POP (Prototyping on Paper)
![POP (Prototyping on Paper)](/images/0/237/ad23c9ea75c43283b29725308653342f.jpg)
POP lets developed create a full prototype of their apps before they begin the task of coding.
- Simple drag and drop design interface
- Strong quality testing and collaborative features
- Supported by an external web app
- Simple interface makes it easy for beginners to pick up
- Collaboration functionality is great for larger teams
- Sharing your prototype with anyone is a painless process
- Not well suited for the design of more advanced apps
- Higher level functionality relegated to the web app
Creating a new app can be a laborious process, and communicating exactly what you're looking for to your development team without a visual frame of reference can be a difficult trial. Prototyping on Paper (POP) uses a simple design interface so you can mock up the design and features of your application before you ever start writing a line of code. Whether you're an idea person looking to relay your ideas to your developers or a coder in search of a visual frame of reference, POP is a critical tool for the early stages of design. POP is compatible with Android devices as well as iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and Apple TV, and it lets you transform simple sketches into complex prototypes. It accomplishes through a system where all you have to do is take your existing visual elements and snap them into place. While this won't give you the context for how to create these functions in code, it does provide you with the means to see firsthand what the finished product might look like. You can use POP to create multiple menus and screens and link them together into a larger and more dynamic structure. Getting started is simple. Users can begin by taking photos of the app's elements using their camera or uploading existing image files directly into the app. Once you have all of your resources into place, you can drag them on the screen to create layouts. Users can create multiple screens and then link them together through the use of hotspots. In practice, this helps you simulate the dynamic linking used by most web based applications. Once your prototype is finished, you can play with it yourself or send it to friends or developers so they can interact with the basic app and provide suggestions and advice themselves. Exporting your prototype is a versatile process. Through the app's sharing screen, you can export the prototype via email, text message, and a variety of social media platforms. That means friends and family with little technical knowledge can take the app for a test drive without having to learn a complicated interface or downloading any extra software. The ability to quality test your prototype is further enhanced by a selection of feedback tools. Through the POP interface, you can receive feedback from users about the overall experience, access comments on the specific pages within your protoype, and collaborate with would be developers with which you've shared your app. The POP mobile app comes supported with a more intensive web based application as well. The intuitive design of the mobile app allows a surprising range of versatility, but the web app puts a number of additional tools at your disposal. These include expanded collaboration functions as well as the ability to view and edit multiple components of your prototype in a neat tiled format.