Mobile App Designer Should Possess These Tools

Mobile application design is one of the most sought-after fields in the digital age. However, a successful mobile app design lies in the use of the right tools.

Every other day, we come across a new breed of UX design tools trying to woo app designers and other professionals alike. Not all of them, however, is worthy enough to become a designer’s pet.

So, how do you make the choice?

Well, simply start off by segregating the ones that are feature-rich and genuine timesavers. Ditch anything which is destined to just occupy some precious space on the hard drive — and, you’re sorted.

It’s All About Making the Right Choice

For a mobile app designer, the digital toolkit is not just a mere self-contained set of programs that are crafted to enhance an existing application functionality. Rather, it is more like a solution enabler that allows one to plan and brainstorm, communicate ideas, resolve technical issues and even to some extent, simplify interactions with the developers. Over the years, the global designer fraternity has made collective attempts to refine these design toolkits in order to accelerate workflow and decision making.

There’s no denying, assessing the utility level and impact of all the plug-ins, extensions, online resources and tools at regular intervals have become a critical obligation for mobile app designers of today. Considering the speed at which mobile app design landscape is expanding, designers need to embrace high-end app development tools which cannot only transform raw ideas into reality but also facilitate faster turnaround times.

The following is a list of some of the best tools that every designer considers including in their arsenal in order to streamline workflows and make app designing far less tedious.

Sketch for Creating Virtual UX Models

Photoshop has long reigned as a favorite among designers, but of late the demand for agile UI/UX design tools, like Sketch, have started gaining steam. This MacBook-based design tool is ideal for contemporary app developers who heavily rely on rapid app prototyping and it is widely recognized in the prototyping and wireframe space.

One of the best aspects that make tools such as these an ideal draw for design heavy projects is that doesn’t rely too much on system resources and it exports each asset within shorter timeframes. The only downside, however, is that it cannot animate and in order to edit photos, designers might have to combine other applications like Adobe Photoshop or illustrator to get the best results.

Axure RP for Agile Prototypes and Wireframes

Undeniably one of the most preferred among the lot, Axure RP serves as an all-inclusive app design tool for designers. This desktop application comes with high-end diagramming, documentation and interactive tools that help designers to rapidly design and disseminate interactive specifications and prototypes. Additionally, the tool also supports coding and allows designers to access and integrate templatized libraries and components that facilitate seamless designing.

HokuApps for Crafting Responsive UI

The HokuApps tool is ideal for designers looking to offer native mobile application experience to their clients. It comes with a robust prototyping platform that facilitates the development of highly interactive mobile applications with intuitive and responsive interfaces. One of the biggest advantages of this tool is that it provides the developers with the liberty to download component add-ons through templatized modules, which comes embedded with bootstrap elements, as well. Besides, HokuApps also allows one to share mobile wireframes and prototypes with other members of the team.

Invision for Real-Time Collaboration and Interactive Design

Being a robust workflow, prototyping and collaboration tool, Invision provides the designers with an opportunity to convert static application wireframes into highly functional prototypes that are interactive in nature. What makes it even more impressive is the fact that each of these prototypes can be embedded with transitions, animations and gesture-specific movements for iOS, Android and other responsive web applications, as well. Apart from this, the tool also lets designers to closely test the workflows and visuals which eventually leads to more tangible end results.

Marvel for Realistic Prototyping Experience

If there’s any UX design tool out there that precisely combines advanced integration and prototyping function, then it has to be Marvel. This tool upholds a more realistic and intuitive prototyping experience with custom animations and fading options between screens. By leveraging this tool, designers can easily import components from other third-party platforms like Sketch and build app interaction prototypes and animations on top of them.

UXPin to Simplify Testing

With several built-in features and a highly intuitive interface, UXPin serves as an ideal prototyping and wireframe web tool for designers who seek seamless collaboration while designing interactive prototypes and wireframes. The tool comes with a convenient drag and drops integration option that enables designers to integrate third-party tools like Sketch and Photoshop. This helps in simplifying the overall workflow, as designers can preserve multiple layers of their design. Tools like UXPin can be particularly effective for businesses that provide mobile app designer services, mainly because of the in-built usability testing feature which can help in creating specific tasks, record user navigation and present the same to the team.

Omnigraffle for Robust Application Flowcharts

Omnigraffle is a ‘go-to’ tool for designers looking to expedite the process of visualizing the flow of a particular application. The tool comes with pre-defined libraries and symbols that help designers to quickly create extensive wireframes and multi-page decks. The tool leverages vector-oriented graphics, icon and element templates, easy-to-replicate master pages and easy exporting features to help designers streamline the overall wireframe process. Additionally. OmniGraffle also provides import option that helps in integrating the custom element catalog, enabling one to quickly re-use graphic elements.