Top UI/UX Design Softwares That Pro Uses In 2020

UX/UI designing is a vast market, and it’s growing exponentially. In this article, we will try to help you understand the process of UX/UI designing. And what tools that Pros use. In 2020 the game of Front-end Development has completely changed. 9 to 10 years ago, you would have just needed to start writing your HTML & CSS codes, and voila your website is done. Limited Options!

But with better technology and growth in Software Industry, new tools and platforms started appearing in the market. Furthermore, in the website-development market, a new field started to emerge, UI/UX Designing.

UI/UX Designers, basically, are not developers. Although, holds equal importance as a developer. A UI/UX Designer, simply designs websites, a simulation of the real website. And, after finalizing the UI, the developer develops the website and brings it to life.

In this article, we are going to talk about the top tools/software that pro UI/UX Designers use.

Different Types of Designs in UI/UX Designing Process

Before we talk about the tools, let’s first understand the types of UI designs. Before the development phase, a designer prepares the following two types of UI designs, for a better User Experience (UX):

WireFrame:

A WireFrame, also known as a low-fidelity design, is a user flow chart. It shows the journey of the user throughout the whole website or app.

Prototype:

A Prototype, also known as high-fidelity design, is a website/ app simulation. It shows exactly how your website/ app is going to look like as a final product.

Now let’s dive into the tools/software that pro developers use.

Software for WireFrame Designing

1. Pencil Project

It is standalone software, available for Mac, Windows, and Ubuntu. The UI is very intuitive, and therefore easy to learn. Furthermore, after you are done with your wireframe, you will get different formats to export, like as pdf, as PNG, and even as web page.

All this feature makes Pencil Project a great choice both for beginners and pros designers.

Moreover, it’s an open-source platform, and free of cost.

2. Balsamiq Mockups

Just like the pencil project, Balsamiq is also a very good pick for a designer. Just like the Pencil Project, a designer can just start putting his/her ideas on the artboard, as you can do with pen and paper. Easy and fun!

Moreover, it gives the feature of cloud storage and client feedback. Just, generate a simple sharable link, and your client will be easily able to give you comments/ feedback on the artboard directly.

Though there is a free version available, with limited options.

Click here to see the pricing.

3. Mockplus

Though, Mockplus is full-fledged prototyping software. But it emerged as wireframing software. UI/UX designers love the tool for its features and great company support.

Additionally, it provides the feature of collaboration with other designers and clients. Clients do not need to worry about asking for the work progress, they just can see the update by logging in themselves.

They provide a free version of the tool, but with limited features. Click here to see their pricing.

Software for Prototype Designing

Following are the top 2 market leaders of high-fidelity UI designing, in no particular order.

1. Adobe XD

Adobe is a huge company and a market leader in the industry of photo software. But when Adobe realized that they were lagging behind in the market of UI/UX designing, they launched XD to compete Sketch.

With XD, you will get a seamless workflow between its other Adobe Products. Because of the already a huge user base of its other adobe products, it paved an easy entry for the XD in the UI/UX designing market.

But credit also goes to all the awesome features that it provides.

For personal use it’s free, but with limited sharing options. Click here to see the pricing.

2. Figma

It is a simple web-based SaaS platform. Easy to use and intuitive UI. Figma is currently winning the race of the UI/UX designing market.

It is great because of its huge community support and a humongous collection of plugins. Moreover, multiple designers can work on a single prototype, make it great for collaboration.

And you can easily create both high and low fidelity designs. Additionally, because it’s web-based software, you can work from anywhere and from any device.

Figma is completely free. But there are two professional packages as well, for seamless collaboration with clients and other designers. Click here to see all the pricing options.

3. Sketch

Sketch was the one who invented this market, by seeing the gap. They discovered early that designers need separate software for prototyping.

Earlier designers used to prepare the prototype through Illustrator. But Sketch introduced a new tool with lots of dedicated tools, to design attractive prototypes, fast and easy.

Sketch is only available for mac, and they are not planning to introduce it for the other platforms. They do not provide a free version of the software but gives a 30 day trial period. Click here to see their pricing.

Conclusion

These tools can only help you to create a good design to a certain extent. But only designers’ skills and hard work can make his/her design awesome. No matter whichever tool you use, you can bring your ideas into reality. None of the above-mentioned tools lacks functionalities. Each one of them is feature-loaded, plus free versions are also available. Only the sky is the limit!

If you like this blog, then consider sharing it with your friends. And also read our other blog Common things to avoid for frontend developer.