UI and UX design are the cornerstones of web design.
UI or User Interface focuses on the graphical aspect of the user interaction with your website, while UX focuses on designing and engineering a users experience in your system, while they flip through pages, swipe through photo galleries or fill out signup forms.
UI design software offer designers with the toolset they need to create a minimally working prototype of an application or website to provide the development team with the refrence material to execute that design to perfection.
User experiece design or UX design focuses on efficiency and user satisfaction; Getting the user to where they want to be, reading what they want to be reading, as fast as possible is the goal of good UX design.
In this post we’re going to go through some of the industry standard software used by UI/UX designers, seeing which ones match the needs of all aspects of design.
9 useful tools for UI/UX designers
Let’s jump straight into each one of the most used UI and UX design software and see how each one can help you create the design and experience that you’re aiming for.
1- Adobe XD
Specifications:
Operating systems: Windows, MacOS
Website:
Commonly used for:
Pricing:
$9.99/mo subscription
Adobe XD is one of the most prevalent and most used UI/UX design and prototyping applications in use today.
Adobe XD is a “vector-based” design tool, used to wireframe, prototype and design websites and mobile applications. First released as beta for MacOS users on March 2016 and later for windows on December 2016.
In October 2017, Adobe announced XD (short for Experience Design) was out of beta.
2- Figma
Specifications:
Operating systems:
Windows, MacOS, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, iOS
Website:
Commonly used for:
Pricing:
$12 – $75 per editor/mo subscription – Free plan available
Figma is a highly capable and light-weight mockup and prototyping software.
Initially released in 2016, it has since become one of the most widely used applications by UI and UX designer as well as web designers.
With focus on collaboration; figma allows multiple users to work on the same file simultaneously.
With alot of in-app addons to enhance your workflow, figma is a great choice for new and veteran UI/UX designers.
3- Sketch
Specifications:
Operating systems: MacOS
Website:
Commonly used for:
Pricing:
$9.00/mo subscription
Adobe XD is one of the most prevalent and most used UI/UX design and prototyping applications in use today.
Adobe XD is a “vector-based” design tool, used to wireframe, prototype and design websites and mobile applications. First released as beta for MacOS users on March 2016 and later for windows on December 2016.
In October 2017, Adobe announced XD (short for Experience Design) was out of beta.
4- Axure
Specifications:
Operating systems: Windows, MacOS
Website:
Commonly used for:
Pricing:
$25 – $42/mo subscription
Adobe XD is one of the most prevalent and most used UI/UX design and prototyping applications in use today.
Adobe XD is a “vector-based” design tool, used to wireframe, prototype and design websites and mobile applications. First released as beta for MacOS users on March 2016 and later for windows on December 2016.
In October 2017, Adobe announced XD (short for Experience Design) was out of beta.
5- Balsamiq
Specifications:
Operating systems: Windows, MacOS, Linux
Website:
Commonly used for:
Pricing:
$9 – $199/mo subscription
Adobe XD is one of the most prevalent and most used UI/UX design and prototyping applications in use today.
Adobe XD is a “vector-based” design tool, used to wireframe, prototype and design websites and mobile applications. First released as beta for MacOS users on March 2016 and later for windows on December 2016.
In October 2017, Adobe announced XD (short for Experience Design) was out of beta.
6- Mockflow
Specifications:
Operating systems: Windows, MacOS
Website:
Commonly used for:
Pricing:
$14.00/mo subscription – Free plan available
Adobe XD is one of the most prevalent and most used UI/UX design and prototyping applications in use today.
Adobe XD is a “vector-based” design tool, used to wireframe, prototype and design websites and mobile applications. First released as beta for MacOS users on March 2016 and later for windows on December 2016.
In October 2017, Adobe announced XD (short for Experience Design) was out of beta.
7- Proto.io
Specifications:
Operating systems:
Windows, MacOS, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, iOS
Website:
Commonly used for:
Pricing:
$29 – $199/mo subscription
Adobe XD is one of the most prevalent and most used UI/UX design and prototyping applications in use today.
Adobe XD is a “vector-based” design tool, used to wireframe, prototype and design websites and mobile applications. First released as beta for MacOS users on March 2016 and later for windows on December 2016.
In October 2017, Adobe announced XD (short for Experience Design) was out of beta.
8- Marvel
Specifications:
Operating systems: Windows, MacOS
Website:
Commonly used for:
Pricing:
$14 – $42/mo subscription – Free version available
Adobe XD is one of the most prevalent and most used UI/UX design and prototyping applications in use today.
Adobe XD is a “vector-based” design tool, used to wireframe, prototype and design websites and mobile applications. First released as beta for MacOS users on March 2016 and later for windows on December 2016.
In October 2017, Adobe announced XD (short for Experience Design) was out of beta.