I’m a Software Product Designer who codes. Recently, I’ve spent some time learning Framer.js and CoffeeScript and I’m extremely excited about this tool. This is a simple watch notification I built. Please visit it here:
http://share.framerjs.com/f8yafxa77vob/
At a high-level I like Framer.js because of the following reasons:
- It offers a near-real-time feedback loop with Framer Studio.
- It’s incredibly easy to learn, even if you’ve never coded before.
- It has impressive design workflow integration.
- I really like the Device mirror and built-in sharing
- Framer.js is driven by CoffeeScript which is very similar to JavaScript. In fact, the new release of JavaScript ES6 uses syntax that is much closer to CoffeeScript. So if you’re going to invest in learning a new tool, why not learn a tool that has transferable application value?
As a Product Designer, I prototype to concept and develop my ideas. Part of my job is to define how interfaces react and adapt to user input. Motion provides meaning to my interfaces and is a significant mobile design element. Motion literally breathes life into my designs. When we’re designing for Mobile touch devices, the device becomes your canvas and Motion allows for a greater range of expression.
At a team level, tools like Framer.js help to create a shared understanding of your product design. With motion you don’t have to sit in a meeting with Stakeholders and struggle to find the right words to articulate how a particular interaction will occur. Your prototype becomes a living document for your team and minimizes waste. Tools like Framer allow you to get feedback quickly and hopefully help you validate your ideas. After-all, ideas are cheap but building things is expensive. We can leverage Framer.js to prove or disprove an idea cheaply and quickly. Moreover, a tool like Framer creates High-fidelity prototypes that can be as good as the real thing for user testing.
In 2014 during a seminar on the state of Interaction Design tools, Pasquale D’Silva said, “We currently have a few major schools of thinking. They roughly fall into 3 categories: Timeline, Signal Flow and Code.” In 2015 Jay Stakelon added a fourth category. Stakelon added “GUI Based” considerations to interaction design. I would certainly agree with both of the aforementioned observations.
In conclusion, I will state that I’m a huge proponent of Framer. Moreover, I would encourage all product designers to give it a chance and consider adding it to their toolboxes.
