15 essential tools for designers
TRANSCRIPT
1www.metrostarsystems.com
15 ESSENTIAL TOOLSfor Designers
2www.metrostarsystems.com
The Essentials ListWhether you are a UX Designer, Visual Designer, or Front-End Developer, these tools may help make your design/ development process a little easier.
3www.metrostarsystems.com
UX DESIGN & RESEARCHING TOOLSUsertesting.com
Usertesting.com allows you to recruit users and conduct unmoderated or moderated remote user tests. All of the tests are video recorded too so you can go back and analyze the results.
4www.metrostarsystems.com
UX DESIGN & RESEARCHING TOOLSGoogle Drive
Google Drive can be used to organize UX design and research. Google Drive’s cloud based tools (spreadsheets, whiteboards, and
file sharing) enable easy collaboration on projects.
5www.metrostarsystems.com
UX DESIGN & RESEARCHING TOOLSSketch
While Sketch is an amazing tool for creating visual designs, it can also be used for UX design. There are plenty of tools designed specifically for wire framing or sitemaps, but Sketch makes it
simple to create wireframes and hand them off to a visual designer.
6www.metrostarsystems.com
UX DESIGN & RESEARCHING TOOLSInVision
InVision is a simple prototyping tool that allows you to take mockups or wireframes and turn them into clickable pages. The
clickable prototype can then be used to show developers interactions or user test the prototype.
7www.metrostarsystems.com
UX DESIGN & RESEARCHING TOOLSProto.io
Proto.io is a prototyping tool with the ability to do advanced animations. If you need to test or show advanced features such as
scrolling and swiping then this is the tool to use.
8www.metrostarsystems.com
UI/VISUAL DESIGN TOOLSAdobe Color CC
Adobe Color is a great tool for creating your own custom color palettes or browsing through palettes already made by people in
the Adobe community.
9www.metrostarsystems.com
UI/VISUAL DESIGN TOOLSSubtle Patterns
Subtle Patterns is a tool you can use to browse through free patterns created by other designers. These are great to use for background patterns in headers and other sections of sites and
apps.
10www.metrostarsystems.com
UI/VISUAL DESIGN TOOLSSite Inspire
If you need inspiration to help you get started on your visual designs then head over to Site Inspire. You can filter for specific categories and find inspiration from sites with similar content.
11www.metrostarsystems.com
UI/VISUAL DESIGN TOOLSPttrns.com
If you are working on a mobile design and need some inspiration for user interaction then Pttrns is the perfect site to go to. You can
search or filter based on the UI element you want to design.
12www.metrostarsystems.com
UI/VISUAL DESIGN TOOLIconFinder
Iconfinder is used to find millions of free or paid for icons to use in your product design. It can also be used to get some inspiration
from other icons.
13www.metrostarsystems.com
UI/VISUAL DESIGN TOOLSPexels
Pexels has amazing royalty free stock photos. They are perfect to use in beginning mockups or in your final design.
14www.metrostarsystems.com
OTHER RESOURCES/TOOLSDesign Details Podcast
Design Details is described as “A show about the people who design our favorite products.” The episodes teach new processes and resources from leaders in the design world who share their journeys in the design field and how to progress in your career.
15www.metrostarsystems.com
OTHER RESOURCES/TOOLSCodeacademy
Codecademy is a free resource to help you learn to code. It’s useful for beginners wanting to learn the basics and for more
advanced developers looking to advance their skills or see examples from the community.
16www.metrostarsystems.com
OTHER RESOURCES/TOOLSLynda
Lynda is a website to learn software, creative techniques, and many other professional skills. It has hundreds of courses for UX designers, visual designers, and developers. If you are trying to
learn a new program this is a great place to start.
17www.metrostarsystems.com
OTHER RESOURCES/TOOLSZeplin
Zeplin is the perfect tool for collaboration between designers and developers. Zeplin provides plugins for Sketch and Photoshop for designers to easily export screens right to Zeplin. The developer then has assets and CSS needed to develop the site or product
perfectly.
18www.metrostarsystems.com
About our Digital Practice AreaLEARN MORE
703.481.9581