The day I’ve met Hercules
As a curious and restless designer with a passion on discovering new things, I went through different programs for low and high fidelity prototyping such as Sketch, InVision, Adobe XD, Axure RP, Figma, Apply, ProtoPie, Balsamiq, NinjaMock -and we can continue naming apps in a never-ending list- so thanks companies for making our lives easier. Every time you launch a new product and test it, we are allowed to see daylight again.
That is what happened to me when I was required to use MOQUPS. moQups? Yes, MOQUPS (as a native Spanish Speaker I thought, Ok… It is misspelt, but not) I started working for a client who had their screens created in this app that I had not previously tried but being a challenge and a new opportunity to learn, I was very excited to try it out, navigate and see what its features were, so there I went…
- User story mapping template (Checked)
- Low-fidelity wireframe template (Checked)
- Mobile app templates (Checked)
- Diagrams and flowchart (Checked)
- Precision adjustments with grids, guides, and alignment tools (Checked)
- Font Awesome, Material Design, Hawcons… (Checked)
- Work in the Cloud (Checked)
- Team collaboration tool (ChecKed)
- Communicate in real time (Ch…. What ???)
So what was it that instantly came into my mind??… all the hours I’ve spent communicating with my coworkers chasing data and documentation via Email, Slack, Drive to share images, texts, documents, screenshots, have a mini-call to talk about a feature, and point where the error is; and again….
Real Time communication??? … And then “Chat” I saw you there, on the right bottom corner, just next to a couple of avatars, (it was THE discovery) I decided to open it up so I could talk to my colleague who was there, and discuss about the new features I created, but … what I saw there instead: the Product Owner…
The Product Owner? Am I able to chat directly with the Product Owner? For me, they’re like Gods of the Olympus… If you’re a mortal (and as a designer I believe I am)… how comes I have direct access with him?
OK. I thought for a while what to do, I turned my head up, moved my neck and saw in front of me the word “Comment” (and yes, it was like a chorus of angels behind my nape singing “ahhhhhhh”, while I noticed how the atmosphere was turning lighter) It was a relief, and I thought it was THE opportunity.
Leaving a comment will make the Product Owner see the new features I’ve created, but it wouldn’t be as invasive as chatting directly with him.
So I left a comment next to the changes I’ve been working on. Immediately, he saw it and contacted me straight away. That afternoon, after spending a few minutes talking with Hercules, I realized the power of that tool in allowing us to communicate by different methods in realtime and in shortening the time and distance between the members of a team.
To make a long story short …Thanks Moqups, you Legend!
