Building Data-Driven Prototypes in Axure
Comprehensive video course created for Pluralsight on advanced UX prototyping
Note: While InVision closed its doors at the end of 2024, back in 2017 it was one of the leading rapid UX prototyping tools on the market.
About the course
O'Reilly Media approached me to create a course on InVision for their Safari Online platform. I could have easily delivered another "how to click buttons in software" tutorial. Instead, I made the strategic decision to build an educational experience that started with the fundamentals of rapid prototyping every UX Designer needs to understand before they ever open a prototyping tool.
InVision was beautifully simple to learn—which made it perfect for designers who'd never touched a prototyping tool before. But I knew that teaching the software alone would miss the bigger picture. I structured the course around the 5 W's of rapid UX prototyping and how it fits into lean UX practice, then showed learners how to put those concepts into action using InVision as our vehicle.
Course Details:
- Created for: O'Reilly Safari Books Online
- Audience: UX Designers, Product Managers
- Skill Level: Beginner + Intermediate
- Duration: 1h 49m
- Release Date: April 2017
- Course Curriculum: See the course on O'Reilly
The learning strategy behind the course
As the instructional designer and course creator, I made a strategic choice: start with the "why" and "when" before diving into the "how." Most people taking this course would be completely new to rapid prototyping as a concept, not just the tool. They needed to understand:
- Who benefits from prototyping (spoiler: it's not just designers—teams and stakeholders need to be part of the process)
- What makes a rapid prototype effective (versus recreating a snapshot of your entire experience)
- When prototypes work better than static wireframes or screen mock-ups
- Where prototyping fits in the design process (early and often, not just at the end)
- Why prototyping catches usability problems before hard-coding begins
- How prototyping facilitates cooperation and concept alignment among teams (and with clients—always the trickiest audience!)
Only after building that foundation did we dive into InVision's specific features and workflows. This approach meant learners walked away understanding prototyping as a strategic practice, not just knowing how to use one particular tool.
Who the course served (and how I designed for multiple audiences)
While InVision was marketed as a UX Designer's tool, my cross-functional team experience taught me something important: prototype creation could just as easily fall to designers, product managers, or producers. Since InVision didn't have built-in image editing tools, you didn't need deep design software skills to use it effectively.
So I designed the course content to serve multiple audiences simultaneously:
- Core learners: Designers, product managers, and anyone needing to create rapid click-through prototypes (no prior prototyping experience required)
- Collaboration partners: I created short, focused modules on collaboration tools and design inspection features specifically designed to be shared with product and development partners—bringing them into the prototyping loop instead of leaving them on the sidelines
- End users: The module on navigating InVision's UI was written so it could help team members or be shared directly with stakeholders and usability test participants as a quick "here's how to click through this thing" primer
(I also included some advanced sections on InVision's Craft plug-in for those already comfortable with Sketch—because why not serve the power users too?)
The impact
At 1 hour and 49 minutes, this wasn't meant to be an exhaustive deep-dive. Instead, I created a focused learning experience that got people up and running quickly while building a genuine understanding of rapid prototyping as a practice. And honestly? Even though InVision is no longer around, the foundational concepts I taught in this course are still completely relevant for today's prototyping tools.
Sometimes the best educational strategy is teaching principles that outlast the tools!
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