A new selection of useful. Sites and services to help you work better. Inspiration, research and testing, creating forms and surveys. And on the classics - services for generating fonts, palettes, micro-animations and illustrations.
Modern tools and programs allow you to create masterpieces of design without unnecessary switching to other platforms. And in this respect, Figma has definitely changed the way we work in UX/UI design, making everything simpler and all in one place. However, even with Figma's amazing features and plugins, there are other apps and websites that you could really use - they go beyond Figma's functionality.
We've gathered 10 apps and websites that will help you do your job easier and better. And also find solutions not yet discovered by other designers, which do not go beyond one program.
1. Rebrand Gallery
Many of us started our design careers recreating existing designs or updating designs for popular brands, apps, and websites. First, this process is a fundamental part of our learning. Second, it allows us to explore established designs from a new perspective and potentially discover something more or even create something better.
Rebrand Gallery's collection of design systems, visual identity reviews and branded bento grids can be a goldmine of inspiration and learning. By exploring these handpicked designs, you can gain insight into current branding trends, effective visual communication strategies, and perhaps find new ideas to apply to your own projects.
The site also showcases new design systems and rebranding activities that can help you stay up-to-date on the latest design innovations and improve your professional vocabulary.
2. Lyssna
Lyssna could quickly become a valuable tool for you. The app positions itself as a comprehensive user research platform aimed at helping teams gain a deep understanding of their audience to make more informed decisions. The platform makes it easy to create a variety of usability tests and user interviews, allowing you to incorporate the voice of your target audience into every design decision you make.
Key features include a wide range of testing methodologies for UX/UI validation, tools for organizing and conducting user interviews, surveys for hypothesis testing, and access to an extensive dashboard for a variety of user feedback. These features can dramatically improve your design by providing clear, actionable information based on user feedback and testing. There is a free and paid version.
3. Maze
A similar platform is Maze. Here you can conduct user research by testing prototypes, websites, and you can create moderated/unmoderated tests. The service provides tools for testing with real users and analyzing the results.
Maze allows you to upload your prototypes and test them with real users. This can be useful for evaluating usability and detecting potential problems. Once testing is complete, Maze provides analytics and reports that help you understand how users interacted with your interface.
You can also use Maze to conduct AB tests, comparing different versions of your design or prototypes to determine which changes are most effective.
Maze can integrate with a variety of design and development tools, including Figma.
4. Fonts In Use
Fonts In Use is more than just a font catalog. It's a source of inspiration, a guide for practical application, and a tool for making informed typography decisions. Its real-world examples and extensive information make it an indispensable resource for enhancing your design work.
The right typeface can make a big difference in user interaction. And this site helps you make choices that users will love and improve your overall design. It helps you develop your creativity by providing real font examples, helps you make informed decisions by showing fonts in context, keeps you up to date with typography trends, and simplifies your workflow by allowing you to make quick font choices without lengthy prototyping.
The platform gives contextual examples: each font is displayed while in use, giving you a real idea of how it looks in different contexts, e.g. advertising, branding, web design. Convenient and visual.
Next to each typeface is detailed information about typography, its history and designer. This basic knowledge can enrich your design knowledge and general outlook.
You can filter fonts by industry, format, and lettering. This is especially useful when you're looking for inspiration or a specific style for a particular project.
5. Mobbin
There are times when you see a website and wonder how it was built, what tools were used, or how do the different parts work together? We learn a lot by looking at these things. And looking at good examples is very necessary for any designer, whether a beginner or an experienced guru. Needless to say, we all go to Behance and Dribbble. But those are too popular sites to include in the selection. Try something new.
Mobbin is a sort of collection of design ideas. It has a lot of real websites and mobile apps with explanations. This will help you find new ideas and help with your design work. Mobbin offers both free and professional options, but even without a subscription, you can access a huge number of proven designs. Lifehack: just take PNG screenshots to compare with your work in Figma. The site is updated quite often, keeping the content fresh and relevant. It will be useful whether you're drawing initial concepts or putting the finishing touches on a project.
6. Typeform
Typeform is an online tool for creating interactive and stylish forms and surveys. While Typeform is not a specialized tool for web designers, it can be useful when collecting feedback, user surveys, or creating interactive forms on a website. Here are a few features of Typeform that you might be interested in:
- the platform offers stylish and modern forms that can integrate with the visual style of your project, it's only worth choosing the right one;
- you can add various interactive elements such as multiple choice, text input fields, photos and others;
- Forms created in Typeform usually have a responsive design, which means they look good on different devices;
- Typeform can integrate with other tools such as Google Sheets, Zapier, Slack, which makes it easier to process and analyze the information collected;
- you can customize forms according to the request, add question logic, etc.;
- Typeform can be useful for web designers to create feedback, order or survey forms on websites.
As a UX designer, you need to turn complex user data into clear, actionable ideas. It's important to be able to do this in your day-to-day work, forming the very foundation of user experience design. Data visualization becomes a lifeline in this scenario. In the constant pursuit of smooth and efficient design, tools like Typeform are invaluable. They serve as channels to capture user feedback through aesthetically pleasing interactive surveys, ensuring that we collect important data without sacrificing user engagement.
7. Palettemaker
PaletteMaker helps you define color schemes for new projects with the assurance of meeting accessibility standards by selecting colors with sufficient contrast. These are also the schemes that will help maintain brand consistency across platforms and devices. The tool not only simplifies the color selection process, but also increases the aesthetic and functional quality of your project at the output.
The service allows you to create unique color palettes needed to maintain consistency and harmony in design projects. It offers tools based on color theory, helping you choose complementary, similar or contrasting colors, which is crucial for creating visually balanced designs.
It's easy to customize individual colors within a palette, ensuring precise consistency with brand guidelines or specific design requirements.
What's handy - the service provides extensive options for exporting palettes to a variety of formats, making it easy to integrate them into various design tools and workflows.
8. Mingcute
Do you already know how to create micro-animations in Figma? Great. This trick helps bring icons to life, improves user engagement, illustrates functionality and provides great visual feedback to improve user interaction.
And you can make your job easier by using Mingcute's icon library instead of doing everything manually. The site boasts a collection of simple but effective open-source icons, ideal for designers and developers alike for use in web and mobile interfaces. And now they've added micro-animations ready to be used in your projects.
High quality smooth animations, multi-platform support, editable formats - it's all waiting for you in Mingcute. The free plan allows you to use 10 basic icons for unlimited use without any royalties.
9. Designstripe
Customizable illustrations are a treasure trove for the designer. First, they offer the flexibility of aligning with specific project themes and branding, increasing clarity and engagement. They demonstrate professionalism and allow for quick changes. You don't have to redesign everything from scratch if a client wants a character with a different hair color, for example.
DesignStripe provides a large library of illustrations that can be customized. You'll be able to change colors, elements, and composition to suit your specific design needs.
The site offers high-resolution graphics that are crucial for professional design. These illustrations retain their quality for both web and print projects.
The illustrations come in a variety of styles and themes, which provides versatility for different project requirements. Plus, the platform makes it easy to find and customize illustrations even for those with minimal design experience. This comes in handy if you specialize in UX/UI and aren't very good at graphic design.
10. ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect is the leading source for scientific, technical and medical research, hosting a huge number of journal articles and book sections. For a web designer, ScienceDirect can be useful for accessing up-to-date information on technical and scientific aspects related to web technologies. For example, to get data on the latest research in user experience (UX), interfaces, etc. Research in neurophysiology and psychology is also not superfluous - knowing how the brain works will help you make really user-friendly and effective interfaces.
Stay abreast of new methodologies and be inspired to innovate through academic understanding of user behavior and technology trends. Broaden your horizons. And if you're just at the beginning of your career and all of this is still difficult for you - get powerful training that will set you straight. The online course "UX/UI Legend" is waiting for you, sign up!