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Who else got in to the Pixate beta today?

9 years ago from , UX Designer

I got into the Pixate beta for designing mobile interactions and animations. Anyone else? Would love to start sharing tips.

54 comments

  • Mariusz OstrowskiMariusz Ostrowski, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

    I got too. Today Pixate, few days ago Form. Week without new prototyping tool is a lost week.

    12 points
  • Patrick WongPatrick Wong, 9 years ago

    I've been lucky enough to have been using Pixate for about 3 months now, and can wholeheartedly say it's the best mobile prototyping tool out there, bar none.

    Framer comes close, and is great because you can use real data and you write the code yourself, but there is hardly anything I can't do in Pixate much much faster. I am probably prototyping in Pixate 95% of the time and use Framer 5%. Prior to Pixate I used Framer for everything.

    Once you get over the initial learning curve (couple hours), you'll be hooked and amazed by what you can build with Pixate. My team was able to become proficient at Pixate with just a couple of hours of building.

    The best place to begin if you're just getting started are the videos they have up at: http://learn.pixate.com/ Those videos cover pretty much every thing you need, but also watching through some of their app remake videos help provide the context of how to apply that knowledge to building a very high fidelity prototype: http://blog.pixate.com/

    3 points
  • Dave Crow, 9 years ago

    I spent yesterday with Form, and just got my Pixate invite this afternoon. After 15 minutes I already like Pixate so much better. The interface is a lot more intuitive than linking nodes together.

    3 points
  • Eytan DavidovitsEytan Davidovits, 9 years ago

    I've been using for about a month. It's a really solid tool.

    3 points
    • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

      Any prototypes to share?

      Been watching and building along with the videos on their blog and learn page, but would love to see what else it can do. Gonna start experimenting soon myself.

      1 point
      • Eytan DavidovitsEytan Davidovits, 9 years ago

        Here is a quick one to show the levels prototyping available. I played with it on a dummy app. It uses a fade, scale, and move tool all at once. Something simple but incredibly powerful to prototype: http://www.eytandavidovits.com/cream/

        1 point
        • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

          Nice work! Would love to see a breakdown of what you did to achieve that.

          Pixate needs more content outside of their own. I learned a lot about Framer.js, Quartz Composer and Origami from other users.

          1 point
          • Eytan DavidovitsEytan Davidovits, 9 years ago

            I'd be glad to email you a more detailed breakdown. Send me an email at eytan (at) davidovits (dot) com

            1 point
  • Greg HuntoonGreg Huntoon, 9 years ago

    If you have any invites, send 'em along...

    3 points
    • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

      Haven't seen anything about that. Looks like they're controlling the release. They tweeted that they hope to have everyone that signed up for the beta invited before the end of September, so you might not need to wait long.

      1 point
      • Andrew HoltAndrew Holt, 9 years ago

        We'll be adding a referral system soon, so you guys can invite your friends to create their own accounts. :)

        3 points
  • Alex VanderzonAlex Vanderzon, 9 years ago

    Me Me Me! Looks great from the 2 minutes i played with it.

    2 points
  • bec .bec ., 9 years ago

    loving pixate so far! new to prototyping tools, wasn't sure what to expect. is there a type tool to animate type directly, or should I just bring in mocks from sketch/photoshop and animate them that way?

    2 points
    • Andrew HoltAndrew Holt, 9 years ago

      Text labels are coming in the near future, so like you said, just use assets for now. :)

      1 point
      • bec .bec ., 9 years ago

        okay cool! already watched all the videos so now I guess the only way to learn is to tinker! thanks :)

        0 points
  • Ed ChaoEd Chao, 9 years ago

    As for ease of use, pixate is mindblowingly good. I am honestly really impressed. However in the case of putting together more complex, large-scale interactions that use fixture data, at this point framer is still my fave. This may change so we'll see. Excited to see how interaction design grows in the next couple of years because of these tools.

    2 points
    • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

      I haven't reached too many limitations yet, but I'm sure Framer is better by nature because if you know what you're doing, you can make some complex stuff... I've seen your work on the Framer FB group, Ed ;)

      But for people that don't know js, this is the tool to beat.

      0 points
  • Robin RaszkaRobin Raszka, 9 years ago

    Me, and it's awesome.

    2 points
    • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

      Yea, I'm really enjoying it after getting over the initial confusion. The quick auto-updates to the iPhone app are awesome.

      It's not as immediately intuitive as I was imagining (Ex: layer.cx < 400), but once you learn those few functions it's straight forward and much easier than Framer or Quartz Composer.

      1 point
      • Justin BelcherJustin Belcher, 9 years ago

        It's worth mentioning that visually-driven value setting and conditions are in the works. We'd like for you to be able to work primarily through direct manipulation on canvas, but we didn't want to limit what's possible in the meantime. Glad things are working out =).

        2 points
  • Jaime AscanioJaime Ascanio, 9 years ago

    I did! :D

    1 point
  • Fabian O.Fabian O., 9 years ago

    Been fiddling with this the whole day, loving it so far! Is there a way for my clients to preview the prototypes? This is kinda essential for me and without it, the usefulness of the prototypes is diminished :(

    1 point
    • Justin BelcherJustin Belcher, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

      Public and private prototype sharing is headed to the product before public launch. In the meantime, you can use an app like Reflector or Yosemite/iOS8 device tethering to grab a video of the interaction. Nothing communicates quite like the real thing of course, so this is a priority for us.

      2 points
  • James Caruso, 9 years ago

    Has anyone with a Pixate trial also had experience using Axure? Does anyone have a comparison?

    1 point
    • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

      We use Axure at Cobalt for wireframing, and workflow prototypes. It's great for that. You could do that with Pixate, but it's more focused on specific interactions and animations.

      Axure = big picture Pixate = sweatin' the details

      0 points
      • James Caruso, 9 years ago

        Awesome! That's what I figured as well, but thought I would ask anyways. Have you experimented with Framer at all?

        1 point
        • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

          Yea, I used framer for an internal project a few months ago to show how playful we could make the animations and transitions. It went over well, but making it was pretty time consuming, since I'm not very good with javascript.

          Pixate was much quicker and easier to understand and I made something pretty complex in a much shorter amount of time (thanks to much less head scratching and trouble shooting compared to Framer), and with some help from the support team.

          0 points
          • James Caruso, 9 years ago

            Dude, that's awesome!

            That's kind of been my experience too. I've been pushing ahead with Framer, but only because there isn't anything out there that does what it does as easily or efficiently.

            I got my Pixate invite last week and have been playing with it over the weekend. All in all, it feels pretty solid. The UI is intuitive and the ability to chain interactions is pretty solid. It feels like where this type of stuff is heading.

            1 point
            • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

              My only gripe is I want to be sharing my progress and prototypes, but there isn't an easy way to do it!

              0 points
              • James Caruso, 9 years ago

                Hmmm. I think you could use Airserver or Reflector to airplay back to your computer, and then something like Screener to capture the video. Maybe throw it into Gifrocket to share?

                But yeah, that does sound kind of convoluted. Maybe in an update they'll have a recorder or something like that baked in :c)

                0 points
                • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

                  Yea, I'm aware of that method. That's almost exactly what support told me the first day I was trying it out.

                  Like I said in my comment, I want an "easy way", as in one click in the app. But who knows how long it will be before they provide their own solution, so I might as well bite the bullet and do it.

                  0 points
  • Corey GinnivanCorey Ginnivan, 9 years ago

    Was there waiting for me when I woke up today. I added a drag module on to a box and then dragged it around on my iPhone... my mind was blown. Will give it a good run this week.

    1 point
    • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

      Yea, I was blown away by how fast it refreshed and updated on the iPhone, and how smooth and responsive it was.

      0 points
  • Max HenningssonMax Henningsson, 9 years ago

    Had it for a few months now, it's the future.

    1 point
  • Vinay ChilukuriVinay Chilukuri, 9 years ago

    I got in today. Can't wait to explore it.

    1 point
  • Joe Blau, 9 years ago

    I just watched some of the demo videos. The new product pivot looks a lot better than the old product. I love how quickly the prototype was created for the app. One of the things that is a pain in the butt from the development side is getting all of the interactions just right and this seems to allow designers to quickly prototype interactions.

    1 point
  • Asher SimondsAsher Simonds, 9 years ago

    We've been using it for a while at the office and one of us has been using it to create some seriously complex prototypes. I hope he writes a blog post about how he managed to do it.

    1 point
    • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

      That would be awesome to see. Please repost on this thread when he does, if you remember.

      0 points
  • Viktor EngborgViktor Engborg, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

    I suppose not, but is there a native OS X app in the works? Great job, never the less. Just received my invite – can't wait to try it out!

    1 point
    • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

      Yea, it has a native OSX and iOS app.

      1 point
      • Andy LeeAndy Lee, 9 years ago

        The OSX app isn't native, it's just the web app in a frame. I doubt they are working on a fully native version of it. It would be nice though, considering certain hotkeys don't work on the web app (such as selecting multiple layers at once with shift, alt-dragging/shift-dragging to resize boxes, copy/pasting layers).

        1 point
  • Bart Claeys, 9 years ago

    Would really appreciate an invite [ connect (at) barclaey (dot) com ]. I've been trying out Quartz Composer and Form intensively the past week, would be great to add Pixate to that before I teach my team one of these tools.

    1 point
    • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

      Would love to help out a fellow Seattle-ite!

      Unfortunately, I haven't received any invites to share. They tweeted that they hope to give out invites to all beta sign ups by the end of September.

      Looks like you work for a pretty forward thinking company, I would encourage the designers to try them all out along with you and make a group decision.

      2 points
      • Bart Claeys, 9 years ago

        Yes, that's what we're doing, trying out different tools (Quartz Composer, Form, Pixate, After Effects,...) and deciding what works best for what. I don't think we will land with one app, instead use different apps for different purposes. But that means we need to know the strengths and weaknesses of each app.

        1 point
    • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

      Guess what I've got waiting for you! (but it looks like a typo in your email. Is it supposed to be barTclaey?)

      1 point
      • Bart Claeys, 9 years ago

        'barclaey' is my brand name, it's a concatenation of my first + last name without the last letters. Why? Because back in the days, when we were all playing with DOS, one could only create a filename with eight characters!

        0 points