exciting-new-tools-for-designers,-january-2020

We typically start the month with a roundup of new tools and resources for designers, but with the start of a new year (and new decade), we thought a roundup of things to help you get more organized would be appropriate.

Some of these tools have been around for a while with features you might not be using. Other tools are on the new side and offer great functionality. How many of these tools are part of your kit? Which ones will you resolve to use this year?

Here’s what you need to get organized this month and start 2020 off right.

Dropbox

Dropbox is one tool that’s hard to live without. Not only can you use it to manage files and share, you can also use it to run presentations directly with Zoom conferencing or in Slack. Free plans are enough to get started and upgraded plans provide greater storage capability for individuals or teams.

Working from multiple locations with desktop sync and sharing client files are features that make this tool something I use every day.

Feature you need to be using: Shared link expiration dates. When you share files via link, set an expiration date to ensure files aren’t hanging out with access indefinitely.

dropbox

Slack

Slack is probably a tool that you are already using, but are you making the most of it? Channels, hashtags, and integrations are the key to ensuring that Slack works for you in the way you need it. Take the time to set these up for an efficient, and organized, workflow across multiple teams.

Feature you need to be using: Sync Slack and your Google Calendar for real-time away statuses that work for you.

Cloud Libraries

We all work from a variety of locations—home, work, on desktops and laptops—so cloud-based libraries are a must. Save common files in a location that you can access from anywhere.

Feature you need to be using: Adobe Creative Cloud comes with a place to save libraries, but you can save and connect library files from any cloud-based tool.

Trello

Trello is a free organization and collaboration tool for just about any project. Think of it as a giant project checklist that allows you (or other team members) to keep an eye on how anything from a website build to planning a trip. It works cross devices and isn’t hard to figure out.

Feature you need to be using: Workflow automatons with due date commands and rule-based triggers to make tedious processes happen on their own.

Google Keep

Google Keep is the notetaking app you always wanted. Take notes from any device—sync across all devices—and share or keep notes to yourself. You can take notes by typing, with photos or audio (and it will transcribe messages for you). The best part is this notes app is free and pretty much makes anything else you are using obsolete.

Feature you need to be using: Location, and time-based reminders help keep you on task just when you need it.

Grammarly

Grammarly saves time and effort by checking your messages, everything from documents to website content to emails or social media posts, as you type. Use it to avoid embarrassing mistakes in your writing.

Feature you need to be using: Emojis help you track the tone of your message so that it’s on point and audience-appropriate.

ClickUp

ClickUp takes all your other apps and merges them into a single location and dashboard for easy organization. You can use it to manage your own workspace (free) or collaborate with teams (paid plan). There are multiple views—I’m a big fan of the list option—and templates help jumpstart using the tool.

Feature you need to be using: Use the messages option to create tasks or comments. Boom!

Filing System

Nothing beats a solid filing system. The key benefit of a system is that you store files and folders in the same way every time, making it easier to find things later.

I keep folders first by year. Within annual folders are folders by client name. Then by project name. When projects are complete, I end up with two folders: WORKING and FINAL. Use the same format for naming files. (I use Client Name-Project-Year.)

Feature you need to be using: Date project files. Relying on “date modified” settings isn’t enough if you resave an old file by mistake.

Invoicely

Invoicely makes it easy to work as a freelance designer. The platform is made for sending invoices, managing clients, and allows you to accept online payments. It’s secure and offers a free plan (as well as a paid option).

Feature you need to be using: If you are trying to get organized, time tracking tools help you know just what an individual client costs. You can enter time, expense per client, and mileage so you can get a realistic picture of revenue by project.

HelloSign

HelloSign is for anyone dealing with documents that need signatures. Send and sign online with a platform that’s secure and easy for users to understand. Plus, you can sign items right from common tools such as Gmail or other G-Suite apps.

Feature you need to be using: Store all your signed documents in the interface so you can find them later. (HelloSign will also automatically send reminders if someone hasn’t signed a form.)

Traditional Planner Online Calendar

Pair a paper planner with your online calendar to keep track of tasks (paper planner as a checklist) as well as events and appointments (online calendar). Daily deadlines are best managed when you can jot them down and check them off throughout the day. Plus, that note is right in front of you to stay focused.

Feature you need to be using: Try a weekly paper planner, tear off sheets, or a dry erase board for task management that doesn’t seem overwhelming.

WeTransfer

WeTransfer makes sending large files a lot easier. There’s nothing worse than a file getting lost in cyberspace because it’s too big for email. WeTransfer allows you to send and receive big files with just a click. (And you don’t have to have an account to download files.)

Feature you need to be using: Integrate WeTransfer with other tools such as Slack, Sketch or Chrome for direct sharing from wherever you are working.

JotForm

JotForm is the ultimate tool for creating any type of online form, from simple surveys to signups to payment collection or image uploads. The service has free and paid plans, depending on usage and everything is customizable, so forms can be branded with ease.

Feature you need to be using: PDF Templates are ready-made forms for everything from a simple invoice to contracts or photo waivers. Start with a PDF and tweak as you need. Plus, you can set it up to be filled out digitally and returned to you. This is a huge timesaver, and you can save custom forms in your account to use over and over again.

Featured image via Unsplash.

exciting-new-tools-for-designers,-october-2019

It’s already time to start thinking about all the seasonal design elements that you will use for the rest of the year. That might be icons or illustrations or fonts. We have a few new elements this month that might fit the bill, as well as learning tools and inspiration. Here’s what new for designers this month.

UIPrint

UIPrint is a set of sketching templates for devices that you can print out to create with a pen (because some of us love to draw mocks and ideas in meetings). The current collection includes more than 10 printable wireframes and sketchpads. Grab prints for devices you use most of download the whole set and get printing.

uiprint

Haptics

Haptics provides developers with a quick and easy way to see what the different haptic feedback is like on supported iPhone & Apple Watch models. Available only in the iTunes store and requires iOS 13.0 .

swatch

HTTP Mock

HTTP Mock allows you to intercept and view all of your HTTP (and HTTPS) mock endpoints or entire servers and rewrite, redirect, or inject errors.

swatch

Art of Symbols

Art of Symbols is a project published by Emotive Brand that takes a look at the root the design and meanings of common icons and symbols. The project was originally published day by day as an Instagram project, but has been compiled into a website that’s super informative and fun to look at.

swatch

Smoother & Sharper Shadows

Smoother & Sharper Shadows is a tutorial that will help you clean up the look of drop shadows using the box-shadow CSS property. You can get more control over the look of shadows for more polished designs.

swatch

Copy Monkey

CopyMonkey uses machine learning to mimic your handwriting style like a monkey. There’s not a lot of work value in this one, but it is a lot of fun to play with.

swatch

CTRL Z

CTRL Z is a fun interactive flyer that can provide a source of inspiration. Click and drag to see just how this flyer for an upcoming art installation works.

swatch

Shape

Shape lets you customize the style, colors and border of more than 1,000 static and animated icons and illustrations. Export to React, SVG and Lottie. The tool also includes UI templates to help you use icon collections.

swatch

Winning Icons

Winning Icons is a set of 50 vectors that celebrate achievement. With medals and celebratory icons in three styles, this collection is made for winning. The set is available in SVG and JPG format.

swatch

Sketch Devices

Devices is an updated set of modern device mockups for Sketch by the team at Facebook Design. From the design team: “Facebook supports a diverse audience around the world and an equally diverse set of devices. To emphasize that in our design mocks, we redrew a range of devices to show the global diversity of the people using our products. Each device comes with a bitmap of the device (with and without shadows) and the original Sketch file for that device.”

swatch

Animated Icons

Animated Icons is a collection of fun line icons with interesting animations for something a little extra in your projects. Download the JSON for Lottie, GIF, or After Effects formats. Pick and choose icons or download them all.

swatch

Fresh Folk

Fresh Folk is an interesting collection of illustrations of people, places, and objects to enhance design projects. You can use illustrations as mix and match characters and scene elements to create almost custom illustrations from the library.

swatch

Where to Put Buttons on Forms

What’s the perfect placement for a button on a form? Well, it depends on what information is in the form. This great explanation/tutorial by Adam Silver can help you think about the logic behind button placements and make your forms more user-friendly.

swatch

Mozilla Developer Video Shorts

The team at Mozilla Developer has launched a new video series packed with demos and tools that teach web technologies. You can find the first few videos on their website or follow the channel on YouTube for new videos when they post.

swatch

Fliplet

Fliplet is a “prefab” no-code app editor that helps you build all kinds of different apps without coding. It uses a library of open source components, or you can create your own. The core feature base includes everything you need to get started with an app build.

swatch

Quickmetrics

Quickmetrics is a dashboard-based data collection and sharing tool. Track all kinds of data including signups, response times, or almost anything.

swatch

Deep Work Stats

Deep Work is a productivity tool that helps you see how you’re actually spending time on the job. It scans your calendar and computer time to determine how much time you have for deep work and shallow work, how much time you spend in meetings, and how you compare to co-workers and globally.

swatch

Bridamount

Bridamount is a handwriting style typeface with a fun set of special characters. (And it’s free for commercial use as well.) It includes a full upper- and lowercase character set.

swatch

Cascadia Code

Cascadia Code is a monospaced font that’s still in development. You can modify it using glyphs and FontTools. It includes programming ligatures and is designed to enhance the modern look and feel of the Windows Terminal.

swatch

Dealerplate California

Dealerplate Cailfornia is a funky typeface that mimics the letterforms on license plates. This is one state in the font set that features 17 fonts.

swatch

Krisha

Krisha is a display font with an all caps character set and funky smooth lines for letterforms. It’s big and bold and one of those few free fonts that’s also available for commercial use.

swatch

Mallie

Mallie is modern, fusion font with multilingual support. It’s a very versatile font that would make for a fun brand design.

swatch

Santa Claus

It’s not too early to start planning Christmas designs. This comic style font, Santa Claus, could be just the right element. It makes for an interesting uppercase only display.

santa

Scarekrowz

Just for Halloween is Scarekrowz, a funky spooky typeface for the season. The font includes just 94 characters, but could make for a fun, seasonal display.

swatch