Velocity - Prompt Figma prototypes then test with humans

@abod_rehman Yes, it's no replacement but it's better than nothing. I hope that everyone will at least give Velocity a shot before they consider their design fit for human presentation. I think largely the functionality that we are creating at, will be defacto in a few short years. The earliest to use is will have unfair advantage.

@abod_rehman Thank you! Making early testing more accessible without adding friction is exactly what we were aiming for. As a designer, I know how often things slip through when time or budget are tight, so building something that gives fast, visual feedback and depth was super important to us. Really appreciate the thoughtful words 🙏

@abod_rehman Thank you for your interest. Please, don't hesitate to contact us directly if you would like to see some changes in the plugin after you test it - we are very open to applying what our users want to see and use.

While it is not a full replacement machines and ai becomes more reliable and faster than human. During the time human gets familiar with the design, our plugin can already run a 100 independent sims for a big confidence of results. Thats the biggest strength of our plugin.

@heypaus Thx Paul, there are a number of outcomes. For a Designer who is iterating all the time in Figma you can actually turn on/off the heat-maps on your designs as a separate layer. But also you get top level statues right there in Figma as well. The web reports show you all the paths and are intended to help you reach your product goals.

@heypaus Thanks! As Kevin said, we sure do have heat maps! And as a designer myself, I find them super helpful, such a quick way to spot patterns and pain points. Would love for you to try it out and see for yourself! 🙌

@heypaus Hey, also on top of the reports which Kevin and Rachel presented, you can get a simpler notification via email (this is optional - no need to allow us to send it) when running sims. We are planning some more features in the future that will affect how we present results.

@taibabosnic Hi Taiba, we've conducted 100+ Product team interviews since the start of this year and we've learned that teams want to conduct best practice discovery but real world limitations are what constantly hold them back. At the moment there's a stigma in design that AI only replaces jobs, that's absolutely not what we are about. Instead we believe AI supports designers with new super powers. So we've had to battle against initial first impressions of AI user testing trying to replace humans, then also just encouraging a new habit! Changing habits is the hardest thing to do, we want everyone to run Velocity as a sense check before any human ever reviews a design but it's a big ask...

@taibabosnic Thanks so much! From a designer’s perspective, making sure the outcome actually felt valuable. We spent a lot of time figuring out how to present the data in a way that’s clear, actionable, and genuinely helps you make design decisions faster.

@taibabosnic Hey, maybe some insights from engineering site - there was a pretty big challenge making it run smoothly and in the background. We utilised some of the freshest engineering strategies and cloud technologies to make our application analyse and produce results in minutes - it is about 2 times faster than initial propositions.

@gamifykaran Thanks Karan, and thanks for your help last month with Boring Launch was a great initial kicker and I'd recommend your service again to enroll in loads of potentially interested communities asap.

@gamifykaran Thanks so much, Karan! We really appreciate the support.

@nicoleastor Thanks so much for this! 🙌 You’ve totally nailed what we’re trying to solve, making it easier for designers and PMs to validate ideas early and communicate their thinking with the team. We’ve been there too, struggling to get clear direction before involving real users so building Velocity to fill this gap has been a real labour of love. So glad it’s resonating 💛

@nicoleastor Thank you for the kind words Nicole, I'm so glad you see the potential. We'd love to hear about your experiences, see any of your prototypes or reports. I'd even be willing to take part in any of your user testing!

@nicoleastor Thank you for your interest. Please, don't hesitate to contact us directly if you would like to see some changes in the plugin after you test it - we are very open to applying what our users want to see and use.

@maksym_skrypka Thank you Maksym, I'd love to hear about how it benefitted you or how it fell short of your expectations whenever you have a chance to try it out.

@maksym_skrypka Thanks, we really appreciate the kind words and we’d love to hear what you think when you give it a go.

@joey_zhu_seopage_ai Thanks Joey, we hope users will get really creative with their Prompts. Just trying it out with any prompt and watching where it wanders is often surprising and revealing in novel ways. It's a great thinking tool. I've written a short article about how to write the best prompts for velocity here: https://velocity.posthaven.com/guide-writing-prompts-for-ai-user-testing

@joey_zhu_seopage_ai Love this, thank you! We really wanted to meet designers in their workflow Figma!) so it’s easy to get fast feedback without breaking your flow. Also love that you picked up on the human testing side. Its super important to us as we believe that nothing beats real user insights, but Velocity helps you get to a better stage before testing with humans.

@joey_zhu_seopage_ai Thank you for all the kind words. It is not only saving 'back and forth', but also based on calculations that we did, can save a lot of $$$ that you would normally spend on real testers. If you would like to see comparison or have any questions, suggestions - feel free to contact directly.

@kate_ramakaieva This is the most requested feature and is the point from which we started the project. At the moment users are limited to using our canned persona we are calling 'Boomer' who is intended to act like an older North american male. However we are planning extremely detailed updates in future so you can refine your users and they will respond emulate the target audience. However, in order for this to be valuable, it needs to benefit from real market data and not be a poor imitation. To begin with, it's important that every realises that simulations are never currently a replacement for the target audience, they are something different. They are indicative and thinking partners for design. At the moment we are focussed on this thinking partner part. So even though your own audience might be wildly different, if you throw 100 simulations in the direction of a task and 99 of them can't achieve it, that's likely a problem regardless of how accurate they are. We are really excited by this prospect, and of course if any paying customers are enthusiastic enough, we'll help them with custom personas but watch this space!

@kate_ramakaieva So glad you love the idea! Personalised personas will be coming soon!

@kate_ramakaieva Hello and thank you for your interest. We are planning to have different personas in the future, but also working on improving current simulations and building confidence in the results. Different user goals are already here - it is really all in the prompt that you use while starting the simulation. Don't worry, we still work around those prompts so its never a pointless simulation, but we try to make our agent understand what user wants as much as possible while requiring user to keep its natural conversation style.

@miked05 Thx Mike, I bet Prompter is encountering many of the challenges we are also facing! Tbh, our most popular prompt on the platform is "asdfasdfasdf"! There's a lot of education to be done on writing great clear prompts to get good answers. Tools like Prompter suggest at ways to tackle this. We're very early days in helping people with simple suggested prompts but I hope we can innovate in that direction soon. Glad you are checking it out and would love to hear your further feedback.

@miked05 Thanks so much, Mike! Really appreciate the kind words 🙌 And I love what you’re building with Prompter as it’s super relevant for us actually. One of the biggest blockers we see is users not knowing what to prompt when they’re setting up a test. So what you’ve built feels like a game-changer for that moment. I'm interested to now if you've seen any common prompt patterns emerge from your users?

@miked05 Hey, thank you for a comment. As part of development team I would feel bad if this is not clarified - its not only slowing down the process, its completely redefining it and saving huge amounts of time. During the time human gets familiar with the design, our plugin can already run a 100 independent sims for a big confidence of results. After that, there is only a small chance a final reviewer will have any issues to look at. Not to mention report and insights generated on the run.

Hope it will work wonders for you!

@ilya_korzun When we were considering how we could offer something really unique that's where we started because the other user testing platforms seemed to just such you out of Figma asap. Out of interest do you actually use any other Figma plugins? Our big hurdle has been the fact that few designers do! We have loads of integrations and touch points to roll out in the coming months which will hopefully be more Product hunt releases!

@ilya_korzun Thanks so much! Staying native to Figma was a really deliberate choice. From the designers we've spoken to, Sketch and XD haven't come up much, do you use them regularly? Would love to hear how they fit into your workflow! And yes, as Kevin mentioned, we’ve got some exciting releases coming soon that’ll align more with standalone web usage, definitely watch this space 👀

@ilya_korzun Hello, glad to see you like the fact its native in design tools. While figma is probably the most common it was an easy choice for us to make it work in it. Probably what we will be aiming for next is analysing markups like html/json using Chrome plugin (which can be used in other tools other than google chrome as well)

@notifyshivam Thanks for your support and help Shivam

@notifyshivam Thank you!! So grateful for your support it means a lot on launch day 🥳

@pavloviclaza Thank you Lazar! It's early days but I hope we'll promote many Designers to the best practices of User testing today and inspire them to the opportunity of the next ones tomorrow!

@pavloviclaza Thanks! so glad you think so, we’ve poured a lot into it so great to hear that its resonating.

@pavloviclaza Thanks a lot for a warm comment. If you ever have any issue working with the plugin, feel free to contact directly. We are very reactive to issues that arise, thats why its so few of them as we prio making what we have work well and only then rush into new features.

@naderikladious Thx Nader, yeah, we were surprised there weren't more tools allow for heat maps on your actual designs. I'd love to hear of any designs you might try it out with and if it didn't or didn't save you time.

@naderikladious Appreciate it, Nader! We’ve been heads-down trying to make that prototype-to-insight loop feel seamless, so it’s great to hear it landed with you. Also Linkinize looks useful. Have you found any unexpected behaviours or feedback around how teams are using it together? We’re always interested in how people collaborate around tools (especially early in the process).

@naderikladious Thank you for your words. If you ever have any issue working with the plugin, feel free to contact directly. We are very reactive to issues that arise, thats why its so few of them as we prio making what we have work well and only then rush into new features.

@eugene_kamenets Thank you Gene, we have learned a lot from UXcel inspiring community of ambitious Designers. It's awesome that Designers share their works in progress prototypes, I haven't found anywhere else like it. I look forward to getting back there soon and helping out and encouraging lots of prototypers.

@eugene_kamenets  Thank you! We’re already seeing some really exciting use cases from all over the world, across all sorts of projects. It’s been amazing to watch it in action already!

@lakshya_singh I'm glad we are creating an impression! I hope you'll encourage your designers to use Velocity but also you are free to use it with just screenshots to test any random app! Love Jupitrr AI btw.

@lakshya_singh  Thanks a million, Lakshya that means a lot! 🙌 Making early design validation way easier is our goal, so hearing that it feels game-changing is huge!

We are glad to see you interested in the plugin - if you want to give it a try and need a help don't hesitate to contact directly - also in case you have any suggestions or would like to see a functionality added. We are very reactive to issues that arise or requests our users have as we want it to be the enjoyable experience for everyone.

@david_chen32 Absolutely we do. I think the presence of quantifiable data in whatever form is going to squeeze best practice in all teams into reality. From the product team side they are all of a sudden always going to have evidence that meets the market and if it's not proven correct in the market, the need to talk to users will be all the clearer! ...In terms of shifting... short term I think tools like Velocity will dramatically improve many niche areas where sourcing the time of actual users was difficult. Many big companies and previously infuriating experiences will have no excuse to remain awful. In the long term I think a lot of levels in the chain of 'Prototyping' are collapsing to allow for far quicker cycles. Imagine Pharma, they of course prototype but the cycles last many years because of the speed of compilation. In future with AI simulations as both critics and users a baseline of standards will be able to reached far sooner than ever before. The hardest thing is learning what to learn, never doing. By doing quickly with an unlimited number of AI user tests many more players will be able to develop prototypes that will be able to surprisingly catch fire and almost barge their way into the market through sheer demand outside of established 'golden sources'.

@david_chen32 I totally agree with Kevin, and from the design side, it’s already shifting when I choose to test. Early validation used to feel out of reach unless you had the time, budget, or access to real users. Now I can get feedback within minutes even when the design’s still rough. It’s helped me spot issues I wouldn’t have caught until much later.

It definitely doesn’t replace human testing (and it shouldn’t), but it preps you for it so you go in with way more confidence, better questions, and better designs.

@lienchueh Exactly the sentiment! It's a bit like test driven product development where the Product team would come up with the product outcomes together and the designer can work to meet those outcomes before even speaking with the PM.

@lienchueh yes! You’ve nailed it! That mindset shift is exactly what we’re seeing. Testing design before handoff should be as normal as testing code before deploy. And once you’ve seen how fast and easy it can be, it really feels like a no-brainer

@semiology_studio Thanks so much, Stacey! So lovely to see your name pop up here. Really looking forward to talking at your event. Can’t wait to dive into AI tools for design & early validation with your community!

@semiology_studio Thank you Stacey we appreciate your support and we look forward to presenting at Pixel Perfect