Interesting apps for web designers can help us in our work, and make every process more enjoyable and efficient.
The world of web design has changed a lot over the past few years, but some things have stayed the same. We’re still designing for users, and we still need to be able to show our work to clients and colleagues. Thankfully, there’s been an explosion in software that helps us do all of those things. Whether you’re interested in wireframing with Balsamiq or building sites with WordPress, there’s an app that can help you do your job better.
Apps are now available to help keep you organized and efficient. There are tons of web designer apps out there that can help you get organized and improve your productivity. Here are a few of the most popular.
Pencil Project
The Pencil Project is a free, open-source drawing tool that can be used on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and any other platform that supports Firefox. It’s an easy-to-use application for prototyping, diagramming, and mockup. The typical features of a drawing program are included as well as some advanced ones such as diagrams and flowcharts.
Pencil offers a variety of predefined stencils to make your designs easier. You can also create custom templates by adding your own stencil elements.
Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) is a subscription-based software that allows users to access Adobe’s extensive library of design applications and services. Depending on the plan you select, you’ll have access to tools for graphic design, video editing, web development, and photography and cloud services.
For web designers and developers, some of the most useful programs included in this creative suite are Photoshop CC for image editing; Illustrator CC for vector graphics; InDesign CC for print layouts; Dreamweaver CC for web development; and Adobe XD for designing user experience (UX) and user interface (UI).
Webflow
Webflow is a web design tool, CMS, and hosting platform. It allows users to build responsive websites without coding. Basically, it’s intended to be an all-in-one kind of product. Webflow provides the tools for building and hosting websites, including a WYSIWYG editor that enables users to drag and drop elements like text boxes and images into their site’s layout. The company says that its features help designers collaborate in real time on the same project with other designers or developers, making it easier for teams to communicate about the work they’re doing or want done.
The cost for Webflow ranges from $16 per month for basic plans up to $212 per month for more robust plans; however, there are free trial periods available as well as free educational accounts that students and teachers can apply for. So while there are some costs involved in using the service, it’s still possible to try it out first just in case you decide the service isn’t right for you.
Bootstrap Studio
Bootstrap Studio is one of the best ways to get started with Bootstrap. It’s a desktop app that has a drag-and-drop interface and supports JavaScript, jQuery, and Google Web Fonts. You can even export your work as a WordPress theme! There are components for everything in the Bootstrap library, so you can use it to create any type of project you want.
The software comes with several design themes that you can import into your projects as well. This is great for beginners who want to learn how Bootstrap works before they actually start coding their own designs from scratch.
Foundation
Foundation is an open-source, responsive front-end framework built with Sass. It is designed to help you build websites and web apps faster, easier and more efficiently, allowing you to focus on user experience by providing a solid base of HTML, CSS and JavaScript for your web projects.
With over 25,000 stars on GitHub, Foundation is one of the most popular front-end frameworks available today. Some of the biggest companies in the world use Foundation to design their sites. Companies like Adobe, Amazon Web Services and Disney use it—and so should you!
If you are looking for a tool that lets you quickly create prototypes or production code, Foundation is it.
Pinegrow Web Editor
Pinegrow Web Editor is a desktop website builder that opens and saves standard HTML and CSS files. It has powerful visual tools for editing the HTML structure of a page, applying CSS styles to elements, visually creating responsive layouts and websites, working with Bootstrap and Foundation frameworks and WordPress themes.
Pinegrow is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Adobe Edge Reflow CC
Adobe Edge Reflow CC is an app for responsive web design that allows you to create and share CSS3-based layouts and design prototypes.
Although the app is still in its early stages, it’s a great tool for creating fluid grid layouts. It features support for media queries, HTML elements, and jQuery Mobile framework.
You can purchase Adobe Edge Reflow as part of the Creative Cloud membership or separately through Adobe Edge Reflow website.
Macaw The Code-Savvy Web Designer
Macaw is a web design tool built with the code-savvy modern designer in mind. It’s a web design tool that outputs clean, semantic HTML5 and CSS3. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and fluid grid system, Macaw provides users with the tools to go from concept to production without having to navigate through multiple applications.
Macaw features responsive images out of the box and will output your image at different sizes depending on the screen size. This is vastly superior to any other responsive image solution because it downloads only what it needs for each screen size, so images don’t appear blurry or scaled up on small screens or download unnecessarily large files when viewed on larger screens.
Sublime Text 2
Sublime Text is a text editor that allows you to edit code directly from your desktop. You can use it to write, edit, and save code files of all types. It works across different platforms and is compatible with most web coding languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, Python and others.
Sublime Text is a very fast and easy-to-use alternative to online text editors; it comes with lots of functionality built in that makes writing code simple. You can get Sublime Text for free by downloading an evaluation version for 30 days; after 30 days you will need to purchase a license if you wish to continue using the program.
Slack
Slack is a powerful communication tool for teams. It organizes information into channels, which users can join to stay updated on specific projects or topics of interest. Channels can be created for virtually anything, and all conversations are searchable, making it easy to find relevant information.
Users can also share files and links with their team by simply dragging and dropping them into Slack. With some basic formatting tools, text posts become beautifully formatted messages that make content more digestible than a bulky file attachment would be. Private channels allow users to create conversations that only certain members of the group will see, which is particularly useful for sensitive or confidential discussions. Additionally, you can utilize @-mentions to call people’s attention to important messages or send reminders when something needs to be done quickly.
Slack works great on mobile devices as well as desktop computers, so you can take it anywhere with you!
InVision
InVision is an excellent project management tool that allows designers to simply collaborate in real-time, test designs on multiple devices, and leave feedback. It’s the best tool for managing your design projects and creating prototypes of a website. One of its best features is that you can use it to test how far along you are during the design process so you can make sure you’re meeting your deadlines.
It makes it easy to preview your work on multiple platforms to make sure no detail is overlooked. Designers will appreciate the simple file sharing ability, which allows them to share files with their team from any device.
InVision has definitely earned its spot at the top of this list because it improves communication between designers and developers by streamlining the work process.
Conclusion
One of the most important things to be aware of when beginning to design a website is that there are a lot of app options. There are many web authoring tools available, and choosing the right one for you can be difficult.
