What Principle doesn’t do

- [Voiceover] As you have discovered so far, there is a lot you can do with Principle. Yet before we get working with assets that go into the Principle artboards, let's take a moment to keep in mind what Principle can't do. This is not to discourage you from attempting to find the edges of Principle's potential, but more to get you into the proper mindset when assembling artboards and projects in Principle. At its heart, Principle is an assembly application. It is where you place the assets on an artboard, and then determine how the user will move between them.

As you move through this chapter, this message will come through loud and clear. The actual creative work, the creation of the assets, is done elsewhere. Vectors, for example, are created in Sketch, or as shown here, in Illustrator. Bitmaps are edited and manipulated in Sketch and/or Photoshop. Layouts are created in Artboards, in Photoshop, or in Sketch, and brought into Principle in a manner that will render them properly if they are to be tested on Android or iOS devices.

Principle doesn't contain the graphics features we are all used to, such as grids, rulers, and simple effects such as drop-shadows, because that is not its job. Its job is to give you the ability to demonstrate your intention around how the user navigates between artboards, and how objects move from here to there. For example, if I click this button, we are moving from here to there, and we're moving between the artboards. Though I use images and icons throughout this course, Principle hands you the opportunity to create interactive, low-fidelity wireframes and the ability to play with motion, interactivity, time, and transitions, before the actual assets are even created.

Principle isn't a development tool either. There is no facility to export code. If you take a look in the File menu, there's nothing here that allows you to export anything to do with code. Where it is invaluable though is through its ability to allow you to work with a developer and to show him or her how the project works through the use of an interactive prototype. Though I have pointed out the practical limits of Principle, in actual fact, the only limits you have with this application are the limits you will place on your creativity, and you can be very, very creative with this application.

In fact, why not see for yourself? Point your browser to principlerepo.com, and check out what others are doing with Principle. If you just roll over an example, you can see some of the things that you can do with this application, all of which use assets created elsewhere. There are dozens of ideas here, and best of all, you can download the PRD file and get the answer to a question you will inevitably ask as you poke through this site.

How did they do that?