Top favorite design resources
Being an UX Designer, there is one thing you improve certainly; Recognizing patterns. I took one of them that I see me using constantly, to my work and hopefully, some of them will seem useful to you as well, if you do not know them yet. Hopefully, you can suggest new ones as well.
As of the writing of this article, one of my most used services/app Prismatic is actually shutting down the service and I cannot tell you how devastated I am. This app, was singlehandedly my only source of news stories, and Medium (yeah sorry Medium) was only second up.
Everyone has a set of favorite tools at his disposal. They make our life easier, and our job faster. So let’s dig into useful tools for designers, or at least for me.
Colors, colors, colors
Colors mixing in visuals in so important it literally can create conversions itself. Below are 4 favorite tools that I use when I am looking for color schemes and want to create color compositions:
If you want to create a palette of beautiful colors you should really use this. You can even import your own colors to the mix, keep colors you specifically like, change only some colors and so on.
This tool can help you with contrast when you choose a background color for your next website project, according to web accessibility guidelines.
Find all those 50 shades of a color. Not the book. Ew! Real colors, yeah that’s good stuff.
If you are a fan of flat design and material design in specific, this nifty tool can be a friend.
I use this tool to find out color negatives easily.
Fonts.
I believe that I do not need to say more. Fonts make a website appealing and legible. They can stand alone themselves, and create a minimal beautiful visual. And designers love fonts so much. Or at least they should.
I was not joking. We love fonts so much that someone had to create tinder… for font pairings.
Another great tool with editable parts so you can test the font pairing you are thinking about, in real time.
There are many more resources but those I see myself use constantly. Plus, I am always on the lookout for new fonts. Your font library is just never enough, man.
Stock resources
Images, icons, vectors, you name it, most designers have created their own library, or gathered their own stash, or use certain tools with those elements. Stock resources make our life easier, save time and sometimes especially for freelancer, it is a cheap alternative for non copyright material. Note; always check the licence.
Of course when it comes to stock resources there are millions of them around the web. with a single search for example: ‘business card free psd’ you will easily get overwhelmed with resources.
Free stock images, everyday. One of my most favorite tools.
You can probably find an icon here you can use, or at least tinker with and create your own.
Otherwise, Iconfinder, although it is more focused on a subscription model nowadays, you can still find good & free icons.
Anything vector you can find here. Again; Watch out those licences.
Web Design sources
I think we could easily create an encyclopedia and fill it with links of free web design sources. Below you find only a few favorites of mine, on my journey to learn more and become a design unicorn. Yeah.
Aside from general starters’ frustration:
I use Foundation a lot, and those building blocks and libraries they have, is a gold stash! I am not joking.
Customize, test and generate your own css animations. This has saved me from a lot of frustration.
Ah, those guys just never fail to amaze me. I use the CSS reference a lot and their tutorials & playground as crazy. If you haven’t you should give this website a try. You will get stuck.
I think Codepen makes me more frustrated than happy, when I rage on my screen in the middle of the night “how the f* did they do that?”
Other sources
Do you have interesting tools you would like to share? Please do so! I am always in the lookout for new exciting things to try on.
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