Famous product design platform Muke recently officially launched the latest design tool “Muke RP”, and the official announcement of “forever free”. The tide has arrived, the field of digital product design tools may usher in profound changes.
Design tools are an industry with a long history. Photoshop has been known for 30 years, and Axure has been a prototype design tool for nearly 20 years.
In 2014, the domestic mobile Internet industry ushered in a big explosion, and the design demand immediately exploded. During this period, “Mockplus” and “Ink Knife” released by domestic manufacturers, as outstanding in the field of prototype design, quickly gained a large number of users and deservably became the star products in the industry.
The situation of Axure, copycat and ink knife in the prototype design tool market has continued to this day. But behind the scenes, the two domestic tool manufacturers have gradually chosen different futures: Ink knife has been acquired by the listed company Wanxing in recent years, and the product strategy has begun to shift to the “software toolbox” mode with Wanxing gene; While adhering to the “rapid prototyping tool”, Mieke constantly concentrates resources and iterates its online collaborative design platform, so as to make continuous efforts towards enterprise services.
In May 2021, Muke made a radical announcement that it would make its new generation rapid prototyping tool “Muke RP” permanently free. This means that the era of free design tools has arrived early.
A free design of catfish is coming
Since the turn of the millennium, several “free revolutions” have pushed software and the Internet verticals forward.
After 360 security guard was permanently free, it played the role of subversive and rapidly reshaped the industry. The original major anti-virus manufacturers fell one after another, and the entire anti-virus software industry entered the free era.
Online game “journey” as the industry’s first “to point card” large-scale online swim products, also played the role of subversion, leading the online swim market into free times from now on.
The product design industry is probably going through a similar process. If the horizontal comparison, it can be seen that copycat RP free strategy gives the product a great advantage in terms of cost performance. Similar products in the design tool industry must be nervous, after this revolution, the industry may usher in a huge reshuffle.
* The following table is based on published versions. The information is limited to the author’s collection, only for reference.
It is worth mentioning that even for Axure, a veteran product in the standard industry, the completely free copy RP has achieved no less in the core functions, and is even better than Axure in terms of design ease of use, interaction convenience, team collaboration and other aspects.
In the aspect of prototype production, Replica RP supports the interaction Settings of components, states, commands and other dimensions, which can improve the ability of users to control complex interaction. Based on the characteristics of cloud technology, copyer RP can be used in real-time editing, sharing design resources, publishing and review, development and delivery, etc. Lightweight work out of the box in the browser, immersive work scenarios can also be downloaded to copy the RP client for a better experience, this strategy also gives users more flexibility and freedom to adapt to the product, while putting Axure, a more expensive overseas product, in the shade.
Thanks to its early start, Axure still has a huge user base in China. However, the author believes that the cloud and platform of design tools is an irreversible trend. There is a very interesting comparison page of “Mock RP vs Axure” on the official website of Mock. If you are interested, you can click the link to refer to it.
Two, let the free come harder
For manufacturers, to achieve complete free, need to have great courage and excellent strength. No matter what reasons or goals copycat set off this revolution, it is bound to have a profound impact on the whole design tool industry:
1. Free for individual use, enterprise service field becomes the final battlefield
Whether it is Saas services, or any kind of innovation, the fundamental point is to reduce cost and increase efficiency. Design tools free, can maximize for users and enterprises. In the process of continuous growth, enterprises will take the initiative to carry out deeper cooperation with manufacturers after fully enjoying the dividend generated by the scale of efficient products. As a result, the company is able to increase efficiency and reduce costs, and software makers are rewarded in the process, a “win-win”.
As collaboration becomes more pervasive, isolated tools for targeting individual use will eventually lose meaning and value because value must be generated on platforms. In the future, free design tools will be the trend, but software vendors will compete more fiercely for large customers.
2. Drive industry innovation from the side to form a better innovation trend
Copying foreign ideas is a common problem in China’s software industry, as evidenced by the number of Figma knockoffs that emerged overnight in 2020. Copycat free, but also blocked competing products trying to “use copycat products to cut leek” in the field of product design tools, for the industry has a certain self-purification effect.
The domestic tool industry should really innovate in a more valuable direction and compete on a more promising track. For a long time, copying has left the Chinese lacking confidence in real innovation in their industry. Copying design tools free, from a certain point of view to give the industry a fresh, stirring, rebirth of energy, so that the industry is more dynamic, more confident, more future.
3. Redefine industry standards to improve the international competitiveness of the industry
Copyist RP greatly improves the survival threshold of competing products entering this track for free, avoiding this very need for “ingenuity” track is too noisy. Under the background of “free”, existing manufacturers can only choose a more hardcore competition mode, which will help the survival of the fittest in the whole industry, and let a batch of leading products really become the domestic standard, so that they can have the strength and scale to compete with overseas software giants. Therefore, this move is also very much in line with the current national 14th five-year “science and technology power” strategy, as well as to break the European and American monopoly, to avoid being “stuck in the neck” policy wind direction and the trend of The Times.
Three, can we expect visitors?
The growing desire for collaboration, automation and intelligence and the lack of high-quality collaboration platforms in the industry are the core pain points in digital product research and development.
Behind completely giving up the profit of design tools, we can see The determination of Mick: to build an “All in One” one-stop product collaborative design platform — Mick Design Cloud, to build a perfect function matrix and platform ecology, and to provide more in-depth and valuable services for the digital transformation of Internet enterprises and traditional enterprises.
The author also noted that the vision of “behind every digital product, there are copyers” has great meaning, which may indicate that in the future, copyer design cloud will become more and more indispensable basic services to build digital products.
What ordinary consumers care about may just be whether “white piao”. However, for the top manufacturers, how to assume the responsibility of the industry, lead the domestic forces out of the country, onto the global stage, master the core technology and constantly refresh the height of the industry, is more important.
Copy guest can break through the thorns, really assume the high expectations of the industry, let us wait and see. But in any case, the era of free design tools has come inexorably.
* For more information, access to download, you can go to the Official website: Draw prototypes to do design, copy RP permanent free.