15 Popular Tools & Resources That Designers Are Using
Maybe it’s about time you tackled that website project you’ve been putting off. Not having the right tools or resources for the job could be a reason for doing so. Yet, it’s no longer a good excuse when there is plenty of both readily available.
Whether you lack a tool, or simply need one that does a better and faster job, you should find it here. You might even be able to complete that project of yours in a matter of hours; instead of days or weeks. You’ll feel better once you’ve done so, after which you can move on to other things.
Here’s a collection of our favorite tools and resources that can help you finish out the year with a bang. You will have a host of clients asking for more help as a result. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert at delivering projects, these tools and resources were created with you in mind.
Proto.io
Proto.io will satisfy all your prototyping needs. Whether you need a series of low-fidelity prototypes to get the feedback needed to solidify the direction your design is heading, or you need an ultra-high-fidelity prototype to test drive your final design, Proto.io will get the job done.
You don’t need any special design or coding skills to use Proto.io. In fact, you won’t need to do any coding at all; and using Proto.io doesn’t require prototyping experience either. You can prototype, design, test, and collaborate with others; all from a single platform.
Proto.io’s Dashboard assists with version control and collaboration. The Editor makes creating your design and building prototypes a snap. With the Player, you can review where you’re at on your browser, share your design with others, and conduct tests on a PC or on mobile devices.
Proto.io is used by web design and development teams, individual entrepreneurs, and project managers. It can also be used by a client to provide a model of the client’s requirements.
SITE123
A free website builder that has all the features you need is hard to pass up, but that’s exactly what SITE123 is. There’s no cost involved to build a single website, and you’re under no obligation to buy.
What do you get for a zero out of pocket expenditure? SITE123 offers a rich assortment of thematic responsive designs, a WYSIWYG editor that instantly displays any changes you make, and an intuitive interface that allows you to apply a modular technique to website building, by taking text, video, gallery, etc. modules, and customizing them in the dashboard.
SITE123 also has a new multilingual capability, a must-have if you need to translate your website content into one or more languages; plus, an app market that enables you to integrate external apps into your websites.
Xfive
Care for their product design and development needs is at the foundation for everything Xfive does for their clients and customers. Xfive is an Australian-based web development agency with offices in Australia, the United States, and Europe, along with a global network of experienced software developers.
Xfive can assist you with a variety of tasks, ranging from website development or upgrading, to WordPress theme and plugin design and development.
For those managing very large or multiple projects, Xfive will perform the software development tasks, and assist with project management if needed. For tasks such as these, this web development agency is happy to act as a partner and as an extension of a client’s design team.
Xfive rents developers to organizations that do not wish to hire one, and they also perform single project software development for small teams and individual web designers.
wpDataTables
Complex, responsive, interactive charts and tables can be essential features of scientific, business, and governmental websites, to name a few; but they can also be a headache to design and maintain. wpDataTables is an application capable of managing huge amounts of data.
This tool will do the heavy lifting for you whenever you’re in the need for informative, eye-popping tables or charts.
Webflow
Webflow gives you the means to design and develop everything from prototypes to production-ready websites the easy way – visually, and without any need for coding. You no longer need to hand a project over to a developer to integrate complex interactions or animations into your product. But if you do work with developers, you’ll discover that Webflow provides a simple but powerful tool for handoffs.
Webflow provides the tools you need to do everything yourself, while significantly accelerating the design/development process.
Pro
Pro is a creative website builder with a different approach. It consists of 3 powerful builders; header, content, and footer. Pro also provides a host of premium tools consisting of 3rd party and Themeco-developed plugins that provide all the design options and website functionality you’re likely to need.
There’s also the Themeco creative forum, where you can share ideas with other professionals.
Ultra
Ultra has come up with a fast, easy, and efficient way to build a better website. It’s especially suitable for startups, whose dynamic growth is often reflected in a need for websites that can easily be changed or updated.
The secret lies in Ultra’s customizable, responsive, pre-designed content rows. With these drag and drop rows you can quickly build a page, or modify a page in an existing site.
FFonts
Have you been looking for a site featuring huge numbers of free fonts, but dread the thought of the time it could take to sift through them to find one you want? FFonts will relieve you of that worry. This incredible resource offers thousands of high-quality, free fonts, arranged in more than 30 categories.
With FFonts, you should quickly be able to locate and download exactly the font you need.
WhatFontIs
WhatFontis is another valuable resource to have at your fingertips. It’s not all that uncommon to come across a font that you’d dearly love to use in one of your designs. The problem is, you don’t know its name – which can make it difficult to find and download for your own purposes.
Simply submit a sample to WhatFontis, and you will either be given its name, or a small selection of very close matches.
Pressmate
Pressmate is a premium WordPress support service that helps agencies and small businesses maintain their websites and website-building tools by providing WordPress, and WordPress theme and plugin updates.
Pressmate also providessecurity services, hack and malware cleanup services, and 100% reliable automated and offsite cloud backups. Pressmate will also monitor your website’s performance on a routine basis and offer suggestion on performance improvement.
Goodie
Goodie is a service or platform that joins clients directly with developers. Once you submit your design, you’ll work directly with a web developer, who will get your website up and running for an agreed-upon, fixed price.
Goodie is a great match for single-page websites and other small projects.
BBT Drag and Drop Email Builder
The Big BangThemes Drag and Drop Email Builder is an ideal tool for email marketers. It not only makes it easy for its users to create customized email templates, but allows quick and frequent changes to be made in response to market dictates.
A series of ready-made templates, carefully prepared with increasing conversion rates in mind, is included. The BBT Builder also enables exporting HTML, Mailchimp, My Mail, and other files.
Stockfresh
Stockfresh is emerging as a serious competitor in the world of stock photos providers. This stock photo agency already has millions of quality photos and vectors in its inventory, with more goodies to come.
You’ll find the prices are competitive, with several purchasing plans to choose from. You can also expect friendly support, should you need assistance.
Aurora
If you’ve been looking for ways to jazz up your website or portfolio, you might give Aurora a try. With this Mac HDR photo editor, you can bring out the true beauty of already-stunning photographs, or add subtle or dramatic special effects.
Default presets make this sophisticated editor easy for beginners to work with, and you can customize or create your own. A version of Aurora will soon be available to PC users.
SnapPages
If you’re looking for a simple, yet powerful and high-quality website-building tool, you’ll find investigating what SnapPages offers is time well spent. This drag-and-drop builder comes with a series of modern, highly customizable website templates.
Another cool feature: Since your website is hosted on the cloud, you can access it from anywhere, at anytime. SnapPages is mobile optimized, and is a great choice for bloggers as well.
Summary
There’s plenty of tools and resources here to fill in any gaps you may have in your design toolkit. You can take a closer look at some of these offerings and see the opportunities that will make your life easier.
We hope you’ve come across an item or two that will serve you well. We’re always interested in feedback, so let us know your thoughts.
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