Web development has become a lot easier than it ever used to be. The rise of this digital age has given opportunities to many businesses to come up with different software and tools that enable individuals and companies to create websites on their own.
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The dependency on web developers and web designers has reduced, and people with no programming skills have become more empowered in this area. These website builders come with a lot of ready-to-use web design templates, and using them speeds up the process of building a website.
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However, this does not mean that there is no need for web developers and web designers anymore. It just means that people and firms are now in a better position to decide how much of their web development work they need to assign to a developer, and how much they can handle on their own, with the help of website design tools.
Using web design tools to fix your site’s layout, design, theme, and template makes the process of building a website cost-effective. It costs less to get a paid subscription on most of the web design tools than it does to hire a full-time programmer.
Not only that, these web designing tools also save a lot of time. Things that needed to be created from scratch can now be made in minutes. Images, such as logos, that would require hours of work to edit can now be modified in just a few seconds, using the features of the web design tools.
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It does not require an expert to learn how to use most of the web design tools. Even though some really require professional skills to use, they often come with video tutorials and self-explanatory guidelines on how to use them. With practice, it is possible to become skilled at using a web design tool for your benefit.
10 Good Web Design Tools
Let’s have a look at 10 good web design tools that are available in the market and are popular these days.
1. InVision Studio
Image taken from InVision
InVision Studio covers all the basic features that all well-known web design tools have. If you get enough practice on it, it will be the only UI tool you will need to use. It enables you to make interfaces that are not only attractive but also interactive. It helps you create collaborative and responsive designs.
The features are quite similar to those in Sketch, so if you are familiar with Sketch, it will be easier for you to use InVision Studio. Its best features are those involved in prototyping, especially if you work with animations. Its rapid prototyping feature helps you to make smooth transitions for complex animations. You can also create custom transitions and animations by building gestures like hovering, clicking, and swiping.
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Once you are done with your design, you can export the prototypes from InVision and send invitations to people to collaborate. Your clients can even comment on your designs.
2. Sketch
Image taken from Sketch
This is one of the most extensively used web design tools. It is vector-based and allows you to build prototypes and interfaces in a collaborative style. Sketch was initially built for creating website and app designs, so it has certain limitations in its features, which actually makes it faster than other web design tools because it is more clutter-free.
It was launched a few years ago, with documents and file sizes that are a lot smaller than other web designing tools like Photoshop. Its grid system makes designing work much easier, especially for those who are not too skilled in web designing.
One disadvantage of Sketch is that it is currently only available for Mac. There are no plans to launch its other versions anytime soon that can be used on other operating systems. This causes problems for designers when they want to share the files with web developers who use Windows. But there is another ‘Sketch for Windows’ tool called Lunancy, which is used for opening and editing Sketch files in Windows.
3. Adobe XD
Image taken from Adobe
Adobe XD is among those tools for web design that are used to design digital projects under Adobe Creative Cloud. If you are keen about Adobe products but not so familiar with XD, you will find this different from the other Adobe web design tools. But after practicing it a bit, you will see that it paces up with the other leading Adobe tools. If you have been using Photoshop all this while, you’ll have to take a leap in your skills to use Adobe XD. But once you are there, it is definitely going to be worth it to use XD for UI design.
This tool uses vector art and keeps coming up with upgrades. Among its latest additional features are its support for auto-animation, ability to make non-static interactions, and the feature that allows users to give feedback on designs.
You can select a device-specific size of the artboard when you start your project, and it allows you to import UI kits as well, such as Google’s Material Design. Adobe XD can be integrated with the other web design tools in the Creative Cloud, which allows you to work with and exchange assets from Illustrator or Photoshop.
4. Marvel
Image taken from Marvel
Marvel is among those web designing tools that are awesome for developing quick ideas. It is used for refining interfaces, building prototypes, creating full-fledged web pages, and simulating ready-made web designs. It has some unique features that allow you to insert your designs into a project workflow.
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Marvel runs completely online and does not require you to download anything. It also has an integrated user testing feature, and that’s also unique about it because most of the other web design tools don’t have that.
5. Figma
Image taken from Figma
This is one of the best web design tools and enables over one designer to collaborate with each other in real-time. This feature is very helpful when there are multiple stakeholders in a project and all of them are involved in shaping the final design. It also helps in sharing graphics with others in the app.
Figma is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It has a free version and a paid version. You can choose the package that suits you best. Its unique selling proposition is like that of Sketch, except that it is cross-platform.
6. Affinity Designer
Image taken from Affinity Designer
This is another software among the popular website design tools. It has certain special features of its own, including its adjustable and non-destructive layers that allow you to adjust vectors or images, causing no damage to the quality. Affinity Designer also allows you to zoom by 1 million percent, which is a unique and awesome feature. It gives the option to undo up to 8,000 steps and keeps a complete record of your actions history.
For those who are used to Photoshop, they will find Affinity Designer layouts easy to adapt to. It is, however, said to have fewer distractions than Photoshop, and is among the more straightforward kinds of web design tools. Its full version is also available for iPad.
7. UXPin
Image taken from UXPin
The next in our list of website design tools is UXPin. It is available for all browsers, including Mac, Windows, and Linux. Like most other web design tools, UXPin allows you to mimic interactions by creating links between distinct elements you draw on the artboard.
UXPin is more like the web designing tools that are suitable for coders and programmers who create art websites. Working on it is closer to working with the code. It allows you to work with code components and logic.
It allows you to create the first prototype for free, and then you can choose to upgrade to its paid subscription if you like. UXPin can be well integrated with Sketch, so it can be a good option for you if you like using Sketch, but find its prototyping features to be limited.
8. Proto.io
Image taken from Proto.io
This is one of the best web design tools, and it allows creating lifelike prototypes. It is used by developers, designers or entrepreneurs who build their ideas from scratch and turn rough images into full-fledged descriptive designs.
Proto.io opens up a range of possibilities for any design project. It allows custom and detailed vector art animations. You can begin with making hand-drawn designs, and end with a thorough sketch that makes up a complete design.
Some of its features are like those of the other web design tools, such as user testing. It is known as an all-in-one solution, and many trusted brands are using it.
9. Adobe Comp
Image taken from Adobe
This is like those fantastic web design tools that can be used on an iPad and desktop. You can create prototypes, wireframes, and layout concepts with Adobe Comp. It offers basic templates for many layouts for both web and mobile.
It also allows making quick placeholders by drawing simple shapes that represent images and text. One of its main purposes is to convert roughly sketched outlines into lines, rectangles, and circles.
10. Adobe Photoshop
Image taken from Adobe
Everybody has heard about Adobe Photoshop. It is obviously one of the best web design tools. It is a predominant photo editing software that offers a range of features. In Photoshop, you can do full-fledged editing of batches of photographs, create intricate paintings, make digital drawings that mimic hand drawings, manipulate images, and more.
These were 10 of the best web design tools available in the market these days. For a fabulous brand website, these web design tools can be used in combination with an awesome website building platform, such as Strikingly.
