InVision - how to maintain order in your project

InVision was created for professional graphic designers and agencies that on a daily basis work on projects for external clients. Thanks to built-in features of this application even the most complicated project can be easily maintained and edited.

Communication with the client

Although InVision is advanced and contains many useful features, it can be easily said that the key elements of this application are modules of communication with the customer and the general organization of the project. On chosen place on the graphic users can easily post their comments (either public or private), notes for developers or simple descriptions of chosen elements.

InVision groups conversations and comments by:

1. projects - there is the possibility to add multiple projects by predefining their type,
   

1. views - through adding another graphics (for instance subpages of developed website or various propositions of a logo),
2. types - each comment can be tagged as public, private, note for developers or simple descriptions.
3. status - amendments proposed as comments can be tagged as done.

Comments can be viewed in different modes, removed or assigned to the specific person. The system, of course, also allows running threads. If we want to make the whole process more interactive, InVision provides the excellent lIvepreview function. It starts a voice conversation with a simultaneous overview of the project. Real-time synchronization applies not only to the watched view, but also to the position of cursors of all involved parties.

Users don’t have to hold down to only using cursorS - they can also work with text and pencil tools. Whether you need more creative space, developers of InVision created Whiteboard bookmark, which changes the view of the project into white area similar to the flipchart.

Workflow

People familiar with the Scrum methodology will love the Scrum Board, which is used for managing statuses of individual views. This simple idea allows for quick orientation in the project. Users of the enterprise plan will also be able to modify or expand the standard list of statuses (On Hold, In Progress, Need Review, Approved).

If we have more time, we can also create clickable prototype, basing it on the views prepared by the designer. InVision not only allows instant creation of interaction/switches between views, but it also fully supports simulating the onHover effect or the creation of the floating menu. With these options it only takes few moments to change the graphics into interactive prototype.

File version control

InVision also solves another problem that is commonly occurring in the process of creating graphics - the multitude of versions. Naturally, there are other tools dedicated to control of versions of files, but InVision is created specifically for graphics. In the view of each file users have instant access to its previous versions.

Help for the graphic designer

Invision works not only from the customer's perspective, but also from the so-called backstage, where work graphics designers. It allows you to store any graphic assigned to the project (logos, icons, fonts or layouts) directly in the program. This way users don’t have to worry about losing valuable space on their hard disks. What's more, owners of Apple computers have the ability to synchronize their work directly with the program through an automatically created InVision folder on their computers. The software also works well with Photoshop, which allows to use the Layer Comps and save individual stages of the graphics (eg. the hover stage or modal windows) in a single PSD file, what significantly shortens the work.

That’s not everything!

Breathtaking design (branding, UI of new website or even refreshing the concept of the logotype) is always created thanks to the team effort. InVision helps in modern way in improvement of this process. Apart from the functionalities described in this article, it also allows integration with Photoshop (user can observe changes in real time), Dropbox, Box and Slack or presentation of the graphics on Boards. By choosing InVision we can be sure that we are working with the tool that is under constant development, what ensures the best quality possible.

Summary

InVision works not only as a tool for visual tagging of comments - it’s a complete platform that provides a full set of features and tools that are useful in the process of creating graphics. In Merix Studio we are using InVision in everyday work with all our customers. Because of this tool we have noticed an increase in efficiency and comfort of conducting a project - see for yourself how you can make your work easier and hassle-free!