How to Share and Present Your Prototypes Using Axure Cloud

Sharing and presenting your prototypes is just as crucial as designing them. After all, prototypes are meant to communicate ideas and gather feedback, making it essential to present them effectively to stakeholders, clients, and team members. Axure Cloud provides a seamless and powerful platform to share, collaborate, and present your interactive prototypes in a way that encourages engagement and drives valuable insights.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how you can share and present your Axure Cloud prototypes with ease. Whether you’re working with a remote team, presenting to a client, or conducting usability testing, these tips and strategies will help ensure your prototypes leave a lasting impression.

Why Sharing and Presenting Prototypes Is Important

Prototypes serve as a visual representation of your product idea, showcasing its flow, interactions, and usability. Sharing your prototypes allows you to:

• Collect feedback: Get input from stakeholders and users to refine your designs.
• Present ideas clearly: Showcase design concepts and user flows in an interactive format.
• Test usability: Evaluate the prototype in real-world scenarios to identify issues before development.

Axure Cloud offers a range of tools and features designed to streamline the sharing and presentation process, making it easier to collaborate and get the insights you need to improve your design.

1. Share Your Prototypes with Axure Cloud

Publish Your Prototype to Axure Cloud

Axure Cloud makes it easy to publish and share your prototypes with just a few clicks. After creating your prototype in Axure, follow these steps to share it:

• Step 1: Click on the “Publish” button in Axure RP (the desktop application).
• Step 2: Choose the Axure Cloud option to upload your prototype.
• Step 3: Add a title, description, and set permissions for who can view or edit the prototype.
• Step 4: Once uploaded, a link is generated that you can share with stakeholders, clients, or team members.

By publishing your prototype to Axure Cloud, you’re able to share a live, interactive version of your design that’s always up-to-date.

Set Permissions for Collaboration

Axure Cloud lets you manage who can access and modify your prototype by setting specific permissions. This is especially useful when you’re working with a team or collaborating with external stakeholders.

• Viewer Access: Share a prototype with people who only need to view it. Viewers can interact with the prototype but cannot make changes.
• Editor Access: If you want collaborators to provide feedback or make changes, grant them editor permissions.
• Password Protection: You can add password protection to control who accesses your prototype, ensuring only authorized people can view or edit it.

2. Presenting Your Prototype in Real-Time

Live Presentation Mode

Axure Cloud provides a Live Presentation Mode, which is perfect for showcasing your prototype during meetings, client presentations, or design reviews. Here’s how to make the most of it:

• Interactive Demo: As you present, demonstrate the prototype’s interactive features. Highlight key actions, such as clickable buttons, dynamic panels, and page transitions.
• Narration: Use a narrative to guide your audience through the user flow. Explain the design choices, how the user interacts with the product, and the overall user experience.
• Zoom and Pan: Use the zoom and pan features to focus on specific parts of the prototype to provide a closer look at interactions.

Remote Presentations

In today’s remote work environment, being able to present prototypes virtually is essential. Axure Cloud enables easy remote presentations, allowing you to:

• Share the prototype link: Simply share the link to your prototype with participants, who can then view and interact with it in real time.
• Use screen-sharing tools: If you need to present your prototype in a video call, you can share your screen while showing the prototype in Axure Cloud.

This allows you to present your designs as if you were in the same room, even if your team or clients are across the globe.

3. Engage Stakeholders with Feedback Tools

Leave Comments and Annotations

One of the most powerful features of Axure Cloud is the ability to leave comments and annotations directly on the prototype. This allows stakeholders to provide contextual feedback without interrupting the design flow. Here’s how to use it:

• Add Comments: Stakeholders can add comments at specific locations on the prototype, indicating issues, suggestions, or approvals.
• Reply to Comments: Designers can respond to comments directly within the platform, fostering transparent communication and collaboration.
• Resolve Comments: Once a comment has been addressed, you can mark it as resolved to keep track of feedback and progress.

This feedback loop is essential for refining your prototype and ensuring it meets the needs of your users and stakeholders.

User Testing and Feedback Gathering

Axure Cloud makes it easy to gather feedback during user testing. You can share your prototype with test participants, who can then interact with it and provide feedback. You can use this feedback to:

• Identify usability issues: Observe how users interact with the prototype and note areas where they struggle or get confused.
• Test different interactions: Collect feedback on specific interactions, such as buttons, forms, or navigation menus.
• Collect quantitative data: If you’re using Axure Cloud’s analytics tools, you can track how users interact with the prototype, which pages they visit, and how much time they spend on each section.

This process allows for iterative design improvements, ensuring your final product is user-friendly and meets expectations.

4. Customize Your Prototype for Different Audiences

Personalize the User Experience

Depending on your audience—whether it’s clients, developers, or testers—you may want to customize how they interact with your prototype. Axure Cloud offers several options to tailor the experience:

• Client-Focused Prototypes: Customize the prototype to focus on high-level features and functionality that are important to your client. Remove any irrelevant details to keep the presentation concise and engaging.
• Developer-Friendly Prototypes: Include technical specifications or documentation for developers. Use Axure Cloud to generate specifications that explain interactions, dynamic elements, and page flows in detail.
• User Testing Prototypes: Create simple, streamlined prototypes for user testing. Focus on key workflows and interactions to gather actionable insights without overwhelming users with unnecessary complexity.

Add Custom Branding

If you’re presenting prototypes to external clients, you might want to brand the prototype with your company’s logo or style. Axure Cloud allows you to add custom branding to the interface, which can make the presentation feel more polished and professional.

5. Export and Share Prototypes for Offline Viewing

While Axure Cloud provides a seamless online experience, there may be times when you need to share prototypes offline. In these cases, Axure allows you to export prototypes in different formats:

• HTML Export: You can export your prototype as an HTML file, which can be shared via email or stored locally. This is ideal when presenting offline or in environments without an internet connection.
• PDF Export: If you need to share static designs, you can export pages as PDFs to deliver a snapshot of your design’s visual elements.

These export options give you the flexibility to present your work in various contexts, whether online or offline.

6. Analyze User Interactions and Gather Insights

Use Analytics to Improve Your Prototype

Axure Cloud provides powerful analytics tools that allow you to track user behavior. With this feature, you can:

• Track clicks and interactions: Monitor which buttons users click most often and which areas of the prototype receive the most attention.
• Monitor session durations: Understand how long users spend on each page or feature, which can indicate whether they are engaged or struggling.
• Heatmaps: View heatmaps that show where users are clicking, helping you identify areas of the prototype that need improvement.

This data helps you make informed decisions about what’s working in your design and where you need to make adjustments.

7. Use Version Control and Updates

Keep Stakeholders Updated with New Versions

As you iterate on your prototype, you may need to share new versions with stakeholders. Axure Cloud allows you to upload updated versions while maintaining a version history, so you can easily track changes.

• Version control: Each new version of your prototype is stored in Axure Cloud, allowing you to compare different iterations and ensure you’re working on the latest version.
• Notify collaborators: When you upload a new version, Axure Cloud can automatically notify stakeholders, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

Version control ensures that your team and clients always have access to the most up-to-date version of your prototype.

Final Thoughts

Sharing and presenting your prototypes effectively is key to gathering valuable feedback, gaining stakeholder approval, and iterating on your designs. Axure Cloud’s powerful collaboration, feedback, and presentation features make it an invaluable tool for any designer. By using its interactive features, feedback tools, and version control, you can ensure your prototypes are impactful and engaging.

Ready to Share Your Next Prototype?

Start using Axure Cloud to share, present, and gather feedback on your prototypes today. Create interactive, user-centered designs that impress your clients and colleagues!

Want to learn more about Axure Cloud? Sign up for a free trial and start sharing your prototypes today!