abynim
(Not a) Feature Request: Merge 'User Flows' with 'Craft Prototype'
User Flows is a great capability expanding Sketch further and fits my work an interaction designer (and I believe especially interaction/UI/UX designers in agile environments) well.
However currently using User Flows and Craft Prototype adds a layer of complexity and manually crafted redundancy without an overview of the flows in Craft Prototype.
Therefore @abynim I would love to see Craft Prototype growing into an even more mature extension of Sketch giving it the super powers it deserves.
Prototype is now out of Beta and the overlap between these two plugins is plain to see. I use them both because User flows is brilliant both for creating the overview image and their clever and simple way of dealing with conditional flows, but I can't live without Prototype's killer feature - creating InVision workflows directly within sketch. Seriously, guys - you should talk!
@oddjones totally agreed. We are looking into which features of UserFlows we can bring into Prototype. Luckily Im involved in both the plugins so we don't have to go talk to anyone else to make this happen 👍
Wow, well that's very cool! Let me congratulate you on your work on both plugins. Keep on talking to yourself!!
If I can venture my own two-penny's worth, the killer features are:
- conditional flow switching -> This is something which InVision hasn't really offered previously (because it "breaks the 4th wall" by suspending the UI to display the conditions - however, the alternatives (doubling up on action buttons / including "post it" style notes) are equally kludgy - I really like the simplicity of userflows' dedicated artboards - it's very clear what's happening, they fit right in to InVision - and given that an InVision mockup isn't pretending to be a real application like an Axure mockup is - the clarity of the flow really works (for me anyway) - the only issue I've found is that I need to rename each "-condition-" artboard before I sync to InVision so that they have unique names.
- "Generate flow diagram" - this is a must have for me - although as I've mentioned elsewhere I'd like the opportunity to specify different/sub flows through the same application
How are you progressing with this work dude? I'm currently adding in two sets of flows - one with each plugin - it seems to work, but I'm conscious I'm probably creating quite a lot of meta-information around some pretty important (to me) diagrams - Given their similar purpose might it be possible to generate links for one from another? (so a "generate user flows document" shortcut from prototype for example? or a "link to prototype" option from user flows?)
I'll add my thoughts — without having it deeply thought through but approached the problem from many sides over some time.
Conditional flow switching (or condition based flows) Still really dig the idea and would love to have it built into Sketch.
…given that an InVision mockup isn't pretending to be a real application like an Axure mockup… Real enough to user test simpler flows in (visual) high fidelity — and then quickly iterate in Sketch Prototype. At least true for fixed device/viewport sizes.
Generate flow diagram In rather intertwined user flows (e.g. for user testing)
- displaying all the connections won't be helpful
- thus an option to hide connectors would be a great start
- also default labels for conditions which can be overridden
- Connector overlapping with margins like with train track mapping would help clarity
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(hopefully the typographic visualisation shows what I mean?)