You’ve got an amazing business and the best web content in the business. So why do you barely have anyone visiting your site?
If you already have solid SEO, then it may be that your site is powered by yesterday’s web design tools. The internet ages like dog years, and visitors may be quick to dismiss a site with old design as irrelevant to their modern needs.
You can change all that, though, by using the best web design tools. We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to the very best web design tools for this year!
1. Sketch
Designers have been using Adobobe Photoshop for various design needs year after year. Isn’t it time to change things up a bit?
Sketch is a vector UI design tool that is so easy to use that it wins over more users year after year. This is because it makes almost every step of the design process easier.
Compared to Photoshop, Sketch makes it simple to sort various documents and make revisions. And the built-in grid feature is very designer-friendly, giving you pinpoint control over things that you create.
Trust us: if you’re ready for the next big thing, try Sketch out!
2. Interactive Monitor
Understandably, most of what we’re featuring among the best website design tools are various apps. However, hardware plays a big role in the design process, so you should consider getting an interactive monitor.
For instance, Wacom makes an interactive monitor that allows you to draw right on the screen. This is a perfect and intuitive option for designers who want to dive right in!
There are other good bells and whistles, too, including shortcut keys you can program and a zoom pad that makes it easy to get a closer look at everything that you have designed.
3. Adobe XD
As we sad earlier, Adobe has been an industry standard for years thanks to the success of Photoshop. They decided to take their own crack at improving the design game, and that’s how we got Adobe XD!
What makes this an attractive alternative to using Photoshop for webpage design? Unlike that other program, Adobe XD is specially designed for creating prototypes and mockups of your web designs.
It’s not the most developed tool on this list, but Adobe XD gets new features year after year. And it can solve design problems you didn’t even know you had!
4. Anime
Our next entry for best website design tools is Anime. Don’t worry, though: we’re not talking about cartoons from Japan!
We are, however, talking about animation. Website design has come a long way since the animations of yesteryear, and animation is poised to make a comeback as a way of making your sites more vivid and lifelike.
Basically, Anime is an animation engine that is rocking an API that is very easy to use. You can easily mix CSS selectors and Dom elements in order to create great things.
Don’t take our word for it: you can check out the creator’s Codepen collection to see just what this app can do!
5. Tachyons
The next app on the list is called Tachyons. While the name might evoke Star Trek, this actual app is much more down to Earth.
At its core, Tachyons is a CSS toolkit that has a straightforward mission. And that mission is to make CSS much more painless than it used to do.
You can now handle CSS entirely within the coding process instead of building different comps. This makes everything easier and more fluid and lets designers concentrate on what they do best: making the actual webpage design better than it was the day before!
6. Plant Version Control
You’ve probably noticed a theme for our best web design tools. Many of them are the “next big thing” to replace the tools you were using before.
That’s the case for Plant Version Control. This app takes what Git and Version Control have done before and adds an easy (and snazzy) GUI to the process.
Plant combines an awesome backend with a GUI for every step of the design process. This is especially good news if you’re not a natural born corder.
Simply put, if you’re sick of using a command line in Version Control for everything, then treat yourself to this upgrade!
7. Canva
Certain aspects of web design evolve, but they never fully die. And that’s certainly the case for infographics: from magazines to the latest websites, readers love a good combination of images and text.
Canva is an app that makes it easy for designers and novices alike to put together an infographic of their own. These make for great additions to your website, but they also have the potential for other uses.
You can use the infographics you create for everything from social media promotion to group presentations. If you can visualize it, Canva can help you create it!
8. Presentator
Many of our best web design tools have focused on the idea of you as a solo designer. However, some of the biggest and best websites are collaborative efforts between multiple designers.
There’s just one problem, though: many apps aren’t built with collaboration in mind. And that forces you and other designers to try to come up with your own solutions when you’d rather be focusing on design.
That’s where Presentator comes in. This app has a singular focus: to be an open source collaboration tool for teams of any size.
You maintain a high level of project control as well, with the ability to give people you invite different permission levels for project access. In this way, you get the peace of mind that comes from a secure design project while getting all the benefits of collaboration!
Best Web Design Tools: The Bottom Line
Now you know some of the best web design tools to make your site better-looking than ever. However, do you want to guarantee yourself a big audience for these big changes?
At WebConfs, we specialize in making web designers into SEO masters. To see how to get more visitors than ever before, come check out our fifteen minute SEO lesson!