👋 Essential Tools For Design
Some of the best design tools in 2020.
The best arsenal a designer can have is the resources and tools they use. I will admit, back when I was a Junior, I boxed myself into a certain arsenal of tools that I did not feel comfortable getting out of. I mainly used Adobe XD and just relied on the share feature for developer hand-off. Over the years, mentors have shown me tools that I cannot live without now — so here’s a list of my favorite tools to use for design in 2020.
Figma
High on the list for a reason. Figma has come a long since it was first launched. The team is continuously improving the UX of the tool and has become invaluable to more over the years. In their latest tweet, Figma introduced 2 new features, the ability to add multiple interactions and custom easing — both for prototyping. Not to mention the recent support of a lot of plugins on Figma, it’s no secret that Figma is now a huge player in the game. Honestly, if you’re used to using Adobe XD, switch over to Figma and you will love it!
Notion
If you follow me on Twitter, you know how much of a Notion fanboy I am. It is, for me, a game changer. It does everything. Their support team is great, it has dark mode (yay), desktop and mobile apps, and the fact that you can create your own website with it is an added bonus. Check out Temirlan’s portfolio made in Notion.
Balsamiq
Wireframing is the basis of any start of a design project and balsamiq does it so well. Others might disagree and prefer to wireframe in their preferred design software, I personally like Balsamiq because it forces you to think only of the app/website’s flow. It’s easy to understand and use.
Marvel
Sort of a jack of all trades, you can wireframe, prototype, hand-off, and even user test right on Marvel. It has integration with essential services such as Jira and Maze. There really isn’t anything bad to be said about it, it’s amazing.
That’s it! Those are the tools I enjoy using the most, that’s not to say I don’t use the likes of Adobe XD and Protopie, but these right here put me at ease when designing. Take them out for a spin, you might like them.
If you enjoyed this article, please show some love to the Twitter thread.