Jun 08, 2022

Axure Tips: Prototyping with Axure, Some Tips to Improve Efficiency

by EvansAustin

Introduction

Preface: Prototyping is one of the main jobs in a product manager job, especially a junior product manager. Axure is the easiest prototyping software to use. Although the effect of making mobile prototype is not perfect, it is basically enough most cases. Here's a summary of some of the techniques you can use to improve your efficiency when using Axure:

1. The first and most immediate thing is to use the masters.

The advantage of using a master is that you don't have to repeat the work and just drag and drop. At first, I thought that Ctrl(Command)+C and Ctrl(Command)+V could also be used to replace them.

However, when the prototype need to be modified, I crashed and I had to change them many times, and there might be missed changes. After using the use components since then there is no going back.

There are three types of components, one is a component with a fixed position, one is a component whose position can be moved at will, and one is a component that can be moved at will and the component elements can be broke down. These three can be set as required. Right-click the component in component panel -> Drag and Drop Behavior to use them.

2. Use grouping, shortcut key: Ctrl (Command)+G

When several widgets form a large widget, the grouping feature can be used. The advantage of this is that it can be moved easily, and it is not necessary to select all the widgets before moving. The same is true for replication. The time saved has accumulated a lot.

3. Pan widgets, shortcut key: press and hold shift to drag widgets

Pan a component means that the widgets changes only the x-axis but the y-axis does not change, or changes only the y-axis but the x-axis does not change. This advantage is that when you want to move the widget down but the left and right positions remain the same, you can press and hold shift and drag the widget down. You will find that the left and right positions remain the same.

4. Copy the widget, shortcut key: hold down Ctrl(Command) and drag out a copied widget

After holding down Ctrl(Command) and dragging out the newly copied widget, first release the left mouse button is to copy the new widget, first release Ctrl(Command) is to not copy, and move the original widget to this position.

5. Lock the widget, shortcut key: Ctrl(Command)+k

When the widget is locked, the widget cannot be moved and copied. It is suitable for when there are many interface widget, and the use of locking can avoid the widget that do not need to be copied and improve the efficiency.

6. Hold down ctrl+shift and drag the widgets to copy the new widgets vertically or horizontally

This is useful for making form prototypes. Because the text can make the prototype neat, hold down ctrl+shift and drag the widgets vertically or horizontally. The copied prototypes are aligned, which can save the time of later adjustment.

7. Repeated text descriptions add links to jump

The PRD document of our company is written directly on the prototype. When the place to be described is described in other modules, add a link to jump to the description of the corresponding module. The advantages are: first, it saves repetitive work; second, avoid omitting to change other places when they needs to be modified; third, jump can let programmers know that this is the same thing for them to understand.