Top Web Design Resources and Tools

Have you ever caught yourself focusing on minor and repetitive tasks instead of doing what’s important? That would be the aftermath of poor organizational skills and workflow. A well-organized workflow is an important factor that contributes to a web designer's skill set. Many web designers turn to time-saving and useful tools and resources to automate their processes, which, in turn, gives them more time for creativity. Today we’re highlighting some of the best web designer resources to help you make that happen.

Table of Contents


  1. Tools + Apps
  2. Web Design Libraries 
  3. Frameworks and Guidelines
  4. Learning Resources
  5. UI Kits
  6. Newsletters

Tools + Apps

1. Lunacy



We’ll start with bigger and more popular must-have tools for web designers. Lunacy is a free alternative to Sketch, a vector graphics editor only available on macOS, for Windows. It’s a fully functional design software, offering all the standard features of UI. Lunacy has screen design tools and a free library of high-quality graphic assets. It also includes full support for Sketch files, if you choose to switch from Windows to Mac.

Features
  • User Interface Design;
  • Collaboration;
  • Wireframing;
  • Prototyping.
Pros
  • Cross-platform app;
  • Low system requirements; 
  • Built-in graphics;
  • Real-time collaboration;

Cons
  • No cross-application import/export of other file formats;
  • Lacks prototyping features.
Pricing 
  • Free

FluidUI is a design tool perfect for prototyping and building UIs. The tool enables prototyping and wireframing for desktop and mobile. FluidUI is widely known to enable fast prototyping with built-in elements with great interaction functions. You can even share prototypes with your teammates via email or share links to get immediate feedback.

Features
  • Quick Prototyping;
  • User Interface Design;
  • Wireframing.
Pros
  • Limited free version;
  • Not ideal for higher-fidelity mockups;
  • Pricey.
Pricing
  • Solo - $8.25/mo
  • Pro - $19.08/mo
  • Team - $41.58/mo

Marvel is an all-in-one prototyping tool for bringing all your ideas to life. Marvel has many features, several integrations among which is the integrated user testing feature, which is highly important but rare among web design tools. But Marvel doesn’t stop there, it also enables real-time collaboration and handles all the design stages from prototyping to hand-off. 

Features
  • Prototyping;
  • User Testing;
  • Collaboration.
Pros
  • No offline option;
  • Handoff does not include HTML;
  • Limited free version.
Pricing 
  • Free
  • Pro - $12/mo
  • Team - $42/mo

This won’t be the last time we will mention Webflow. Webflow is one of the best no-code tools often used by pro and beginner web designers, and non-designers to bring their ideas to life with ease. Webflow allows you to build digital products of different complexities and without code. The best part of the platform is the high level of customization and dozens of responsive templates. The limitless possibilities of Webflow allow you to build anything you have in mind, and it also has various integrations which widen the horizon.

Features
  • API;
  • Third-Party Integrations;
  • Customizable Branding;
  • Activity Dashboard;
  • Reporting & Statistics;
  • CMS.
Pros
  • Highly intuitive; 
  • Customization features;
  • Directory of clonable projects;
  • Fast layout design.
Cons
  • Steep learning curve; 
  • Pricey; 
  • No live chat available.
Pricing 
  • Starter - Free
  • Basic - $12/mo
  • CMS - $16/mo 
  • Business - $36/mo
  • Enterprise - custom

Our next web designer resource is Vectr. Vectr is a cloud-based illustration tool that enables creating both simple and complex illustrations, designing websites and mobile apps, and much more. The tool has a short learning curve with a simple drag-and-drop editor with which you can create, edit beautiful designs, blur-free logos, presentations, cards, and brochures.

Features 
  • Arrange elements;
  • Shape tools;
  • Align elements;
  • Gradients;
  • Pathfinders;
  • Fills and strokes;
  • Pen tool.
Pros
  • Cloud-based;
  • Real-time collaboration;
  • Wide-set of design tools and features.
Cons
  • No import functions are available; 
  • Many distractions and ads;
  • Works solely online.
Pricing
  • Free

6. Softr’s SVG Wave and Shape generators


SVG icons and illustrations take a massive part in the web design process. Softr’s wave generator will help you create colorful, simple, and complementary waves to add more peculiarity to your design. The tool is fully customizable, helping you generate waves in seconds. Softr also offers an SVG shape generator which is pretty similar to the first tool but for generating random organic-looking shapes with different angles, complexity, and so on. Same as the wave generator, the tool is login free, and with the availability of SVG and PNG formats. You can use both generators to add more peculiarity to your home page, product pages, landing pages, and more.

Features 
  • Creating SVG waves and shapes; 
  • Changing the number of waves/angles;
  • Complexity, height, colors, and gradient.
Pros
  • No registration needed;
  • SVG, PNG formats are available.
Cons
  • None detected
Pricing
  • Free

Our next web design resource will be for sure one of the handiest ones. Short Pixel is an image compression tool enabling you to speed up your website by compressing images up to 90% without dropping the quality of the images. More than 7 million images have already been compressed, resized while keeping them smaller and visually similar to the original images.

Features 
  • Optimization for all files;
  • Automatic & bulk optimization;
  • One-click backup & restore.
Pros
  • Easy to use;
  • No file size limit.
Cons
  • None detected.
Pricing
  • 100 images/month - Free
  • 7000 images/month - $3.99/mo
  • 16000 images/month - $8.33/mo
  • 55000 images/month - $24.99/mo
  • 100000 images/month - $41.66/mo
  • 220000 images/month - $83.33/mo
  • 16000 images/month - $8.33/mo
  • 2 millions+ - $350/mo
  • 4 million+ - $500/mo
  • 16 million+ - $1000/mo

8. Coolors

Color palettes are an inseparable part of the web design process. So we thought we could automate your process with a color palette generator. This web design resource is all you need to create a palette and color combinations that tell your story and compliment your brand voice. Coolors is pretty simple; it gives you a set of colors and once you “lock” it by clicking the button, the tool generates the matching colors to create the color palette. The freemium tool also allows you to create a palette from photos, generate collages, and much more.

Features 
  • Contrast checker; 
  • Color picker;
  • Changing colors on SVG images;
  • 10k+ color schemes on the free version/ 5M+ ready color schemes in the pro version.
Pros
  • Highly adjustable;
  • Easy to use;
  • Most of the features are available on the free version.
Cons
  • Too many ads.
Pricing
  • Free
  • Pro - $3/mo or $36/yearly

9. Material Design’s Color Tool



Material design’s color tool allows you to create, and apply color palettes to your UI, measure the accessibility level of color combinations, and much more. The tool is pretty simple but highly important to visually understand how color combinations work on UI. You just choose a primary and secondary color from the color palette to represent your brand. Each color's dark and light variants can then be applied to your UI.

Features 
  • Color themes;
  • Hierarchical, legible, expressive principles are available;
  • Light and dark themes.
Pros
  • Easy to ease;
  • Highly customizable;
Cons
  • None detected.
Pricing 
  • Free

10. FontJoy


Next up is Fontjoy, a font combinations generator. Created by Syed Adnan Nafiz, Fontjoy is a simple web tool that leverages machine learning to help you select the perfect font combination. All you need to do is "Generate" a new font pairing, "Lock" fonts you want to preserve, and "Edit" manually by selecting a font.

Features
  • Font activation;
  • Font pairing.
Pros
  • Easy to use;
  • Customizable. 
Cons
  • None detected.
Pricing 
  • Free



Syed Adnan Nafiz

Posted by Syed Adnan Nafiz