An easy-to-understand User Interface can be the key to success for any app. The UI design process may seem easy, but it’s far from that. It involves a designer prioritizing the user’s emotions and the brand’s image. It is the process of balancing these perfectly and delivering a Ui that users love.
Just imagine. Your app gains popularity because of how clear the layout and navigation are. Your user retention rates increase and your app generates a lot of revenue. This is all because you prioritized your users.
In this blog, we’ve made a list of the 17 best UI design tools. These will help you design a thoughtful and creative UI. Whether it’s for a website or an app, these tools are sure to help!
What are Ui design tools?
Ui design tools help you design a website or app’s Ui. What’s a UI? It’s the user interface of an app or website. Basically, A Ui is the design that allows users to interact with the software. So, with the help of these UI design tools, UX/UI designers can unleash their creativity and experiment with different designs.
How do Ui design tools work?
They work by providing a visual workspace for designing user interfaces. There is no need to know how to write code. The majority of these work on the basis of drag-and-drop components. You can experiment with some of these tools even as a business owner without design experience. These tools will allow you to:
- They will help you with wireframing and visualizing a UI.
- They can help you create interactive prototypes. These can be very similar to the final product.
- Some UI design tools will allow you to test the animations and buttons before beginning the development process.
17 types of Ui design tools:
Here’s our list of UI design tools. Keep in mind that you’ll have to experiment a little. One tool won’t fit all your needs. Some may not work for you. Sometimes, you’ll have to use more than one tool. Designing a UI is all about functionality, creativity, and understanding the user’s needs. Let’s explore these 17 tools that will help simplify the UI/UX design process:
1. Whimsical
Whimsical is a powerful visual design tool that is perfect for designing UIs. It is an excellent platform if you’re still at the beginning stage. It’s a visual platform that will allow you to map out your designs and brainstorm easily.
This tool will bring clarity to your designs. It’s the perfect collaborative tool for this. It can help you with wireframing and designing Mockups for your projects.
What you get:
With Whimsical, you’ll get the following perks:
- It’s a beginner-friendly tool. Whimsical has a simple drag-and-drop interface. It even has some auto-arrange features that help make the layout easier to understand.
- It has a simple learning curve because it focuses on simplicity and speed. It provides a distraction-free space to brainstorm and design.
- It has several templates that make Ui designing easier. Even if you don’t know where to start, these pre-built templates can simplify the process.
- It has a unique sticky note functionality. If you suddenly get an idea, just note it down before it escapes!
2. Sketch
Sketch is a vector designing tool. It is MAC-exclusive but works just as well on a browser. It’s one of the smooth and intuitive UI design tools. This tool makes designing fun and productive. Like most tools, it also allows collaboration.
Sketch has an active community of designers and developers. They keep designing and releasing new templates and designs that you can use throughout your projects.
What you get:
With Sketch, you’ll get the following perks:
- From Wireframing to high-fidelity prototypes, Sketch allows you the versatility to create anything.
- Annotations are easy when collaborating. You can add notes and comments for others to see quickly.
- You can take a document and easily change it to a reusable document. Moreover, its built-in templates already make designing easy.
- Allows both website and app design. It helps create scalable and easy-to-understand Ui designs.
3. Figma
If you’re a designer, you’ve probably heard about Figma. But what exactly is it? It’s one of the most versatile UI design tools out there. It allows easy collaboration and wireframing to design User interfaces for apps. It makes the UI/UX design process simple.
By using Figma to design your UI, you can easily experiment with colors, styles, and layouts. Its collaboration abilities allow multiple designers to work together.
What you get:
With Figma, you’ll get the following perks:
- Figma is cloud-based. Moreover, it works on different platforms. So, it will work on Mac or Windows and Android or iPhone. You wouldn’t even need to download the software. Browser is enough.
- Figma allows you to create interactive and clickable prototypes out of the UI you design. It also automatically creates smooth animations and transitions between screens.
- Once your design is complete, you can hand it over to developers. Figma allows you to auto-generate code for both iOS and Android.
- Figma also has pre-built templates for UIs. This means you don’t have to design from scratch. It even has wireframing templates that make it easy for you to brainstorm before moving on to a UI.
4. Framer
Framer is one of the best UI design tools. It lets you create high-quality prototypes for your app and website. However, creating interactive animations in your prototype will require a limited understanding of CSS and HTML.
By using Framer to design your UI, you get very realistic user interfaces. It’s almost as realistic as the end product will get. Use Framer if you want to show your stakeholders how the final project will work and behave.
What you get:
With Framer, you’ll get the following perks:
- It can integrate with other tools. Let’s suppose you made your UI with another tool like Figma or Sketch. If you want to create an interactive prototype out of that, Framer is the perfect tool.
- Don’t know how to begin? Framer offers several templates. From website landing pages to SaaS and banking apps, you’ll find templates for anything.
- Framer allows for collaboration. This means that designers and developers can work together to create the perfect functioning UI.
- It can also be a powerful tool for designers looking to publish their website without coding knowledge. You only need coding expertise when you want to create interactive prototypes. You do not need it when making simple Ui and publishing the website.
5. Mockflow
Mockflow is one of the best UI design tools. It gives you cloud-based access to wireframing, product designing,and web/mobile app features. Basically, this tool allows you to visualize your Ui designs.
It allows you to change and edit the design as many times as you want before finalizing. It makes brainstorming and visualizing fun.
What you get:
With Mockflow, you’ll get the following perks:
- It has a library of pre-built Ui components. You can use these to design your user interface easily through its drag-and-drop interface.
- It delivers user flow and sitemap tools. They help plan navigation and information architecture.
- It is accessible through any platform due to its cloud nature. This allows it to integrate with other tools as well.
- This tool is best for wireframing rather than prototyping. You can easily brainstorm and iterate before creating the final design.
6. Balsamiq
Balsamiq is a low-fidelity wireframing tool that helps create the perfect UI design. It also helps with early-stage prototyping. Balsamiq has a creative and simple UI of its own. These features make it ideal for rough UI sketches and brainstorming.
Balsamiq tends to focus on rough sketches because it allows users to focus on the base structure. Through this, you don’t focus on the visual details much.
What you get:
With Balsamiq, you’ll get the following perks:
- It’s the perfect wireframing tool. You can visualize, experiment, and create low-fidelity wireframes for your UI.
- It’s known best for its lack of learning curve. It’s very basic to use. Balsamiq already has pre-built components that you can drag and drop to visualize your UI.
- It focuses on basic structure and functionality. This means you can create user flows and early-stage prototyping.
- It allows you to share your UI designs with your team for quick feedback.
7. Zeplin
Zeplin is made to end the gap between designers and developers. It’s not just limited to being a design tool. It also allows full collaboration with developers. It redefines collaboration by organizing and sharing designs.
Zeplin helps share the Ui designs with developers in a way they understand. It provides developers with the specs they need, making it even easier to collaborate.
What you get:
With Zeplin, you’ll get the following perks:
- It integrates with workflows; this makes collaboration even easier. For example, Jira and Slack.
- It’s very easy to track changes in Zeplin. If you don’t like a new change, you can easily revert back to a previous one.
- It helps developers through auto-code generation. This includes CSS, Swift, React Native, and more.
- It does not have prototyping capabilities; it jumps directly to the development stage after design.
8. Proto.io
Proto.io is a powerful prototyping tool. If you want to see how your Ui looks when it comes to life, Proto.io is the best platform for you. It works on different platforms, too. This makes it easy for designers to visualize and iterate wherever.
It has a simple learning curve and does not require any coding knowledge. Moreover, Proto.io lets you validate your idea with collaboration and validation.
What you get:
With Proto.io, you’ll get the following perks:
- By using native transitions and gestures, you can create your Ui into a working prototype. This will help show your stakeholders how the design works.
- You can import Ui designs you’ve created on other software to Proto.io. This will help you make those Ui designs into dynamic prototypes.
- It works on browsers and devices efficiently. There is no need to download any software. This allows quick and ideal designing
- It allows you to create high-working prototypes. You can use them for user and usability testing prior to development.
9. JitBlox
JitBlox allows you to create UIs for web apps quickly. You can easily build interactive web apps without any coding knowledge. It helps you generate web apps using angular material. You can test out the platform without signing up.
By using JitBlox, you can quickly create interactive designs for your web applications. Its online environment lets you use UI libraries to experiment with designing.
What you get:
With JitBlox, you’ll get the following perks:
- The design process in JitBlox is easy. It delivers pre-built components that you can place through drag-and-drop features.
- You can create custom themes that represent your brand with JitBlox.
- Once your design is complete, JitBlox allows you to uplo0ad it to GitHub for further collaboration.
- You can build interactive working prototypes for your web applications. With its versatile tools, you can also test your prototypes.
10. FlowMapp
Flowmapp is a tool that helps designers simplify the UI/UX design process. It’s one of the UI design tools that helps create user paths and sitemaps for apps and websites.
Flowmapp uses AI to help designers create and navigate complex user experiences. Flowmapp helps users in creating site maps. This makes the process of making the UI easier.
What you get:
With Flowmapp, you’ll get the following perks:
- Flowmapp helps designers create and design the architecture of websites and applications.
- With it, you can help develop high-fidelity wireframes. You can utilize a library of templates and customizable elements.
- It allows you to visualize sitemaps and wireframes. Managing it all in one platform simplifies the planning process and saves time.
- You can design detailed user flow diagrams to map out user journeys, making designing easier.
11. Adobe XD
It’s easy to tell by the name, Adobe has made Adobe XD. It’s a vector-based designing tool. It allows for both UI and UX designs and makes mapping out user flows easy.
You can create complete screen designs and working prototypes with Adobe XD. Many UI designers prefer it. In recent years, roughly 30,000 companies have been using Adobe XD.
What you get:
With Adobe XD, you’ll get the following perks:
- It’s available for Windows and MacOS only. It allows you to create simple and scalable designs.
- It can help you create high-quality UIs because it can work with other Ad9obe platforms.
- Adobe helps keep track of previous versions and iterations if you want to review them.
- It helps you create prototypes. You can create smooth and easy animations without coding.
12. Penpot
Penpot is a 100% free visual design tool for UI. As an open-source tool, it makes collaboration easy between developers and designers. It is one of the best UI design tools. Penpot works for both mobile and web applications.
It delivers a simple, browser-based platform. This online environment makes it easy for designers to create and iterate UI designs.
What you get:
With Penpot, you’ll get the following perks:
- It is a versatile design platform that goes beyond UI designing. You can also create mockups and prototypes with Penpot.
- You can efficiently work with vector images and use advanced styling features.
- It allows private deployment of apps. This is very beneficial for smaller teams looking for self-hosting.
- Allows easy collaboration between designers and developers. You can also export your designs to other tools.
13. Origami Studio
Origami Studio is a prototyping tool that Facebook made. The tool has an impressive library that helps develop gestures, icons, interactions, and more. These features are very helpful for creating a prototype from your UI.
Origami Studio works for both web and mobile applications. However, you can only use it with MAC OS.
What you get:
With Origami Studio, you’ll get the following perks:
- It allows you to preview your prototypes while you make them on another window.
- Helps immensely in creating micro-interactions. It shows you exactly how a page will work after you’re done designing your UI.
- After creating your UI, you can create prototypes for both web and mobile apps.
- You can integrate it with Sketch to build and improve upon your low-fidelity user interface.
14. Pixelmost
Pixelmost is an AI-powered app design tool. It simplifies the UI/UX design process by enabling users to create detailed user interfaces for apps. You can later improve them and create mockups and prototypes across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS platforms.
By using AI technology, Pixelmost transforms text-based prompts into app designs. This makes the process fun for both novice and experienced designers.
What you get:
With Pixelmost, you’ll get the following perks:
- You can input a simple text prompt to generate complete app mockups. If you don’t like something, you can easily update it through drag-and-drop features.
- It helps you visualize your app concept easily. You can create prototypes based only on prompts.
- It works only on MAC OS, iPhone, and iPad. This helps it work swiftly and efficiently.
- Helps save time. It only takes 30 seconds to generate a UI, mockup, or prototype with AI.
15. UXPin
UXPin is a code-based design tool. It allows UI and UX designers to create fully interactive prototypes using real code components.
UXPin bridges the gap between design and development. It combines both into a single platform. It is an ideal tool for high-fidelity prototyping.
What you get:
With UXPin, you’ll get the following perks:
- UXPin uses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code to create interactive UI and UX components.
- It allows you to import designs from Figma and Sketch. After importing, you can enhance them with interactivity.
- By using code, you can design the perfect prototype. It will work exactly like your final product.
- You can build code-backed layouts with ChatGPT. Integrating AI can make it even easier to build UIs.
16. Marvel
Marvel is a cloud-based platform that makes UI design easier. It is very easy to use and makes it fun to create mockups and prototypes. You can create both low and high-fidelity prototypes.
Because it’s a simple platform, designers can create quick prototypes of their user interface designs. It’s one of the easiest-to-use UI design tools.
What you get:
With Marvel, you’ll get the following perks:
- Its simplicity allows you to create quick wireframes for your UI. Later, you can also create prototypes with it.
- It works offline, too. The changes you make to your design while offline sync when you go online.
- Marvel includes several artboards, pre-built templates, and reusable components. These allow you to be as creative as you want.
- You don’t need to learn it specifically. It’s easy to use. You don’t even need to download software.
17. Axure
Axure has almost everything you need to create basic wireframes for your user interface. User interfaces start with wireframes. A good designer reaches success by creating, improving, and iterating UIs.
Axure lets you create website mockups with very little coding. This helps you design working prototypes for websites quickly.
What you get:
With Axure, you’ll get the following perks:
- It helps you create dynamic interactions. This includes hover effects, drag-and-drop features, and interactions.
- You can create complex-level user interfaces without any coding expertise.
- In a single project, you can get adaptive views for desktop, mobile, and tablet.
- In the beginning, you can easily create navigation structures and site flows, and you simplify the design process.
Wrapping it up
This was our list of UI design tools. Designing and development is a complex process. Did you know that a good UI and UX design can help increase user conversions by up to 400%? It’s essential to take your time in designing a good and navigable user interface by using on of the best UI design tools.
At Linkitsoft, we create easy-to-understand User Interfaces for our websites and apps. No matter what software you want to design, develop, or test, we’re here to get the job done. Contact Linkitsoft today and bring your app ideas to life.
