The best 15 Tools & Resources for Designers? They’re in this article
There can be various reasons for failing to deliver a product on time. Take for example a situation in which progress grinds to a halt because of a requirement or specification cannot be met because the designer doesn’t have the means to satisfy it.
While your toolbox may be well stocked, there may be design tools or design resources you frequently go to that are simply no longer up to the task, even if they are long-time favorites.
The 15 tools and resources for designers and agencies described in this article are tops in their respective categories. They will help you or your team be more productive, and in some cases, they could be life-savers.
1. Be Theme
This multipurpose WordPress theme is hard to beat in terms of its powerful array of core features, design options, flexibility, and ease of use. Given that the sales of this long-time favorite web designer’s tool has exceeded the 200,000 mark, you have every reason to believe that you’ll get a huge return on your investment.
- Be’s 40+ core features give you the tools and flexibility you need to meet the most stringent of deadlines
- Be’s Muffin Builder- Admin Panel-Shortcode Generator trio lets you drag and drop your way through a project without ever having to write a line of code.
- If there was a single secret to Be’s success it would likely be the selection of 600+ customizable (and responsive) pre-built websites that cover the major industry sectors, business niches, and website types and styles.
- Be’s Layout Generator facilitates starting a page from scratch, plus you have ready access to a wealth of layout options to see your project through.
Click on the banner to find out what BeTheme can do for you.
Trafft is brand-new booking software, it features a modern design you can’t find elsewhere, and it’s a game-changer for booking operations management. Trafft simplifies workflows from beginning to end and can speed up your booking operation by more than 75%.
With Trafft at your fingertips you can:
- Accept and manage bookings
- Automatically send SMS and email notifications to clients
- Fully integrate with Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, and Zoom
- Customize the Trafft Booking Form to match your brand
- Manage employee’s schedules, vacation days and days offs
- Manage pricing and online payments
The above features are in place or on the way. Since this application is still in an early phase of operation you have an opportunity to help shape and improve this product by signing up for the Early Bird Plan for $5.
Click on the banner for detailed information or to sign up.
3. wpDataTables
There are plenty of good table and chart-building app and plugin options on the market, but the number of reliable ones diminishes significantly if you require one or more of the following:
- The ability to create tables and charts that are both responsive and interactive
- Frontend editing that allows charts to be modified and easily maintainable
- The ability to process vast amounts of data that can come from various sources and in various formats, and do so in a short amount of time
- The ability to process real-time data, e.g., MySQL
- The ability to highlight or color code key table or chart information
wpDataTables can do all the above and a great deal more. Additional features include advanced filters, and a useful collection of add-ons. The documentation is detailed and informative.
Click on the banner to learn more about this best-in-its-class design tool.
With the Amelia WordPress booking plugin you can manage your client’s appointments, events, and employees’ schedules at multiple locations from a single platform.
- There is no limit to the number of clients, employees, appointments and events
- Clients can book appointments 24/7 with ability to pay online, this waz zou ca reduce no shows and avoid dealing with payments yourself
- Amelia easily integrates with Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Zoom, and Elementor
- Clients and employees have their own dashboards to manage appointments and events form the front-end page of any WordPress website.
5. Uncode – Creative Multiuse & WooCommerce WordPress Theme
This pixel-perfect creative multi-use theme is particularly suitable for bloggers, freelancing creative types, agencies, and small businesses. Its more than 80.000 sales have made it a ThemeForest best-seller.
With Uncode, you get:
- An advanced Frontend Editor;
- Comprehensive selections of over 400 section templates and 70 design concepts;
- The WooCommerce Custom Builder that features Single Product Builder, the custom Cart, Checkout, and more.
When visiting the site, be sure to check out Uncode’s impressive library of user-created websites.
6. LayerSlider
LayerSlider, a longtime favorite of web designers, isn’t just for creating stunning sliders anymore. It has evolved into a multi-use animation and content-creating application that is currently enjoyed by millions of active users.
- It’s the perfect tool for giving an old website a new life
- Its animation features give designers unique ways to interact with visitors
LayerSlider is mobile device and SEO friendly, and since it is drag and drop, there is no need for coding.
Broken links can not only be frustrating to all parties concerned but can have a negative impact on a site’s search engine rankings as well. Dr. Link Check saves you the time and trouble of having to periodically perform manual checks on your site.
Dr. Link Check:
- Checks for broken links and improper URL formatting
- Checks for malicious content and blacklisted sites
- Checks for placeholder sites that lack meaningful content
Mobirise is fast, easy to use, offline, and free. This website-building tool has lots of other things going for it as well.
- Because it’s offline, you have total control over your design efforts
- 4,000+ website-building templates come with the package
- Mobirise is drag and drop, so there’s no need to write code
- Mobirise’s Google AMP and Bootstrap 4 frameworks guarantee top performance
You can download Mobirise to Windows or Mac at no cost.
8b is a brand-new, easy to use website builder that is futuristic in its design and that you can use on any device whether you are at home or on the go.
- Google AMP guarantees your site will be lightning-fast and mobile-friendly
- There are no bandwidth or page number limits
- You can link to the domain of your choosing
Download your own copy of 8b for free.
You might expect that a website building application that was designed with perfection in mind would require a high-tech skill set to operate. Total, on the other hand, is fast and super user friendly.
- Features you are not using can be disabled so as not to slow you down
- The Dynamic Template Function and Theme Customizer account for this tool’s impressive flexibility
- Total is both WooCommerce and WordPress plugin friendly
11. Litho – The Multipurpose HTML5 Template
Its ready-made template blocks and professionally designed inner pages make this responsive multipurpose HTML5 template an excellent starting point for startup, agency, and small business website design.
- Litho’s Bootstrap 4 framework guarantees fast performance
- The package features 36+ home pages and 230+ ready templates, plus page styles for blog, shop, and portfolio websites
- Hero sliders, interactive banners, contact forms, and other creative elements are also included
Litho provides detailed documentation and 5-star user support.
12. XStore – The Most Customizable WooCommerce Theme Ever
A word to the wise for anyone looking for a trouble-free way to build an eCommerce website: Don’t overlook xStore!
A sampling of what you get for $39:
- 100+ good-to-go shops you can customize to meet your needs
- More than $500 worth of top-of-the-line plugins
- Single-product page and header builders
- Built-in Woocommerce Email Builder
- Full AJAX Theme & Multi-Vendor Marketplace
XStore will convice you that creating an eCommerce website doesn’t have to be difficult.
13. Goodiewebsite
GOODIE helps people and businesses connect with web developers to get their sites reliably coded and up and running.
GOODIE is ideal for –
- Small businesses looking for or seeking to amplify an online presence
- Web designers who want to connect with a reliable web developer
- Startups looking to test their business ideas and concepts on the web
GOODIE specialties include small websites, WordPress websites, and eCommerce websites.
14. Heroic Inbox
Heroic Inbox helps businesses, large and small, manage their email inboxes.
Heroic Inbox, with its exceptionally friendly UI:
- helps staffs share email assignments and manage responses
- makes it possible for those same staffs to quickly achieve Inbox Zero status
- tracks key metrics to better understand team performance
15. WHATFONTIS
WhatFontIs can identify a font from an uploaded image in a matter of seconds. This application’s accuracy is built on top of AI algorithms and a huge database of over 700K fonts.
- 60 or more related fonts can be shown for every uploaded image
- WhatFontIs correctly identifies a submitted font 90% of the time
- Cursive fonts can also be identified if the letters are separated
WhatFontIs is the best font identifying tool for designers (professional or amateurs).
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Your web design toolbox is no doubt filled with a collection of valuable industry tools, tips, and tricks. There might even be a few old favorites in it that you would be reluctant to replace with something else.
But while it’s important to keep current by seeking out the latest and greatest tools for designers out there, it can be time consuming and at times frustrating to do so.
We are happy to be able to assist you by sharing these top 15 tools and resources for designers and agencies. Choosing one or more will help you stay on top of your design game and might even make your day.
