User interface and User experience are two important facets of a mobile application. The usability, accessibility and engagement depend largely on these factors. Before moving forward with mobile application development, you must strategize and create the application's design.
The interface design focuses on the looks and feels of the front end. It thrives on menu arrangement, colours, fonts and overall spacing. If the user feels comfortable looking at the app and is happy using it, you can safely consider it a job done well.
Hiring the best UI design companies in USA plays a crucial role in rolling out an interactive interface. The second most important aspect includes zeroing in on the right tools and technologies.
The apt UI tools can make the designers productive and result in quality outcomes. Let’s look at some of the tools you should include in your portfolio.
8 UI Design Tools for Designers in 2023
Several tools are available for UI design. You should select a tool to speed up outcomes and provide quality designs. They should be accessible and functional and provide the features that support designing.
#1 Figma
This tool has picked up quite a user base in the past few years. It is an easy-to-use drag-n-drop tool that allows you to create sketches and prepare interface designs you can share with your colleagues, team and client.
You can use it in the browser or download it as a desktop tool. The biggest advantage is that it is a cost-effective tool. Additionally, it is easy to learn, so you don’t need a tech background to use it.
It comes with extensive documentation that makes you learn the tools. The flip side is that you cannot translate these designs into real coding. You might have to transfer them into another software.
#2 Sketch
This is another popular UI tool that several mobile app design companies use to deliver exceptional interface designs. It is one of the most usable and highly interactive tools that make designing easy and efficient.
It offers extensive advantages, including high-fidelity prototype development, symbol designing and instant collaboration with stakeholders for quicker approvals. The plugin library is developed to boost interface design capabilities.
The flip side of the tool is that it is MacOS only. You cannot use it on any other browser or desktop. At the same time, the documentation isn’t too helpful for new designers. The pricing is also on the higher side if you want specific features for interface development.
#3 Balsamiq
This is a wireframing tool, which is considered the first step for UI design. It is a whiteboard tool that allows you to sketch your interface, showcase it to the clients in real-time and gain approvals.
The sketching tool looks at the core of interface design: structure, layout and content. If these three elements remove the distractions, you can easily add colour and font to make it attractive.
The pre-built templates and masters in the tool allow you to create app designs efficiently. You can use the component libraries to customize the designs and enhance the layouts.
This tool allows the UI designers to create simple prototypes to share with the clients for their approval. It is used for brainstorming and ideation phases.
#4 Adobe XD
This is a popular tool with the UI UX design services company. It is a highly reliable and efficient tool, which makes it an incredible part of your design infrastructure. The tool extends great usability, experience and integration.
The tool doesn’t come with standout features and isn’t updated in sync with newer requirements. However, you will notice that it can improve the developer’s productivity.
The flip side is it doesn’t support video or animated GIFs, which means you cannot add them to your designs through this tool.
#5 Marvel
This popular tool shares its name with the iconic comic company. The best part of this tool is its efficient testing, rapid prototyping and collaboration abilities. You can easily integrate the tool with other workflow and design tools to create the required interfaces and experiences.
You don’t need software to use the tool; it has a low learning curve. The pre-built templates allow you to create efficient designs. It is device and system agnostic, making it easier for you to build solutions from anywhere.
It helps designers convert their vision into visuals easily. It is best used for online prototyping and visual designing. If you want to collaborate with other users, you must get the paid plan. The free plan is for single users only.
#6 UXPin
This tool can be used across browsers to efficiently design interfaces and manage your experiences. It can easily integrate with the production-ready code, which helps designers convert their wireframes and prototypes into final products.
It is a tool designed specifically for developers to progress with end-to-end design and development. It offers extensive documentation that helps with ease of design and allows you to translate them into capable interfaces.
It helps designers with creating accessible designs and quick wireframes for faster collaboration.
The flip side is that some parts can feel slow and bloated. This can lead to inefficient development and might lower productivity.
#7 FlowMapp
If you want to design an interactive interface that translates into experiential designs, you might want to use FlowMapp. It allows the designers to create flow charts and customer journey maps to help translate their vision into beautiful interfaces.
You can easily research the users with the flowmapp tool. It provides the infrastructure to create page descriptions, add texts and implement external links. It offers extensive capabilities that enhance research abilities and prepares the customer map for the application.
#8 Framer.JS
This is one of the finest examples of a WYSIWYG editor. You can use the tool for free to know if it can be useful for your design requirements. It doesn’t offer a free trial version. You can use the custom react components that can help increase design efficiency.
The pre-built components allow you to create sliders, loaders and other design elements that result in interactive outcomes. The tool offers magic motion animation among advanced features, which helps you gain better control of animation designs.
The only flip side is a small community. If you are stuck while designing or need help incorporating features, you may find little help.
Conclusion
User interface design is a crucial part of your design strategy. It is important to research the users, know their learning curve and understand their app usage behaviour before designing the mobile application.
It is equally important to strategize accessibility, functionality and usability before diving into actual design and development. The ideal way to design an application is to move from wireframe development to actual screen design. Several tools can help translate your vision into a visual one.
You can choose from these eight tools that best fit your productivity and design efficiency needs. Select a tool that fits your budget, interface requirements and design strategy.
