Menu
In this day and age, it is not a very good idea to start the front-end development process as soon as you and your team come up with a concept for your website.
There are lots of things that have to be done before that. Usually, the first concept is not the most mature one. Until a design idea becomes real, it has to change and mature so many times. Teams have to collaborate with each other to make that happen.
There are various tools that teams and designers can use for web design. In this article, we will cover what these tools are and how they help teams design their user interface and user experience.
The tools that you and your team can use can be of several types: tools for UI design, tools for UX design, and both. Most of the apps and software introduced in this article have features for both, but they focus on one of them more. In order to understand which one of these tools works best for you, you need to check your own preferences. For example, you might want to interact with other team members, post comments on the design process, or see the live prototypes and wireframes, or share the CSS and HTML tags directly with the developers. Fortunately, there is a tool for each of these needs. You might also need to filter out these tools based on the operating system of your choice.
Sketch is a very famous tool for both UI and UX design. It is available on MacOS and browser. What most people like about Sketch is how versatile it is. A lot of people find wireframing and prototyping in Sketch very easy. There are lots of options for projects, such as the existence of Pages and Artboards, which make your job easy for big projects. You can also collaborate with your team members to improve your web design.
Many of us have been raised by other Adobe tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator. Even though it is possible to design the user interface of a website or app in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe had introduced a tool named Adobe XD focusing on web design. Using Adobe XD, you can design the interface, create prototypes, and share your work. However, Adobe XD does not allow for pages, and you basically get a blank page with Artboards in it. This is not very suitable for big projects. However, getting started with Adobe XD is very easy especially if you are already familiar with Adobe products. You can also get connected to the Adobe Creative Suite and use the resources provided for free. You can access it on Windows and MacOS. There is also a smartphone application on Android and iOS that allows you to view your prototypes live on your phone.
Many people find using Figma easier as it is mainly available on browser, plus it has applications for Windows and MacOS. Figma is very team-friendly and you can view changes live. You can use the libraries and resources provided by other Figma users or make your own library of assets. Figma allows for Pages and Artboards, both, so it is suitable for big projects. Live prototypes are also available on Figma.
InVision Studio has offered a set of tools helping individuals and teams to build their own UI and UX designs. It is a very good tools especially for developers and UX designers to sync their work with interface designers. You can receive codes in React, Angular, Vue, and HTML. InVision also has a tool called Freehand that allows you to create your own LoFi wireframes without having to do it on Paper. InVision has a free plan that allows you to create 1 prototype with unlimited number of screens. A lot of designers find InVision mostly useful for prototyping and wireframing. You can also collaborate with your team and receive feedback. It is available on browser, MacOs and Windows.
As mentioned before, it is also possible to create user interfaces and wireframes on other platforms. As the best example, lots of professional web designers use Adobe Illustrator for more artistic designs and mockups.
If you are collaborating with a team of developers, there is a tool that you might also benefit from. In order to share your work with developers so that they can check out every single element on the screen and use the codes for front-end development, you can use Zeplin. It allows you to upload your artboards and projects to a team project on Zeplin. Every single element is translated to HTML, CSS, and any other language that you want. All the required resources are available as plugins. It works with Figma, Adobe XD, and Sketch.
Whatever tool that you choose, keep in mind that you can export the files into other apps, as well. You can benefit from sharing different Adobe file formats with other Adobe apps and even Sketch and Figma. We hope that we have helped you and your team make the right choice based on your goals.
Our professional team of designers and developers is ready and available for new web design and development projects.