Student Startup Toolkit— Part 1
Design; because you don’t start out as Steve Jobs
Something I hear all the time is, “I want to build X, but I don’t know how to do...” I’ll tell you a little secret:
YOU DON’T NEED TO BE AN EXPERT IN SOMETHING TO START WORKING ON YOUR PRODUCT!
There are so many startup tools out there that can help you build your product, regardless of skill level.
With that being said, I always recommend you collaberate with other students on your businesses to make the best product possible, but as a founder you sometimes have to do a lot of work on your own. It’s better to start doing it yourself then not doing it at all.
“But I’m not a designer?”
Proto.io, Sketch & Adobe XD
You don’t need to be Tony Fadell or Nicholas Feltron to design a great product. There are dozens of tools out there that allow you to easily craft the UX/UI of your product. There’s no one “right” platform to use. Use the tools that fit your design skills and needs.
All of these have free trials, so feel free to test them out for yourself and see which fits your product design needs best.
Sketch
The simplest mockup tool with a lot of power.
Sketch is a great beginer digital design tool for UX/UI. The interface is super simple to use which makes it great for quick mock-ups. Sketch has been around for awhile so it’s pretty well known in the design world.
Start with an artboard. There are templates available for iOS, Android, Web. Simply drag and drop your logos, custom buttons, or any of your assets into Sketch and start building your app, you’ll realize how easy it is. You may surprise yourself with your designs.
The best part about Sketch is the huge community that has spawned around it. Many designers have created free resources for you to use. Just search “Sketch design resources” or check out SketchAppSources.com. Sketch is also known for it’s powerful plugins like Craft by Invision that give it some additional features that it lacks.
Sketch isn’t free though. After the free 30 day trial, a lifetime license will cost you $99. Which is pretty average compared to its competitors. The one downfall of Sketch is it’s only for Mac, sorry PC people.
Proto.io
Watch your app come to life.
Proto.io is great for the next steps in designing your app. It gives you a interactive prototype so you can test the UX/UI on any of your devices.
It’s fairly similar to Sketch in regards to tools, but it goes the extra mile in allowing you to build app animations and test onboarding. If you have no experience in animation, don’t worry. It’s fairly simple to learn with Proto.io and they have great tutorials.
What sets Proto.io apart from a lot of other tools is their iOS and Android app. You can demo your prototypes live right from your phone with near full UX functionality. You can browse menus, test onboarding and get an overall feel for your creation. They also have a pretty sophisticated web app and hosting service that makes sharing with teams/clients very easy.
If you’re a little bit more experienced with design, I reccomend trying Proto.io. It’s not free, and you’ll have to cough up a monthly subscription. They do have a free tier, it’s just very limited. It’s worth forking over the extra cash later on when you have to collaborate with the rest of your team (students & non-profits get 50% off). The lowest tier will cost you $24(29)/mo.
Adobe Xd
You know, like Photoshop for UX/UI design?
Adobe Xd (Experience Design) is the newest tool from Adobe, only being announced in March 2016. It seems they took what people loved about Sketch & Proto.io and combined it into one. If you’re experienced with Photoshop & Illustrator, this is the tool for you.
What makes Xd so powerful is it’s integration with Adobe CC (Creative Cloud). This is where all of Adobe’s tools live and allows you to work seamlessly link between each of their programs. So if you need a new font, you can test them right in Xd from Adobe Typekit. This makes pulling images, text and all your other creative Adobe assets simple.
Xd has two different modes:
- Design — create your app screens.
- Protoype — connect screens and set up user flow.
The two modes make it really nice when organizing your prototype, which can get messy fast.
Overall, Adobe Xd is shaping up to be a great platform for UX/UI designers. The Adobe CC integration saves a lot of time looking & testing for images and other app assets. I definitely reccomend trying some design mockups on here because 1) they are still in preview (beta) which means they are receptive to feedback 2) it’s free while in preview mode!
There are tons of benefits you can take advantage of while starting up a business in college. For more student entrepreneur tips and tricks, follow iDEAHUb on Medium & Twitter.
Alec Polsley is a student assistant at the Hofstra Center for Entrepreneurship. He was the former president of Hofstra University Start-Ups and is a lover of all things tech. He is currently the Director of Marketing at Bettr Social.
