Year in Review – Design Tools. Work smarter, not harder.

Web design tools to help you work smarter in 2020

There are many web design tools available right now that enable designers to work smarter and collaborate more efficiently. The speed of innovation in the web development space is accelerating every year. No matter what you’re trying to do, chances are there’s a tool designed specifically to help you out. With new web design tools being released all the time, the bar is continually rising when it comes to what our tools can do.

While all this is great news, it does mean it’s increasingly difficult to pick the tools that will suit you and your workflow. We’ve rounded up what we think are the best web design tools available right now. These tools will all help you become more streamlined, inventive, and creative in your projects. Here are the top 5 design tools:

InVision

Works to cover all bases and be the only UI tool you’ll need, including robust review and commenting features. Many of the tools help you create beautiful interactive interfaces, including tools for rapid prototyping, responsive and collaborative design, and working with design systems.If you’re already using InVision with tools like Sketch, there’s quite a bit of crossover in features. However, InVision’s power lies in the prototyping department, especially if your design involves animation. Rapid prototyping will allow you to create complex and imaginative transitions, enabling you to really achieve the level of animation you desire. Simply figure out how you want to your UI to look at the start of its transition, and then design the end result. InVision Studio works the rest out for you.On top of that, you can create these custom animations and transitions from a number of gestures and interactions like swiping, clicking, and hovering.

Sketch

Reportedly, one of the most widely-used web design platforms. Its vector-based tools for building interfaces and prototypes create incredibly smaller file sizes (compared to Photoshop). Sketch was built especially for making websites and apps so there are no unnecessary features cluttering your interface and it’s fast. The built-in grid system in Sketch is great and makes interface design much easier. I think the overall UI and minimal feel makes it much cleaner to design in and user-friendly. Photoshop seems complicated and heavy in comparison. There are many plug-ins available, which in theory, can help customize functionality that you’re looking for.

Photoshop

There’s a reason why Adobe Photoshop has been the de facto application that most people use when creating website designs. But as you can see, it’s now #3 on my list and has been taken-over by InVision and Sketch for a reason. A BIG reason means BIG files. Photoshop is just a file-size hog. But it’s still a robust tool especially considering how many designers have used and know Photoshop inside and out.

Adobe XD

Offers the best environment for digital projects under the Adobe Creative Cloud suite.If you’re a keen Adobe user and new to XD, you may not find the interface very ‘Adobe’-like to begin with. However, it does stack up to the other leading tools out there. It is a jump if you’ve been designing in Photoshop for a while, too, but very worth it for UI design. The ease of transitioning from a wireframe to design is rapid and refreshing.

WordPress

Yes, we’re highlighting WordPress as a design tool because of the amazing plethora of design themes available and the ease of use in customizing those design themes. With an additional large plugin library, that is mostly open-source and free, allows for rapid deployment for clients. And a CMS to boot!

Honorable mentions:

1. Slack – If you don’t know about Slack yet and never used it — you must be living under a rock. Slack is a messaging platform built for digital teams and supercharged with all the possible integrations and nifty features that make the remote collaboration easier.
2. Zoom/Webex – Sometimes, messages just aren’t enough — nothing can replace the power of face-to-face communication. Zoom and Webex are great video conferencing solutions that makes it easy to hold personal and team calls.
3. Figma – Is reportedly the world’s leading UI design software. It’s gained popularity mainly due to its collaboration features, allowing multiple people work on the same document simultaneously.
4. Basecamp – Is another popular and loved by the development community project management tool. It’s really well-suited for day-to-day tasks, but has a slightly less advanced reporting than JIRA.
5. Jira – One big advantage of JIRA above the other project management tools is that it’s so customizable, but that same thing is also a drawback, resulting in the steeper learning curve and more efforts needed to set it up.

The landscape of web design tools are constantly changing. Modern designers have various apps in their tool-boxes — and it’s important to constantly stay tuned with all the latest news in the industry to remain relevant.