The class opened with a conversation about the changing tooling landscape, which is something I've been very aware of lately. I've been meaning to start a tool exploration diary within my Notion blog — just a running log of new tools emerging in the industry, particularly around AI and motion. There's an explosion of tools being made by designers for designers right now and there's definitely gold in there somewhere. I'm also trying not to be too reliant on Figma specifically. Tools like Rive and ProtoPie came up as worth exploring, both of which have capabilities that go beyond what Figma's prototyping offers, particularly around interactive and physics-based animation.
For this project Figma will be my primary tool, but the 3D and motion work I'm thinking about for the loading indicator might push me toward something else for at least part of it. Worth keeping options open.
ProtoPie: Interactive Prototyping Tool
Prototypes are early models of a product used to simulate how it might function. Their primary purpose is testing — catching bad ideas early before they cost more to fix. There was a reference to Professor Alan Dix and the 1-10-100 rule for cost prevention: fixing a problem in concept costs one unit, fixing it in development costs ten, fixing it after launch costs a hundred. Prototyping is the mechanism that keeps you in the cheap zone.
The fidelity spectrum — low fi, mid fi, high fi — was covered. Each has a different purpose. Low fi is for testing concepts quickly without getting attached to execution. High fi is for testing the actual experience. Jumping straight to high fi before a concept is proven is a common and expensive mistake.
For the microanimations project, prototyping is where the animations actually get validated. An animation that looks good in isolation can feel wrong in context — too fast, too slow, tonally off. Building the interactions into a working prototype is the only way to test that properly.
We did a Smart Animate exercise in class. Familiar territory, we covered this with Ronan last year, but it's always worth revisiting the fundamentals. Smart Animate is going to be the backbone of the Figma-based animations for this project, particularly the toast notification and the chart transitions. Understanding how it handles easing, which properties it can interpolate, and where it breaks down is important groundwork.
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The prototyping class reinforced something I already believe but don't always act on — that testing in context is the only way to know if something actually works. An animation that feels right in isolation can feel completely wrong once it's inside a real user flow. The Smart Animate exercise was familiar ground but it's the tool I'll be leaning on most for the Figma-based animations, so revisiting the fundamentals was worthwhile. The broader conversation about tooling felt timely too. I've been thinking about whether Figma is always the right answer for this project and this class pushed me to stay open to other options where the work genuinely demands it.
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