizing comments and departments through a simply designed and curated interface.
In my experience with the “team options” within Sketch and Figma, the platform itself is not intuitive enough to someone who is not a frequent design tool user. Mockitt provides and 6-step introduction for each new collaborator, that efficiently and cohesively explains the tools and flows that they may need to use. Through a simple interactive 6-step process, one finds themselves following the simple and animated directions such as:
- “drag this icon to create an interaction”
- “tap here to add a comment”
- “tap here to share prototype”
It’s a pretty revolutionary way to introduce someone to a platform. How many introductions to apps have you skipped because you never remember the information, or they don’t seem helpful at the time and you’d rather just figure it out yourself? This process makes it so the user must actually complete the task so that they are learning by doing rather than seeing or reading. It’s a small add-on that set’s the groundwork for the entire flow of the experience. This is when you see a company actually implementing the values they claim to hold.
Mockitt’s interactive introduction engages the user to understand and utilize the platform in a way that will be most beneficial to them and their team. They are not kidding when they say they have, “improved efficiency beyond the imagination.”
Mockitt offers what Sketch and Figma and Axure do, but with a simplified interface and accessible tools that make creating an app or website intuitive and dynamic. They cater to the entire process for someone of any level to be able to contribute and utilize their tools. From wireframing to prototyping to launching and marketing a new app, Mockitt has taken the core of the design process and broken it down into a platform that offers synchronized workflow from creation to release, allowing the iterative process to be amplified.
When it comes to sharing a prototype, Mockitt offers the options of exporting through PNG, SVG, HTML5, as well as directly to dribble, and through a link or QR code, again building for the future of mobile-first and apps. Working offline becomes possible with these export compatibilities.
Sketch can be simple enough but it also requires a bit of previous knowledge. There is Invision, the prototyping app that you can use with a Sketch plug-in. Invision makes it incredibly simple to create prototypes, however, they are limited in their complexity, and sometimes the coherence between Sketch and Invision can be off. Mockitt enables the ability to by-pass this transfer discrepancy by creating the ability to design, prototype, and comment collaboratively all in one platform.
Being able to send off wireframes to a developer who can directly annotate through the same platform, all the while having the Graphic, Interaction, and Experience Designers participating in the live comments, is what efficient workflow looks like. Developers can copy CSS directly from any element or screen from the “handoff page”, which makes the assembly process flow impeccably, as the building blocks are created cohesively. Mockitt offers a Sketch plug-in to import slices, package them, and share the files and project links for developers, again adding efficiency to the bottom line.
Another design tool, Axure is appreciated for a large number of widgets, animations, and interactions, however, their platform is very icon heavy and not easily navigable. Mockitt gives the ability to create complex animations and interactions through an accessible and user-friendly interface.
Figma is another design tool, I tend to use out of preference for its easily navigable interface. I also appreciate the fact that it allows a web version in addition to its app, which in this case, makes it more user-friendly to non-designers. With that being said, when I send off my files through a Figma link, I am often met with a sense of overwhelmed confusion. The way Mockitt has catered their initial experience for the beginner, they allow each new user to determine their own expertise and be met with the appropriate tools for navigation. Figma also allows teams to enter and comment however, there is not as much detail on who these team members are, what department they represent, and therefore what tools they are looking for.
Beyond the comprehensive efforts that Mockitt has put into creating a design tool that centers collaboration and efficiency, they have covered the essential basics of any prototyping tool including a variety of screen sizes, responsive measurements, and smart alignment.
I am impressed with the ingenuity of creators who can see the needs of people before they have emerged. It's a predictive and calculated approach. Thanks to new products like Wondershare Mockitt, teams will be encouraged to lean into the potentiality that comes with a dynamic collaborative process.
They offer a free trial for up to 3 projects and a significantly decreased monthly plan with the option for a yearly enterprise plan for $99/year.
As design continues to evolve with the times, we are going to be creating for ourselves platforms that are constantly increasing workflow and congruency. In striving for open and collaborative workspaces, there is the goal of keeping our professional atmosphere orderly and adaptable. By adopting communication practices and design tools that nurture remote, collaborative, and iterative work, one may hope that we can simplify and organize our lives, so that perhaps, we can have a little more peace and happiness in cohesion with our communities.
