6 Best UX/UI Design Tools for Every Designers Use In 2024

What Are UX Tools?

UX tools that are also known as user experience tools refer to software applications or platforms that assist designers and researchers in creating, testing, and improving user experiences for digital products and services.

These tools are specifically designed to streamline the user experience design process and enhance collaboration among design teams. UX tools can be used at various stages of the design workflow, from initial research and ideation to prototyping and user testing.

Following are the names of some common types of UX design tools:

• Wireframing and prototyping tools.
• User testing tools.
• Information architecture tools.
• Interaction design tools.
• Collaboration and project management tools.
• Analytics and data visualization tools.

Examples of popular UX tools include Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD, InVision, Axure RP, UserTesting, Hotjar, Optimal Workshop, Miro, and Google Analytics, among many others. The choice of UX tools depends on the specific needs and preferences of the design team and the nature of the project being undertaken. Following is a detailed description of the top 6 design tools among these mentioned tools.

Adobe XD

Adobe XD is undoubtedly one of the top UX/UI design tools for every designer to utilize in 2024. In a constantly evolving digital landscape, where user experience and interface design play pivotal roles, Adobe XD stands out as an excellent choice.

It is a comprehensive software that caters to the needs of both UX and UI designers, making it an ideal tool for creating exceptional digital products. With its intuitive interface and user-friendly features, Adobe XD enables designers to craft easy-to-navigate websites and develop user-friendly products.

In comparison to its competitors like Sketch, Figma, and Axure RP, Adobe XD offers a seamless design experience with a wide range of powerful tools. It allows designers to create high-fidelity prototypes with code integration, ensuring a realistic user experience.

Additionally, Adobe XD supports collaboration with its real-time co-editing capabilities, facilitating efficient teamwork. Whether you are wireframing, prototyping, or conducting user research, Adobe XD has you covered.

It continues to prove its worth as a top UX/UI design tool for digital product design in 2024 and beyond.

Here are some key features of Adobe XD.

Design and Prototyping

Adobe XD allows designers to create stunning visual designs for websites, mobile apps, and other digital products. It provides a wide range of design tools, including vector drawing, text editing, and image manipulation.

Interactive Prototyping

With Adobe XD, designers can easily create interactive prototypes by adding animations, transitions, and interactions to their designs. This enables stakeholders and clients to experience the product's flow and interactions before development.

Responsive Design

Adobe XD offers responsive design features, allowing designers to create layouts that automatically adapt to different screen sizes and resolutions. This helps ensure a consistent user experience across various devices.

Components and Design Systems

Designers can create reusable components and design systems in Adobe XD, making it easier to maintain consistency throughout the design process. Changes made to a component are automatically updated across the entire project.

Collaboration and Co-editing

Adobe XD enables real-time collaboration, allowing multiple designers to work on the same project simultaneously. It also supports design reviews, comments, and version history, facilitating efficient collaboration among team members.

Plugins and Integrations

Adobe XD offers a wide range of plugins and integrations with other tools and services, allowing designers to extend its functionality. Plugins can automate repetitive tasks, integrate with design systems, or add additional features.

Design Specs and Developer Handoff

Adobe XD generates design specifications and assets automatically, making it easier for developers to understand and implement the designs. This streamlines the handoff process and ensures design accuracy during development.

User Testing and Feedback

Adobe XD integrates with user testing platforms, allowing designers to gather feedback and conduct usability testing directly within the tool. This helps validate design decisions and iterate based on user insights.

Cloud Storage and Sharing

Adobe XD provides cloud storage, enabling designers to save and access their projects from anywhere. They can also share designs with stakeholders and clients, allowing for easy collaboration and feedback.

Plugins and UI Kits

Adobe XD offers a wide range of plugins and UI kits, which provide ready-to-use design elements, icons, and templates. These resources help designers save time and maintain consistency in their designs.

These features make Adobe XD a powerful and versatile tool for UX/UI designers, supporting them throughout the entire design process, from ideation to prototyping and collaboration.

Sketch

Sketch is an indispensable UX/UI design tool that every designer should utilize in 2024. As one of the top UX/UI design tools for digital products, Sketch offers a plethora of features that cater to the needs of both UX and UI designers.

It excels in creating easy-to-navigate websites and designing user-friendly products. With its intuitive interface and extensive toolset, Sketch empowers designers to bring their creative visions to life. Its vector-based approach allows for scalability and precision, ensuring pixel-perfect designs.

Sketch offers a robust set of features, including symbols, styles, and libraries, which promote consistency and reusability across design projects. It also integrates seamlessly with other tools in the designer's toolkit, making collaboration and workflow management effortless.

Sketch's plugins and UI kits expand its capabilities even further, providing designers with additional resources and customization options. In 2024, Sketch continues to stand out as a top choice for UI/UX designers due to its versatility, user-friendly interface, and dedication to creating exceptional digital experiences.

Here are some key features of Sketch as a design tool:

Vector Editing

Sketch is built on a vector-based editing system, allowing designers to create and edit shapes, icons, and illustrations with precision. This enables scalability without compromising quality.

Symbols and Shared Styles

Sketch offers the ability to create reusable elements called symbols, which can be easily replicated and updated across multiple artboards or pages. Shared Styles allow designers to maintain consistency by applying global changes to text and layer styles.

Libraries and Collaboration

Sketch Libraries enable designers to share and collaborate on design assets and components across different projects. This feature promotes consistency and streamlines team collaboration.

Artboards and Pages

Sketch provides a flexible canvas where designers can create multiple artboards and pages, allowing them to work on different screens or sections of a project simultaneously.

Prototyping

Sketch includes built-in prototyping capabilities, allowing designers to create interactive and clickable prototypes. This feature helps demonstrate user flows and interactions to stakeholders and clients.

Plugin Ecosystem

Sketch has a robust plugin ecosystem that extends its functionality. Designers can utilize plugins to automate repetitive tasks, integrate with other tools, and add new features to enhance their design workflow.

Responsive Design

Sketch offers tools and plugins that facilitate responsive design, enabling designers to create layouts that adapt to different screen sizes and orientations.

Export and Handoff

Designers can export their designs in various formats, including PNG, SVG, PDF, and more. Sketch also supports design handoff to developers, generating CSS, XML, and other code snippets to facilitate the development process

Real-Time Collaboration

Sketch allows designers to collaborate in real time, making it easier for teams to work together on the same project simultaneously. Changes made by one team member are instantly reflected for others to see.

Integration with Design Tools

Sketch integrates seamlessly with other design tools and services, such as InVision, Zeplin, and Abstract, providing a smooth workflow from design to development.

These features make Sketch a powerful and versatile tool for UI/UX design services, empowering them to create visually stunning and user-friendly designs while maintaining efficiency and collaboration throughout the design process.

Figma

Figma is a must-have UI/UX design tool for every designer to utilize in 2024. As one of the top UX/UI design tools for digital products, Figma offers a range of features that empower designers to create exceptional user experiences.

It excels in designing easy-to-navigate websites and user-friendly products that captivate and engage users. Figma's cloud-based nature allows for seamless collaboration and real-time co-editing, making it a perfect choice for team projects.

Designers can create wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs using Figma's powerful design and prototyping features. Its robust component system enables designers to maintain consistency and efficiency across projects. Figma's integration options with other design tools like Sketch and Adobe XD further enhance its capabilities and flexibility.

Additionally, Figma supports design handoff by generating CSS, SVG, and code snippets, simplifying the transition from design to development. With Figma's emphasis on collaborative design, user-friendly interface, and comprehensive feature set, it has become an indispensable tool for UI/UX designers in 2024 and beyond.

Here are some key features of Figma as a design tool:

Cloud-Based Collaboration

Figma operates in the cloud, allowing designers to collaborate in real time. Multiple team members can work simultaneously on the same project, making it easy to share feedback, iterate, and maintain version control.

Design and Prototyping

Figma offers a powerful design toolset that enables designers to create visually appealing and interactive designs. From wireframes to high-fidelity prototypes, designers can bring their ideas to life within the same platform.

Component-Based Design

Figma utilizes a component-based custom web design service approach, making it easy to create and reuse design elements. Designers can create and update components, ensuring consistency across the entire design system.

Responsive Design

Figma supports responsive design, allowing designers to create adaptive layouts that automatically adjust based on different screen sizes and orientations. This feature is particularly useful for designing responsive websites and mobile apps.

Plugins and Integrations

Figma has a robust plugin ecosystem that extends its functionality. Designers can access a variety of plugins to automate tasks, integrate with other tools and services, and enhance their design workflow.

Design Handoff and Collaboration

Figma simplifies the design handoff process by generating CSS, SVG, and code snippets for developers. This allows for seamless collaboration between designers and developers, ensuring accurate implementation of designs.

Design Libraries

Figma's design libraries enable designers to create and maintain a centralized repository of design assets, components, and styles. Libraries promote consistency and efficiency across design projects.

Version History and Comments

Figma provides a version history feature that allows designers to track changes made to a design over time. Additionally, designers can leave comments on specific design elements, making it easy to collaborate and provide feedback.

Prototyping Interactions and Animations

Figma's prototyping capabilities allow designers to create interactive prototypes with transitions, gestures, and animations. This feature helps designers showcase user flows and demonstrate the intended user experience.

Developer-Friendly Specs

Figma generates design specifications and style guides automatically, making it easier for developers to understand and implement the designs. Detailed specifications include measurements, colors, and typography information.

These features make Figma a powerful and versatile design tool, providing designers with the necessary tools and features to create visually stunning, interactive, and user-friendly designs. Whether it's collaborating with a team, prototyping complex interactions, or ensuring design consistency, Figma is a go-to choice for UX/UI designers.

Invision

InVision is an indispensable design tool that every designer should utilize in 2024. As one of the top UX/UI design tools for digital products, InVision offers a range of features that empower designers to create outstanding user experiences.

It excels in designing easy-to-navigate websites and user-friendly products that captivate and engage users. InVision Freehand, its collaborative whiteboard, allows designers to brainstorm ideas, gather feedback, and iterate in real time.

With InVision's prototyping capabilities, designers can create interactive and clickable prototypes, enabling stakeholders and clients to experience and provide feedback on the user flow and interactions.

InVision's user research tool allows designers to gather feedback from diverse demographics, ensuring the design meets the needs and expectations of the target audience. The tool also provides session replay and behavior analytics, allowing designers to understand user interactions and make data-driven design decisions.

InVision's collaborative design tool promotes real-time co-editing, making it easy for team members to work together on the same project simultaneously. Furthermore, InVision enables designers to create high-fidelity prototypes with code integration, facilitating the seamless transition from design to development.

With its comprehensive feature set and dedication to facilitating collaboration and user-centered design, InVision will remain an essential tool for UI/UX designers in 2024.

Here are some key features of InVision as a design tool:

Prototyping

InVision offers powerful prototyping capabilities that allow designers to create interactive and clickable prototypes. With a wide range of transition effects and animations, designers can bring their designs to life and simulate user interactions.

Collaboration and Feedback

InVision provides a collaborative environment where designers can share their designs with stakeholders, clients, and team members. Users can leave comments and annotations directly on the design, facilitating effective feedback and iteration cycles.

User Testing and Research

InVision includes the best prototyping tools for user testing and research, allowing designers to gather valuable insights and feedback from users. These features enable designers to validate design decisions and make informed improvements.

Design System Management

InVision offers tools to create and manage design systems, allowing designers to establish and maintain a consistent design language across projects. This ensures brand consistency and facilitates efficient design workflows.

Design Handoff

InVision simplifies the handoff process by generating design specifications and assets that can be easily shared with developers. This facilitates smooth communication between designers and developers, ensuring accurate implementation of designs.

Real-time Collaboration

InVision allows multiple team members to collaborate in real-time, enabling seamless collaboration on design projects. Changes made by one team member are instantly reflected for others to see, promoting efficient teamwork.

Design Versioning and History

InVision keeps track of design versions and provides a history of changes, allowing designers to revert to previous versions if needed. This feature helps maintain design integrity and provides a backup in case of accidental changes.

Design System Documentation

InVision allows designers to document design systems and create style guides, making it easier for team members to understand and follow design guidelines. This promotes consistency and ensures a unified user experience.

Integrations and Plugins

InVision integrates with various design tools and services, allowing designers to streamline their workflow and enhance their design capabilities. It also supports plugins that extend its functionality, enabling designers to customize their experience.

Project Management

InVision provides project management features, including task assignments, progress tracking, and project organization. This helps designers stay organized, meet deadlines, and effectively manage their design projects.

These features make InVision a powerful design tool, offering a comprehensive suite of features to support the entire design process from prototyping to collaboration, user testing, and design system management. InVision's focus on collaboration, feedback, and user-centered design makes it a valuable tool for UX/UI designers.

Axure

Axure RP is an essential design tool that every designer should utilize in 2024. As one of the top UX/UI design tools for digital products, Axure RP empowers designers to create realistic and interactive UX prototypes.

It excels in designing easy-to-navigate websites and creating user-friendly products that meet the needs and expectations of users. Axure RP's comprehensive set of features allows designers to map user flows and create low-fidelity wireframes to establish the foundation of their designs.

With its powerful prototyping capabilities, designers can bring their designs to life with interactive elements, animations, and transitions, providing a realistic experience for stakeholders and clients. Axure RP also serves as a top prototyping tool for mobile app UX design, enabling designers to create interactive prototypes that showcase the user journey and functionality of mobile applications.

Additionally, Axure RP provides features for user research, including gathering feedback from diverse demographics and recording and analyzing user screen flows. This helps designers make data-driven decisions and refine their designs based on user behavior.

With its focus on realistic prototypes, user research, and collaboration, Axure RP will remain an indispensable tool for UX/UI designers in 2024.

In 2024, Axure RP will continue to be a robust and feature-rich design tool that empowers UX/UI designers. Here are some key features of Axure RP as a design tool in 2024:

Advanced Prototyping

Axure RP allows designers to create high-fidelity interactive prototypes with complex interactions, animations, and dynamic content. It offers an extensive range of interaction options, including hover effects, form validation, and conditional logic, enabling designers to simulate real user experiences.

Adaptive and Responsive Design

With Axure RP's adaptive and responsive design features, designers can create designs that adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes and devices. This helps ensure a consistent user experience across various platforms, including desktop, mobile, and tablets.

Collaboration and Teamwork

Axure RP provides collaboration tools that facilitate seamless teamwork among designers, stakeholders, and developers. Multiple team members can work on the same project simultaneously, and changes are synchronized in real-time. This promotes efficient collaboration, feedback sharing, and version control.

Component Libraries and Design Systems

Axure RP supports the creation and management of component libraries, enabling designers to establish consistent design patterns and accelerate their workflow. Designers can create reusable components and templates, maintaining design consistency across projects.

User Testing and Research

Axure RP includes features for conducting user testing and gathering valuable feedback. Designers can create interactive prototypes for usability testing and record user interactions. This allows designers to gather insights, identify usability issues, and make data-driven design decisions.

Annotated Documentation

Axure RP allows designers to generate annotated documentation, including design specifications, style guides, and redline documents. This streamlines the communication between designers and developers, ensuring accurate implementation of the design.

Custom Interactions and Variables

Axure RP enables designers to create custom interactions and utilize variables to create dynamic and personalized experiences. Designers can define conditions, create calculations, and integrate data into their prototypes, enhancing the realism and interactivity of their designs.

Integration and Extensibility

Axure RP integrates with various design tools and services, enabling designers to enhance their workflow and leverage additional functionalities. It supports integrations with design tools like Sketch and Figma, as well as plugins and custom widgets, allowing designers to extend the capabilities of the tool.

Design Preview and Sharing

Axure RP provides a seamless design preview experience, allowing designers to share their prototypes with stakeholders and clients for feedback and review. Prototypes can be shared as web links or viewed on mobile devices using the Axure Share app.

Version History and Backup

Axure RP keeps track of design versions and provides a history of changes, ensuring designers can easily revert to previous iterations if needed. This feature provides a safety net and allows for experimentation and exploration in the design process.

These features make Axure RP a powerful and versatile design tool in 2024, empowering designers to create interactive prototypes, collaborate efficiently, and deliver user-centric designs. Axure RP's focus on prototyping, collaboration, and advanced functionality makes it a valuable tool for UX/UI designers.

Marvel

Marvel continues to be a top design tool in 2024, offering an array of features that make it a valuable asset for UX/UI designers. With a focus on rapid prototyping and seamless handoff, Marvel empowers designers to create user-friendly and visually appealing digital products.

Its intuitive interface and easy-to-navigate features make it a popular choice for designing websites and mobile applications. Marvel enables designers to quickly iterate and refine their designs, providing a range of prototyping and collaboration tools.

With its prototyping capabilities, designers can create interactive and high-fidelity prototypes, simulating user experiences and interactions. Marvel's collaboration features allow for real-time co-editing, ensuring seamless teamwork and effective communication among designers, stakeholders, and developers.

Moreover, Marvel offers user research tools for gathering feedback from diverse demographics, allowing designers to gain insights and make data-driven design decisions. With its focus on high-fidelity prototyping, collaboration, and user research, Marvel remains a top choice for designers in 2024, aiding in the creation of user-centric and visually compelling digital products.

In 2024, Marvel continues to offer a range of powerful features that make it a standout design tool for UI/UX designers. Here are some key features of Marvel as a design tool in 2024:

Rapid Prototyping

Marvel provides a seamless prototyping experience, allowing designers to create interactive and high-fidelity prototypes. Its intuitive interface enables designers to quickly design and link screens, define transitions, and add animations to simulate user interactions and workflows.

Collaboration and Feedback

Marvel offers robust collaboration features that facilitate seamless teamwork among designers, stakeholders, and clients. Designers can share their prototypes with others, gather feedback, and iterate on designs in real-time. Comments and annotations can be added directly to the prototypes, streamlining the feedback process.

Design Handoff

Marvel simplifies the design handoff process by providing tools for developers to access design assets and specifications. Designers can easily generate style guides, export assets, and create developer-friendly documentation, ensuring accurate implementation of the design.

User Testing and Feedback

Marvel integrates user testing and feedback tools, allowing designers to conduct usability testing and gather insights from real users. Designers can create user testing sessions, collect feedback, and analyze user behavior to make informed design decisions and optimize the user experience.

Design System and Libraries

Marvel supports the creation and management of design systems and component libraries, enabling designers to maintain consistency and efficiency across projects. Designers can create reusable components, establish design patterns, and update changes across multiple instances, ensuring design scalability and consistency.

Version Control and Iterations

Marvel provides version control capabilities, allowing designers to maintain a history of design iterations. Designers can easily revert to previous versions, compare changes, and track design progress, ensuring efficient collaboration and design management.

Integrations and Plugins

Marvel integrates with various design tools and services, expanding its functionality and enhancing the design workflow. It offers integrations with tools like Sketch, Figma, and Adobe Creative Cloud, enabling designers to import their designs seamlessly. Additionally, plugins and extensions further extend Marvel's capabilities and customization options

Mobile App Prototyping

Marvel offers specific features and templates for designing and prototyping mobile applications. Designers can preview their prototypes on actual devices using the Marvel app, ensuring a realistic and immersive mobile experience.

Analytics and Insights

Marvel provides built-in analytics and insights that help designers understand user behavior and engagement. Heatmaps and user behavior data provide valuable insights into how users interact with the prototype, aiding designers in refining their designs and improving the user experience.

Ease of Use and User-Friendly Interface

Marvel prioritizes ease of use with its intuitive interface and user-friendly features. Designers of all skill levels can quickly adapt to the tool and create engaging prototypes without requiring extensive coding or technical knowledge.

These features make Marvel a comprehensive and user-friendly design tool in 2024, empowering designers to create interactive prototypes, collaborate effectively, gather user feedback, and deliver exceptional user experiences. Marvel's focus on rapid prototyping, collaboration, and user-centric design makes it a valuable asset for UX/UI designers.

Optimization of UX with Heatmaps

To create exceptional digital products and user-friendly websites, designers must prioritize optimizing the user experience (UX). In this pursuit, one tool that has emerged as a game-changer is heatmaps.

Heatmaps allow designers to gain deep insights into user behavior and interactions, enabling them to make data-driven decisions and enhance the UX. When combined with the best UX/UI design tools available in 2024, such as Sketch, Figma, InVision, and Marvel, heatmaps become a potent asset in the design process.

Here are some key benefits of heatmaps:

User Engagement

Heatmaps provide a visual representation of user activity, highlighting areas of high engagement and attention. By analyzing data such as mouse movements, clicks, and scrolling behavior, designers can better understand user preferences, pain points, and areas of improvement. This information allows them to refine their designs, create easy-to-navigate websites, and craft user-friendly interfaces.

Prototyping Tool

A key benefit of heatmaps is their ability to uncover valuable insights for mobile app UX design. They serve as a top prototyping tool, offering designers an opportunity to gauge user engagement and interactions with interactive elements.

Research Tool

Heatmaps also act as a user research tool, enabling designers to gather feedback from diverse demographics and make informed decisions based on real user behavior. Heatmaps also act as a user research tool, enabling designers to gather feedback from diverse demographics and make informed decisions based on real user behavior.

Analysis

Heatmaps go beyond surface-level metrics by providing deep behavioral analytics. They enable session replay, allowing designers to observe and understand user interactions and experiences on a granular level. This real-time co-editing feature fosters collaborative UX design, where teams can analyze heat maps together, share insights, and iteratively improve the UX.

Visual Hierarchy

Integration options with popular design tools like Sketch, Figma, and XD enhance the power of heatmaps. Designers can overlay heat maps directly onto their prototypes, making it easier to spot areas of interest, optimize layouts, and fine-tune visual hierarchy. This integration streamlines the design workflow, ensuring that heatmaps seamlessly align with the overall design process.

Navigation Tool

Furthermore, heatmaps serve as a mobile app analytics tool, offering insights into user behavior, screen flows, and navigation patterns. By leveraging these insights, designers can identify friction points, optimize user flows, and deliver personalized experiences that resonate with their target audience.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the field of UI/UX design services has witnessed remarkable advancements in recent years, and the availability of innovative tools has played a crucial role in enhancing the design process. As we step into 2024, designers need to stay updated with the latest tools that can empower their creativity and streamline their workflow.

The six tools mentioned in this blog, Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch, InVision Studio, Axure RP, and Marvel, have consistently proven their worth and are highly recommended for every designer.

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced professional, these tools offer a wide range of features and functionalities to bring your design visions to life. So, don't hesitate to explore and experiment with these best UI/UX design tools to take your designs to new heights and deliver exceptional user experiences.