When it comes to design and development, two heads are better than one. It’s always useful to get a second pair of eyes to look at something, and it also helps to have a simple system to handle communication so that you can focus on doing what you do best – creating great visuals.
That’s why today, we’re taking a look at two different tools that B2B companies can adopt to make life easier – and more efficient – for designers, developers and digital departments. Let’s go.
InVision
InVision touts itself as “the world’s leading prototyping, collaboration and workflow platform” and it’s already being used by a number of innovative companies, from Airbnb and Netflix to Dropbox, Shopify and Salesforce. Thanks in part to its Invision Enterprise offering, it works well for companies of all sizes whether they’re B2B or B2C.
This is a useful tool for web and graphic designers because it helps them to iterate their designs until they get them just right. Better still, InVision’s sleek workflow and internal communication tools will help you to provide ongoing feedback at every step of the process. It integrates with GitHub, Trello, Basecamp, Slack and a whole heap of other applications, which means that it can also centralise your work when it’s being stored in disparate locations.
InVision also allows you to test web and mobile designs with real people, granting you valuable feedback on early prototypes. You can even keep an eye on what they’re doing through live video and audio recordings, and this feedback can then be discussed within the app before being implemented in the latest version.
Better still, InVision looks – and feels – fantastic. That’s partly because of Aarron Walter, the company’s VP of Design Education. Walter has written a book called Designing for Emotion that’s worth a read if you wat to learn from his success at both InVision and Mailchimp.
Bugwolf
Ready to start testing? Bugwolf is perfect for QA when you’re developing an app, a website or a piece of software.
Essentially, it allows you to unleash your prototype on a ready audience, providing them with challenges and generating insights into what works and what doesn’t, as well as how people are navigating through your interface.
Let’s say that you’re a SaaS company that provides businesses with cloud-based accounting software. Using Bugwolf would help you to find common stumbling blocks and to make your software more user friendly. For example, you could challenge people to import an account or to generate a report, then figure out which issues people are most likely to encounter during the process.
Bugwolf offers everything from usability and content testing to data testing, security testing and browser testing, which makes it a great addition to any digital development team. On top of that, they’re backed by thought-leader and Steveology blogger Steve Farnsworth, so they must be doing something right.
Using software
Using third-party software like InVision or Bugwolf can help to revitalise your company and to encourage your staff to work much more efficiently. It can also provide insights that you might not otherwise have thought about.
The downside, though, is that employees sometimes fail to adapt to new technology, and many B2B companies have invested in expensive license fees only to see a piece of new software fail during deployment.
That’s why the key is to educate employees so that they understand how useful software can be. It’s not there to make their life difficult – it’s there to help them to do their job. As soon as you demonstrate the value that’s up for grabs, you’ll see adoption taking off in no time.
Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.