Good design requires creativity and outside-the-box thinking. It also depends on using tools that can turn ideas into realities. There are many tools on the market that can help the designer along.
There are also tools like those mentioned here, that are worth every penny you could spend on them. Using a premium web app tool with a few useful productivity tips can save you time, improve your results, and put smiles on your clients’ faces.
Three Tips worth Following
Having the right tool for the job is obviously important. Since even the most powerful tool can’t do all of your work for you, following a few productivity tips is often necessary to keep a project running smoothly.
- Break a Project into Manageable Tasks – Even if your project is a one-person project, this is still good advice to take. For a team, it becomes imperative. Team members need to know their individual responsibilities and how their tasks relate to others. The larger the project, the more important it is to have a work-breakdown structure.
- Create a Library – Creating a library for your files makes common sense, yet this important feature is often missing, or slapped together in mid-project when things start to get out of hand. Keep design resources in well-marked, easily accessible files. Dropbox, for example, offers an excellent repository and information sharing capability.
- Touch it Once – This tip is directed toward a project manager, but team members should make use of it as well. When a task is assigned, act on it immediately. Don’t set it aside to be dealt with later. By following this tip, work gets done and projects are easier to keep on track. Take two minutes now, and save hours of unnecessary effort later.
Keeping these tips in mind, let’s move on to the tools.
If you are looking for a better way to wireframe, Pidoco might just be the right solution. This premier GUI prototyping tool boasts a global user base. You can create fully interactive prototypes that have the look and feel of the real thing, including clicks, touch gestures, and device motion.
Pidoco enables you to share your prototypes, collect comments and feedback, and edit screens in real time. With this web app, you can easily test drive your prototypes in real-time on real devices. The combined smart template/building block feature makes prototyping super-fast. You will experience improvement in design consistency as well.
This web app resides in a cloud (in a German data center), and it is almost ridiculously easy to use. There is no need to bother with downloads, updates, or install software. Just log in, and you are ready to go! Five different plans are available, ranging from Starter to Platinum. You can try any one of the plans free for 30 days.
This prototyping and collaboration tool is ideal for creating interactive, high-fidelity prototypes. proto.io is one of the most popular rapid prototyping tools on the market, and since you can sign up for a free trial, there is nothing to lose by doing so. Proto.io enables you to create richly-detailed mockups, including animated and interactive mockups, in mere minutes.
You can share mockups with other project stakeholders that will be difficult to distinguish from the real thing. Import your own designs, or use built-in native UI elements for Windows mobile, iOS, or Android.
The beauty of proto.io is it gives you the ability to build and test a realistic mobile app mockup before investing time and effort in actual development. Realistic prototype testing enables you to avoid allowing design errors or omissions to creep into the development phase. Try it free for 15 days.
When time is of the essence, but you cannot afford to compromise on quality to meet a deadline, you will appreciate what Azendoo has to offer. The developers of this collaborative app believe designers should be able to focus on design and creativity, rather than spending much of their time working on “supporting” tasks”.
Sharing information with team members, clients, or other stakeholders, while necessary, can be a burdensome and time-consuming task. Sharing information can also lead to having to manage the unnecessary clutter that often accompanies the data you need.
With Azendoo, it is easy to share Photoshop or Sketch designs and supporting data files. Once you start using this time-saving project management tool, you will soon begin to wonder how you ever managed to get along without it.
Creately is definitely worth a look if you need to create website layouts in record time in order to get your projects off to a rapid start. This web-based tool with its simple interface makes creating web and blog pages and iOS/Android mockups a snap.
Creately provides a host of neatly categorized design objects supported by smart shapes that makes it simpler to draw complex design elements. There is an excellent selection of templates, plus an extensive list UI components to choose from. You’ll like Creately’s real-time collaboration features, contextual commenting and it’s revision history capability.
Project management is an important function. If it is not approached in the right way however, it can become a burden, and eat up time that could be spent on design work. Paymo takes care of the organizational and administrative tasks for you.
This online application will keep your team efforts under control by assigning and tracking tasks and responsibilities. Collaboration is well supported, which ensures everyone on your team is on the same page. Paymo is an ideal tool for small and medium businesses. It is available in 18 languages, giving it a global reach. You can try it out for free.
MeisterTask is an intuitive online collaboration and task management tool created by the makers of MindMeister. Whether your project team is large or small, this application ensures everyone stays on top of their to-dos and is kept in the loop on the overall progress.
Project boards can be easily adapted to your project’s unique workflow. Smart automation features ensure you work efficiently and consistently. Teams can connect their projects with applications like Dropbox, Zendesk, Slack, MindMeister, or Google Drive. The basic web app is free and complimented with free task management apps for iPhone and iPad.
Notism is a powerful and versatile real-time design and video platform. It not only encourages active collaboration among team members and project stakeholders, but it also supports the design effort.
With Notism, you can quickly turn static screens into interactive prototypes, and do so without the need for coding. You can collaborate via notes and sketches or via video and receive instant feedback. A version control feature ensures your team won’t get lost among a series of rapid changes. Sign up for free and experience the improvement in your workflow.
Ending thoughts
Since the tools listed here have there individual strengths and weaknesses, we suggest you take an in-depth look at one or two that particularly appeal to you. Several stress a rapid prototyping function, while others place more stress on collaboration.
Most offer free trials, and one or two can be yours free of charge. Any of these web apps should serve you well in terms of enhanced productivity, and all of them are easy or intuitive to use. Whether you settle on one, or decide to try several on a trial basis, keep our productivity tips in mind. By doing so, you will get the most for your money.
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