Cultural & Creative Industries Research Priority Group - How to create a Mobile App Prototype in InVision Workshop
The Cultural & Creative Industries (CCI) Research Priority Group from the Institute of Asia and Pacific Studies (IAPS), UNNC, held the first workshop on "How to create a Mobile App Prototype in InVision" on 10th Mar 2021 (Wed). The workshop was attended by staff and PhD students from different faculties who are interested in knowing more about the prototyping tools. Some attendees are experienced in designing prototypes, while most of them are keen on exploring the use of InVision in creating a prototype. Dr Fui Theng Leow (FT), the Lead of CCI and Dr Dimple Thadani, the Co-lead of CCI, were the workshop speakers. In-line with the Call-For-Proposals for the Design & Prototyping Project, which is the main activity of CCI, the workshop aims to provide staff and PhD students with hands-on experience in using InVision, encouraging the initial development of innovative projects on digital products/services.
The workshop attendees were first introduced to a prototyping tool, InVision Studio. It allows users to create mobile app prototypes and animation to transform the screens into interactive prototypes by either working individually or in a team.
“I didn’t know that there is a platform like this that can stimulate my creative thinking and help me to make my design ideas clearer to people that I want to talk to”, one of the workshop attendees mentioned.
FT also shared the use of templates, preset icons, app store components, and assets provided in InVision Studio to create a mobile app with multiple screens and navigation. It is an example of visualising the design concept for a workable application, such as a skill training software or an e-commerce site, without the need for sophisticated programming skills or powerful software. FT emphasised that InVision is free and easy to use. Up to date, there are more than 7 million people, including giant companies such as IBM, Google, who use InVision to develop and streamline design workflows.
To differentiate between a prototype and an actual functional programme, Dimple explained that “a prototype is an early artefact of your idea. It can be a preliminary version of your product to test theories and validate key assumptions. A prototype is not made real yet, much like a mock-up phone.”
The highlight of this workshop is the tutorial session in which FT demonstrated the steps of making a prototype in InVision Studio and guide the workshop attendees to design an interface of mobile screens and add interaction to create the clickable screens. FT also recommended a list of app components, icon sets, and assets to help build a screen-based prototype more effortlessly and quickly.
Before the end of the workshop, Dimple took the opportunity to encourage everyone to kick-start a design and prototyping project by submitting a proposal before the deadline (26 March 2021). It can be a research collaboration between the staff members and students, with the staff member being the team leader. CCI will provide a start-up fund (maximum up to 5,000 RMB) to support the successful proposals of the a-year long projects.
It is believed that the workshop has given some inspiring ideas to staff members and students to diversify the approaches and tools used in various research and teaching contexts. CCI received enquiries about using InVision in developing teaching materials, implementing prototyping task in students’ assignments, and analysing the mobile app usage pattern.
A PhD student majoring in Engineering said that “this workshop is interesting and practical in the way that it helps me put my ideas into practice at the lowest. I think it is a great tool for people who are not good at expressing their ideas.”
The workshop has been video-recorded and shared on a Teams page, “Create Prototype using InVision”, for anyone who missed the hands-on session and is interested in the Call-for-Proposal event. More details and discussions are available on this “Create Prototype using InVision” Teams page.