Create Working Prototypes of iPhone & iOS Apps Easily

Prototypes is a new Mac app that lets anyone quickly create functional iOS application prototypes and share them with other people, no coding is required.

The prototypes can be created from any Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, PSD, JPG, or any image file at all, just drag a few images into the app, define hotspots (touch locations), setup some transitions, and quickly preview or publish a prototype. These touch-responsive prototypes will run directly from Safari on an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, making it very easy to test a functional iOS interface.

You can buy Prototypes from the Mac App Store for $39.99 (App Store link)

How well do these published prototypes function? The developers provide a sample working prototype that has been exported from the app, here is how you can try it out yourself:

• Go to http://ptyp.es from an iOS device
• Follow the onscreen instructions to bookmark the prototype URL to your iOS homescreen
• Enter PIN: 1467 5639

You’ll now be in a working app mockup of a fictitious ‘Garden Snap’ iPhone application, touch on elements and you’ll get a new screen demonstrating features just as you’d expect. Some things don’t seem to work, like scrolling through lists, but remember this is a UI/UX mockup viewed in Safari, not a full fledged working iOS application.

Combine Prototypes with some of the PSD files of iPad and iPhone GUI elements and you should be able to make quick work fleshing out some of the app ideas you have, which may even help you reduce the overall costs of app development. Not a bad deal, right?