5 Essential Tools for UI Design: Recommended for Beginners in 2021

If you are just starting with UI designing, then you might get overwhelmed by the available platforms and technologies. This is because designing has taken a huge leap in the last few years with tons of apps, websites, and desktop solutions. Therefore, to help you venture into UI design as a beginner, I have shortlisted the 5 best tools right here. Without any ado, let’s dive in and learn how these designing solutions can help you.

Things to Consider While Picking a UI Design Tool for Beginners

You might already know that UI design can be a dealbreaker for an end-user and can determine the success (or failure) of a product. Therefore, before you start working on a UI design tool, consider the following things in mind:

Efficiency

At first, make sure that you can come up with all types of designs with the tool of your choice. Explore its overall features, widgets, templates, and resources to make sure that it supports the creation of high-fidelity designs.

Ease of Use

Since you are just starting with designing, a complicated tool would be a turn-off. That’s why it is recommended to go with a UI design tool that has a low learning curve.

Collaborative Features

These days, UI designing involves numerous individuals working together. Therefore, an online cloud-based tool will make it easier for you to collaborate with your team.

Developer Handoff

Furthermore, consider using a UI design tool that would let you directly send your design for development by exporting them in formats like APK, Swift, or CSS.

Version History

Lastly, make sure that you can get an instant preview of your designs on the tool and that it would let you maintain different versions for seamless backtracking.

5 Essential UI Design Tools for Beginners

Now when we have covered the basics, let’s get to know about some of the best UI design tools for beginners.

1. Wondershare Mockitt

If you are just starting with designing and want to make a lasting impression on others, then Wondershare Mockitt should be your go-to tool. It is a freely available online UI design tool that features thousands of design elements in one place. You can explore its dedicated modules to create prototypes, flowcharts, wireframes, and more.

Prototyping Tool

• Mockitt offers an extensive range of libraries with over 5000 design elements to create rapid and effective prototypes.
• You can also readily explore over 500 different templates on Mockitt and can easily customize them to get the best results.
• There are also provisions to include dynamic elements, change states for various widgets, and link pages to come up with high-fidelity prototypes.
• You can instantly share your work with others and even collaborate with your team via its dedicated cloud-based technology.
• Wondershare Mockitt provides an instant preview of our designs from numerous perspectives and lets us maintain their history versions.

Flowchart Tool

Mockitt can also be used as a diagramming tool to create flowcharts of all forms. There are various themes and templates that you can browse or create flowcharts from scratch with its design elements. Some prominent diagrams that you can make on Mockitt are organizational charts, user journey diagrams, sales flowcharts, production charts, and so on.

Design Tool

Mockitt also offers an inbuilt solution to design all sorts of elements (like icons, logos, banners, etc.) on its dedicated tool. It features inbuilt tools like Pen, Boolean, Bezier Curve, etc. to come up with several vector-based designs. You can work on different layers and export your designs in formats like PNG or SVG.

2. Zeplin

If you work with a team of collaborators, then Zeplin would be one of the most useful UI design tools. The best part is that it can let you import your work from numerous platforms and manage everything in one place.

• You can readily import your work from Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch, and multiple other sources to Zeplin.
• Zeplin offers dedicated options to make all kinds of changes in your designs and even alter their back-end coding.
• Users can get an unlimited preview of their designs, maintain numerous versions, and can also manage permissions for collaboration.
• There are hassle-free options to directly send your designs for development in iOS, Android, or web-compatible formats.

3. Balsamiq

Balsamiq is a lightweight wireframing solution that you can use online or on your desktop. It offers rapid wireframing solutions to come up with the basic design of your websites using its editable components.

• Balsamiq offers a quick wireframing tool, having thousands of design components to guide you.
• Since anyone can create wireframes on Balsamiq with drag and drop options, it is one of the best UI design tools for beginners.
• There are also options to connect different elements or screens to come up with a high-fidelity wireframe.
• You can work on interactive elements, set up reusable layouts, share your work on the cloud, and export your designs in formats like PNG or PDF.

4. Sketch

Sketch is a powerful UI and UX design tool that you can use online or as a Mac application. While it can be a bit complicated for beginners, it will certainly yield exceptional results in the long run.

• Sketch offers a clean and resourceful interface to help you design prototypes and mockups of low, medium, or high-fidelity.
• You can easily assign master elements or reuse layouts to save time. The application offers automatic scalability features to fit your design to the canvas in the best way.
• Sketch provides an extensive set of libraries via its dedicated design kit to create prototypes for apps, websites, and more.
• You can just upload your work to its cloud to collaborate with your team and even export your designs in numerous formats.

5. Adobe XD

Lastly, I would recommend using Adobe XD, which is one of the most popular UI design tools of the present time. Apart from its native features, it also offers tons of other plugins and third-party resources that you can easily integrate with your account.

• Adobe XD provides a hassle-free solution to design mockups and high-fidelity prototypes with its dedicated features.
• There is a wide range of resizable components, states, and 3D transformations that you can use to meet your designing needs.
• You can readily import your work from Sketch, Photoshop, or Illustrator on Adobe XD. Later, you can upload your projects on Adobe Cloud to share them with others and collaborate with your team.
• Some other advanced features of Adobe XD are voice prototyping, automatic scaling of layouts, Blend Mode, vector drawing, banner maker and more.

Now when you know about not one but 5 different UI design tools, you can certainly come up with stunning designs for any product. Though, just make sure that the designing tool is easy to learn and should serve its purpose. Out of the listed solutions, Wondershare Mockitt would be an ideal pick as it can help you create prototypes, wireframes, flowcharts, and other designs – all in one place. Not only is it super-easy to use, but its basic version is available for free so you can give it a try on your own!