Design your way

Developing and designing user interfaces (UI) and enhancing user experience (UX) is easier than ever before, thanks to a number of different tools and resources that are available on the market. Those of you who do so professionally probably know just how overwhelming the level of choice can be when it comes to UX and UI.

We have tried out all the leading UX and UI tools and resources and prepared a list of some of the most powerful options out there. Browse through our list and see which of the following user interface and user experience building tools and resources best suits your particular needs.

Proto.io

If you want a high-fidelity prototyping tool to help you visualize exactly how your real iOS, Android or Windows mobile app will work, you don’t need to look beyond Proto.io. This powerful tool will enable you to create fully-interactive prototypes of mobile app designs that will leave your clients thinking they are looking at the actual app. Since Proto.io helps create mobile app prototypes, you can emulate the full range of touch gestures, interactive animations, and screen transitions — all without coding.

You are free to use Proto.io’s native built-in UI elements for Android, Windows Phone and iOS or import your custom designs. Once you are satisfied with your prototype, you can test it out on a real mobile device full-screen. Proto.io stands out from other prototyping tools because of the ease with which users can collaborate on and share prototypes. You can also get substantial feedback about your prototype from their community Proto.io Spaces – an open gallery of interactive of prototypes made with the tool.

Pidoco

With Pidoco you will easily create wireframes and highly-interactive prototypes for both web and mobile applications. The prototypes may contain click-through, touch gestures, geo information, page transitions and various other features that make them feel almost exactly like the final application – whether viewed in the browser or live on a mobile device.

Forget time-consuming meetings, as Pidoco comes with a set of collaboration features that allow people to comment and edit in real-time much like in Google Docs. Add versioning, issue tracking, a powerful master template system and various export options (e.g. HTML, PNG) to make prototyping a breeze while the specification generator will churn out a configurable requirements document at the click of a button.

Since it’s web-based, this tool is good for Windows, Mac and Linux users. Finally, its Enterprise version offers a REST API, letting you use prototypes directly on wikis, requirements and project management systems. This tool can be run on the Windows, Mac and Linux systems.

Vonn Mobile Material Design UI Kit

If you are working on your first ever Android mobile app, the Vonn Mobile Material Design UI Kit is your best bet to make sure you end up with a fully-functional and compliant end product.

Vonn is a powerful material design UI kit that features 100 drag-and-drop UI templates in eight different categories. These templates have been designed at 1920 x 1080 pixel dimensions. The Vonn kit produces PSD files that can be opened with Adobe Photoshop CS5+.

Moreover, Vonn is probably the best drag-and-drop UI kit available on the market. It complies with Google’s Material Design guide in terms of components, layout and style, ensuring that even beginner-level designers can create incredible mobile Android apps.

Firefly

Firefly is a design management and collaboration tool that helps you and your team collaborate and refine both the front and the back end of your projects. You can easily collect and share design feedback, as team members can add comments on top of the design, add markers and even hand drawings.

With this platform you can easily upload the app designs, photography, website mockups, logos, banners, UI ideas or simply type in the URL of a webpage and let Firefly capture it for you.

InVision

Used by more than 800,000 designers worldwide, InVision is one of the most popular design prototyping and collaboration platforms on the market. It covers the entire design process, from the interface all the way to reviewing, testing and tracking progress on an unlimited number of projects.

InVision gives teams at Uber, Twitter, Evernote, Airbnb, Adobe and countless other companies the freedom to design and test their ideas without having to deal with even one single line of code.

AppCooker

What better way is there to design an iOS app than on an iOS device? AppCooker is an incredible rapid prototyping tool that will run directly on your iPad and it comes with a dedicated space to help you organize your ideas.

It also has a brilliant mockup tool that gives you access to Apple UIWidgets, a wireframing kit, text, shapes, images, links and transitions. Once you create your app prototype, you can immediately preview it and even share it with your co-workers or clients through many cloud providers (Dropbox, GoogleDrive, OneDrive, iCloud etc.).

Ace iOS 8 Mobile UI Kit

Ace enables designers to create iOS 8 mobile app mockups or designs for their clients quickly and efficiently. The kit includes 75 PSD templates, 300 UI elements and over 100 icons offering enough choice for you to turn your app design ideas into reality.

Ace 75 UI templates have all been created at Retina HD 4.7 sizes, meaning that they are ideal for designing apps that will work seamlessly on iPhone 6.

Abtestmaster

If you want to move beyond simply guessing user intentions, the A/B Test Master has just what you need to actually learn them. It has been designed for ASP .NET MVC development, and is extremely flexible. All you need to do is to copy-paste a few lines of code on your website and you are set.

Maxymiser

Maxymiser offers a variety of tools that help optimize the online customer experience. A/B and Multivariate testing will enable you to make data-driven decisions to improve conversions, build brand loyalty and increase revenue. Furthermore, this tool will allow you to take advantage of the insights that it provides about how your customers act during a marketing campaign.

Mynaweb

Making multiple iterations to a design to perfect it can be tedious work, which is why Myna is made our list. As opposed to traditional A/B testing, Myna features real-time optimization that automatically discovers your best designs, giving you the freedom to take the risk of testing multiple pages. This tool uses multi bandit algorithms and which probably makes it faster than any other products on the market.

PowerMockup

Turn Microsoft Power Point into a wireframing tool by using PowerMockup, an add-on that helps you sketch mock-ups for applications and websites. This tool can be used in conjunction with PowerPoint 2007, 2010 and 2013 (Windows-Only). Besides offering the option to make one’s own elements using built-in PowerPoint shapes, PowerMockup comes with 104 fully-editable UI elements and 156 wireframe icons.

Notism

At its core, Notism works as a collaboration app that lets you share your designs, artwork, videos and prototypes and get feedback from fellow designers or clients. Yet, Notism offers so much more than that. Besides allowing for real-time collaboration, creative teams can turn static screens to incredibly interactive prototypes for both web and mobile applications.

IntuitionHQ

IntuitionHQ lets users improve the usability of their websites in no time. It tests designs easily and quickly andshares user feedback with clients visually. You can upload as many new iterations as you want and see which design performs best. If you are looking to enhance your reputation for a user-centered design, IntuitionHQ might be an option.

UsabilityTools

If you feel your business could benefit from qualitative data, UsabilityTools is one kit that can deliver what you are looking for. Its User Experience Suite will give your website an incredible look and feel, using click testing, web testing and surveys. Its Conversion Suite uses a click tracker, form tester and feedback form to help you discover exactly why your conversion rates are showing no sign of improvement.

Ending thoughts

If you don’t have the right tools and resources, getting the UI and UX aspects of your website or mobile app right can be tricky and time consuming – only. We believe that our list provided you with useful options that you must try out. We would love to hear from you. Let us know your thoughts about our list in the comments section below.