Web designing can be scary for a first-timer. And it should be – because season designers get scared too.
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve designing websites; there’s the issue of creative block that every web designer has to contend with.
While we may turn to others for inspiration, nothing beats the motivation that you could get from using a web designing tool of your choice. You have plenty of options when it comes to this – and the best part is that, regardless of what you plan to do, we can guarantee there’s a tool that’s been specifically designed to super-charge your creative battery and get everything rolling.
Essentially, these tools try to streamline your workflow, and get you to work smarter – and more efficiently – rather than harder. The point is to get you to invest the bulk of your energy in solving problems, creating beautiful designs, and delighting your users – rather than wasting it all on dull, soul-sapping tasks that kill your morale.
Source: Pinterest.com
Thankfully, the internet has plenty of these tools for you to take advantage of and spur your creativity to the nth degree. You can use these tools to simplify the web designing process and save huge chunks of both your time and effort.
Well, no need to do your own research. We took it upon ourselves to do all the digging that we could to prepare a top 50 list of the best web designing tools on the market today – and which you could use to tackle pretty much every aspect of your web designing needs.
We encourage you to read through the list and pick a tool that you think best resonates with your web designing needs.
Now, without wasting another second your valuable time, here goes the list:
Sketch
We’ll start with one of the most popular tools on the list – sketch. If this is not your first attempt at web designing, then the chances are that you’ve heard a great deal about this tool.
Designed by a Dutch company called Bohemian Coding, Sketch is a popular choice of vector UI design tool among many designers. It’s a tool you use to create high-fidelity interfaces and prototype.
The tool was founded in 2009, and it didn’t take long before it quickly rose to find its place in many web designers work pellet.
For what’s worth, the tool is very similar to photoshop from different angles. Where you’re still using Photoshop for UI, you might want to switch it up for a purely design-centred tool such as Sketch.
Arriving with the tool are hundreds of plugins that you could use to simplify your workflow and make everything smoother. To sum it all up, Sketch is to web designing what photoshop or lightroom is to photo-editing – if you get the gist.
Dreamweaver
Dreamweaver has a long history in the world of web designing. As a matter of fact, if your web designing experience spans close to a decade, chances are pretty good that you’ve at some point used Dreamweaver.
The tool was first introduced by Macromedia, a renowned web development software company that was based in San Francisco. The company, together with their web designing software, Dreamweaver, would, later on, be bought by their biggest rival at the time, Adobe – which still manages Dreamweaver today.
Dreamweaver has been voted in, on several occasions, as one of the best web designing software in the digital quarters. This was especially true a few years back when it was the only web designing tool that was worth having.
Overall, Dreamweaver still stands as a great tool for beginners who are still trying to find their way around the convoluted streets of web designers. Don’t get me wrong, Dreamweaver is still a great tool even for intermediate and professional web designers. But the simplicity of its interface and everything else makes it an ideal tool for beginners that do not wish to complicate their life.
Figma
Figma is another popular UI designing tool that allows multiple designers to collaborate on their projects in real-time. The tool is available on Windows, Mac, Linux, and as a browser-based app. It also comes as either a free or paid version, depending on what you intend to use it for.
Overall, Figma is a great tool for building wireframes for landing pages. You can use it to make proposed changes to your homepage or sales landing pages without taking you through unnecessary hoops.
It’s a pretty useful tool for whipping up mock MVT’s; and making minor adjusting to an existing layout. Even more interesting is the fact that you can use it to create responsive layers for desktop, mobile, and tablet.
Affinity Designer
If there’s a tool that’s finally succeeded in making photoshop deader is Affinity Designer. On the first impression, the tool looks a lot like it was intended to bridge the gap between web and graphics design.
This web designing tool comes loaded up with features that you’re certainly going to love. Among them are the adjustable and non-destructive layers, which allow you to adjust your image or vectors without interfering with their quality or structure.
Anime
Web page animations have received their fair share of flak online. They have been criticised a great too many times. However, developers have stepped in and attempted to make things easier and even more interesting than they initially were.
Transitions and CSS animations were a huge leap forward in the world of animation. But, as we all know, there’s so little that you can achieve in the world of animation using crude code. You need a library, and that’s where Anime steps in.
Anime is a recently introduced animation engine that you’d want to try out if you’re looking for a more efficient way to add complex animated elements to your app project.
The tool uses code to define the object that you wish to animate, along with specific details of the animations.
GIMP
I have been trying to discredit photoshop as a serious web designing tool. It’s not like I intend to backpedal on my initial statement. What I’m trying to imply is that if you’re still hung up on using Photoshop, then here’s a chance to replace it with an absolutely free and almost similar tool.
It may lack a few photoshop features, but you can be sure all the core ones are there. The tool offers pretty much all the stuff that you need for your web design projects.
The tool can be installed on Windows, Mac, and a buttload of other OS’s out there.
Canva
Canva isn’t a full-fledged web design tool, but it’s a great tool for creating interesting ideas that you can add to your design for a chance to enhance its looks. You can use it to create interesting images, patterns, banners, and even posters that you can directly integrate into your web project.
The platform boasts hundreds of unique design elements that you can play around with and plop your images, copies, and company names to come up with interesting designs for your web project.
You don’t need any prior designing skills to use Canva. What the platform does is that it tries to make the designing process as effortless and intuitive as possible to make it all easy for you to come up with professional-looking designs for your web project.
Adobe Fireworks
This is another web designing tool from Adobe, the company behind Dreamweaver. It’s a raster and vector graphics editor, and which can be installed on both Windows and Mac OS. Again, unlike photoshop, this tool was specifically designed with web designers in mind.
It comes loaded up with tons of high-end features and designing options that make it a breeze for you to design a full web layout with minimal strain.
Among these features are the slices, with which you’ll be using to dice and slice your design mockup into HTML/CSS to quickly create prototypes. You’re however advised against using the source-generated code for the end design.
The tool also allows you to package your final project as a PDF file with clickable components for impressive and interactive prototypes.
Lastly, the tool also comes with a series of optimisation tools that you can use to take the weight off your graphics and make them more lightweight.
Adobe Photoshop
Even with all the odium that we’ve been directing towards this commercial graphics design tool for Windows and Mac, Photoshop does deserve an honorary mention on a list like this. If not for anything else, then it’s for the simple reason that a good number of web designers are still obsessed with it.
It’s pretty obvious that the software was initially designed with photographers in mind, but over the years it’s grown to be one of the most resourceful tools in the world of designing.
First, it’s because the tool has proven to be effective in manipulating images and creating awesome graphics for the web.
It has all the useful features that you’ve ever thought off. For instance, it has filters that you can use to automatically add effects to your images or some parts of it. In passing, the tool also features brushes, and a string of automation, scripting, and workflow enhancement features, including Layer Comps, to name a few.
Balsamiq
Looking for a tool you can use for rapid wireframing, Balsamiq makes a strong suggestion. The tool tries to make everything easy for you. There should be nothing to stress you when developing a structure or layout for your web project using this tool.
They also have one of the easiest drag-and-drag editors that you’ll ever come across. And yes, it’s possible to link buttons to your pages.
Wireframing allows you to plan your interface and create something that you can share with your clients and teams for suggestions or insights.
ProtoPie
With ProtoPie, you can create complex UI designs. It’s a tool you use to put a structure to the idea you’ve conceptualised, so you can paint it in vivid colours along with the functionalities you have conceptualised.
The tool stands out from the other design tools on the list for the simple fact that it allows you to play around with the sensors on your smart device. You can watch as your design responds to a device tilt, compass, sound, and 3D Touch sensors. It’s a great tool for creating a product with native app features. Also, as the name suggests, everything about it feels as easy as pie. No prior coding skill is required to get anything done.
Adobe Comp
Adobe Comp is a thought-provoking web designing tool that allows you to create stunning prototypes, wireframes, and layouts for your webpages. Think in the lines of a creative cloud-powered intelligent sketchpad to understand it.
It features basic templates that you can use to create layouts for your app or web projects. It also allows you to print the layout you create. It packs loads of intuitive shapes that you can use to draw quick placeholders for your images and texts.
Flinto
Flinto tries to make it possible for you to incorporate unique interactions in your design. You can make easy transitions and utilise a series of gestures by designing the states that come before and after.
The tool will then work out the difference and even try to animate everything for you. How helpful.
It’s to be, however, noted that this tool works for iOS only. But try using it, and everything automatically feels like familiar territory. It’s also one of the most documented designing tools out there. You can even import your design directly from Sketch with just a few clicks.
Axure
Axure is ranked as one of the best wireframing tools to ever hit the market. It’s a simple UI tool whose features and capabilities run deeper than you’ve ever imagined. But overall, it’s a great tool for building complex UI projects that could do so much better with dynamic data.
It’s a great tool for mocking up super-complex projects that require you to pay enough attention to details and other technicalities.
Justinmind
Justinmind is designed to help you with prototyping. You can also integrate it with other design tools, including Photoshop and Sketch. Other than that, the tool allows you to choose gestures and interaction that help to assemble your prototypes.
Also arriving with it is a UI kit that you can use to put together different responsive screens with a minimal amount of strain on your part.
Pixel Modo
Pixel Modo is a browser-based application that lets you design awesome graphics with so much ease. If you’ve ever tried looking for the right graphics online, then you know how much of a challenge that can be.
If you’re lucky to find one, you have first to make sure no copyright claims are deterring you from using it.
In comes Pixel Model, an easy-to-use design tool that you can use to create off-the-wall graphics from scratch, right in your browser without being forced to install any software.
Fluid
Its name says it all – one of the most flexible rapid prototyping tools you’ll ever come across online. Arriving with the tool is a slew of out-of-the-box assets that you’ll need to build rapid prototypes.
Upgrading the software to a premium version means you’ll be granted permission to assemble your own symbols. The tool is designed to make web designing feel more natural. You get to grease over your UI design super-fast, with assets that you can use to create both low and hi-fidelity prototypes.
IotaCSS
Ever tried working with a CSS framework and felt like it’s limiting you? IotaCSS is among the few (or maybe the only one) that doesn’t. Designed by a frontend architect consultant by the name Dimitris Psaropoulos, the idea to design the framework came after the author was frustrated working with other CSS frameworks.
They were all imposing the same limitation, and when Dimitris couldn’t take any more of it, he decided to create his own framework. So yes, his framework works differently, and which is pretty much the reason it’s preferred by a majority of front-end developers.
Vue.Js
JavaScript frameworks are pretty common. But there’s something about Vue.Js that make it a preferred choice for many front-end developers.
It’s a framework for building interactive user interfaces, with a core library that’s focused on the presentation layer. If you’ve ever worked with a JavaScript framework, you’ll have an easy time agreeing that Vue.Js is everything you’ve ever wished to see in a framework of its kind.
InVision Studio
If you’ve been looking for a web design tool that’s all-rounded, a one-stop-shop design tool that will make you ditch all the other tools, then look no further than Invision studio.
It’s a simple web design tool that pack all the features you’ll need to create stunning interactive interfaces without looking elsewhere. You can use it to create rapid prototypes, collaborate designs, and even work around complex design systems.
Marvel
Marvel is a great design tool that’s designed to inspire you, and get your creative juice flowing again. It’s a great tool for refining your interface and finetuning everything to match the design that you have in mind. You can use it to build prototypes.
Other than that, the tool offers a neat way to design web pages by allowing you to create a prototype of whatever design that you have in mind. With the tool, it’s even possible to integrate the designs you create right into your workflow.
It even goes the extra mile by including a testing feature that allows you to run a series of test on your design to weigh on its effectiveness.
UXPin
UXPin is a dedicated UX design tool that you can install on Mac, Windows, or use it straight from your browser. Unlike other UX design tool that only allows you to mimic designs by playing around with different elements on an artboard, UXPin tries to dig a little bit by moving close to the code level.
Meaning it allows you to work with various code components, logic, and interactive states.
Proto Io
Proto Io isn’t another run of the mill prototyping tool, but a top-of-the-shelf one, and which allows you to create lifelike designs. It’s the tool you’d want to install in your Mac or Windows PC if you have a rough idea of what it is that you want and are looking for a way to transform it in a full-fledged design.
The tool allows you to develop your ideas by drawing them on an artboard. You can then proceed to create a wireframe for it before turning it into a hi-fidelity prototype. How cool.
Mockflow
Mockflow comes as a suite, packing a broad range of applications that you can use to handle various aspects of your web designing process. You can use it to create wireframes. It’s a great tool to work around your basic ideas and organise your thoughts where you can see and build upon.
The only alternative it has is Wireframe Pro, or the only other available wireframing tool that allows you to test out your ideas.
PatternLab
PatternLab is a pattern-driven design tool that operates a little uniquely. The tool was designed by Brad Frost and Dave Olsen and operates on a simple concept the two developers refer to as Atomic Design.
In a layman’s language, the tool is designed to break your design into the smallest components it can get, after which it will be combining them one by one to form one major component. It’s the biological equivalent of atoms combining to form organs and organ systems and before finally coming together to form an organism.
Material Design
Material design is here to represent Google, and it does represent the indisputable leader of search engines in a big way. Yes, you interpreted it right, Google did design this visual language tool with the sole aim of helping you integrate your design idea with both tech and science to create a more cohesive and flexible design foundation for your brand. How impressive.
Orion Icon
Orion Icon is a more specialised design tool; and as the name suggests, it’s designed to address a common problem that designers face all the time. You’ll agree, failure to get your icon set right could send your entire project packing.
However, with Orion, you’ll be presented with a collection of icons that run to a count of million for you to choose from. Of course, you have the option to filter through the list and narrow down your list to a few icons you can work with. You’re even allowed to play around with the icons you choose and give them your own unique twist.
SVGito
This is a free browser-based application that’s been specifically designed to help you polish up your SVG files to save you the trouble of editing them manually. Designed by Peter Nowell, SVGito tries to optimise your SVGs in just a few clicks.
You can use the app to alter the size of your SVGs and reduce their complexity without diluting their quality as with many of its rivals.
Squoosh
Squoosh is the second app representing Google on this list. It’s a simple app that’s available for free, and which helps you to compress your images without messing up the quality.
It bears mentioning that the app works both online and offline. Well, we might as well argue that Google created this app with a selfish interest – to help websites load faster for a better online experience for its users.
Principle
Principle is as cool as you’d want an interactive design app of its kind to be. It flaunts one of the most attractive interfaces, and that’s not where it all ends. The app tries to make it a snap for you to both tweak and polish through animated interactions.
Anima
Anima is a sketch plugin that tries to make it easy for you to create sophisticated prototypes on the platform. It’s a plugin you might want to consider installing if you’re looking for a way to create smoother transitions and cultured interface animations.
Parallax SVG
Gareth Battensby created Parallax SVG to solve a common problem web designers face when re-exporting SVG files from Illustrator. This is the problem of overwritten edits, which this app tries to eliminate.
It’s a perfect tool for frontend developers who use GSAP or any other similar animation library to animate SVG graphics.
Flare
Flare is available as a browser tool that you can use to both design and animate your vector designs. It’s a great app that appears to have been targeted at game designers and web designers.
The most interesting part is that the app operates in real-time, where you get to preview the final product as you make changes without being forced to refresh anything.
Sizzy
With Sizzy, you can preview multiple screens simultaneously whenever you’re testing out a web app for responsiveness.
You’ll agree, switching between different variations of the same component or having to move forth and across different devices when testing your web product is pretty taxing, and that’s exactly where Sizzy proves to be extremely useful.
Linksplit
The best way to come up with a better design is to try and create several versions of it, and then test them out to find out which one among them performs best. This is called A/B testing, and most of the time; it comes as an added feature in other apps.
But what about an app that’s specifically designed to handle this? Well, Linksplit is one such app, and it tries to make A/B testing feel natural.
Verifier
You’ll agree, fake emails are a menace to web owners. Someone registers a ghost domain that they’ll be disposing the next minute, and the next thing you know, they’re using it to sign up multiple accounts on your site.
With verifier, you’ll have a tool that tries to bar users from signing up with you using fake emails. The tool can scan through multiple domain names and email addresses to identify fakes ones and block them.
Zepin
Zepin is a great post-design tool that allows you to send your prototypes and designs to your developer without necessarily preparing a guide to break down everything. All you have to do is upload your design, and the app will try to create an environment where you can share your project with a developer without taking you through unnecessary hoops.
LaunchPad
Launchpad is available as a Sketch plugin that allows you to publish your sketches without necessarily coding anything. The plugin does this by converting your design into HTML and CSS codes that you can use to publish your site without necessarily sending them over to a developer.
React Sketch.App
This app was designed to help you manage Sketch assets when you’re working on a big design project. AirBnb’s team of developers designed the app to establish a connection between engineers and designers.
Essentially, it’s an open-source library that you can use to write React components that directly render to Sketch documents where you can preview them in real-time.
URL to PDF
URL to PDF is a cloud-based app that you can use to convert your HTML codes into PDF. It’s a great tool for rendering invoices, receipts, and other documents. By default, the app tries to ignore the print media CSS so the PDF can look like your site.
Avocode
Avocode is a great tool for developers that are hard-coding Sketch or photoshop designs. It comes with a plugin that you can use to sync it with photoshop or Sketch PSD in just one click.
The app was created by the same team behind PNG Hat and CSS Hat. It’s a simple app that tries to scan through your Sketch and photoshop files and convert everything into a beautifully designed interface that a developer can work with.
ArKit
ArKit is an Apple Framework that you can use to create Augmented Reality applications for iOS. The tool uses your phone’s camera and sensor to map your immediate environment, It will then try to create a virtual 3D model of that environment. In other words, it’s designed to bring your experience in the meat world into your digital space so you can integrate it into the apps you create.
Hologram
Hologram is a full-suite WebVR creation tool. It’s a free desktop app that requires no prior coding skills to use.
The app was designed to help you create your own WebVR environment in a fun and interactive way.
Type Nugget
Type Nugget is one of the few apps that no front-end developer would want to miss in their toolkit. It’s essentially an online typesetting tool that gives you total control over your CSS typography.
TextBlock
TextBlock is a JavaScript text editor that allows you to adjust the size of your textflow content and make it more responsive. It’s a tool you use to insert text into an app and format it in a variety of ways.
GridLover
GridLover allows you to fiddle with your typography in real-time as you watch the response. You can play around with font size, scale factor sliders, and line heights until you’re able to find the right typography rhythm.
Vaunt
This is a tool you use to match the colour scheme of your website with an image that you plan to use. It’s a Mac app that uses a clustering algorithm to scan through your images while analysing its colours to establish a pattern or the most dominant colours in that image so you can use them on your design.
Vivaldi
Vivaldi is a new web browser that’s widely preferred for being super-fast and highly customisable. It’s a simple browser that was designed with the end-user in mind. It boasts one of the most intuitive user interfaces, designed using Reach, JavaScript, as well as Node.Js framework and a series of NPM modules.
CodePen Projects
CodePen was created in 2012 by three developers, Tim Sabat, Chris Coyier, and Alex Vazquez. It didn’t take long before it was one of the liveliest and most active communities for showcasing and testing your HTML/CSS and JavaScript code snippets.
Quill
Quill is a free, WYSIWYG editor specifically designed for the modern web. It’s a tool you use to give your users the ability to edit, publish, or submit content on your website.
How To Choose The Best Photo Editor For Designing A Website
Many website owners are coming to the realization that photography is a crucial factor in running their website and a good photo editor for website design is necessary. Embracing photography for your site is a massive step forward as you will no longer depend on stock photos. However, the raw images captured often need to be spruced up before being uploaded, and a photo editor for website design will enable you to do this.
There are plenty of reasons why you should edit your photos before using them on your website. First, it gives you a second chance to get things right. Even the best photographers sometimes mess up a photography shoot. For example, they might not see a trash bin in the background.
Capturing the image again without the trash bin in the background is unnecessary when you have a photo editor as you can later edit out the image. Just make sure that the image blends with the other website elements and design.
Second, editing photos enable you to develop a style. It is common for site owners to have a writing style that goes hand in hand with photos. For example, a feel-good site may want to add more lighting to their photos to vividly bring out the emotions in the characters. Editing enables you to put this mark on the photos so that they can complement the writing on your site as well the overall theme.
Lastly, editing enables you to tell a story. It will enable you to draw your client’s attention to important aspects of your photography.
There are free and premium photo editors for website design in the market. The free editors typically come as a part of your device’s operating system and are used for basic editing. Free editors are good for personal use but, more often than not, they will not meet your business needs.
Premium editors give you more options for enhancing your pictures. They will help you improve the color and contrast of the image, perfect the white balance, and sharpen the image to make it crisper.
There are several factors you should keep in mind when choosing a photo editor for website design. Note the website images should also be optimised to enhance site ranking and performance.
Budget
Budgeting is a healthy practice when it comes to any business activity. Setting aside resources for editing software will put you in an excellent position to get the editing software that best fits your needs.
This is because there are a number of premium software each going for different amounts. The amount will determine the features the software will have. The rule of thumb when it comes to purchasing editing software for website design is: the higher the price, the more features the software will have.
For example, a more expensive premium editing software may help you bring out the skin tone of people in photos while another premium editing software may not have this feature.
Additional Plugins
A plugin is a component or element of software that adds a particular feature to it or improves the functionality.
There are photo editing plugins that will enable you to enlarge pics without losing the clarity of the image, add depth and shape to the images, add layers to your images, focus on the tone and texture, add a variety of filters and animations to the images and much more.
All the above features make your images better and your editing work easier; using them could mean more free time to concentrate on other areas of your business.
Not all software supports these plugins. Therefore, it is crucial that you read the fine print on the software before making the purchase.
File Format
The file format you use on your site can give your clients different experiences as they browse through your content. Most photo editors typically store the files as JPEG, PNG, or GIF. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each file format is essential.
JPEG is the most popular image format used on the internet. It is the best format to use when you have colorful and complex images as the drop in quality after editing an image is not immediately noticeable.
Small size files of PNG images usually produce better-looking images than the other formats. This is because PNG images do not lose their quality when saved. However, they are not ideal for colorful photos.
GIF, on the other hand, have become popular in recent years due to their animated ability that can immediately capture the attention of the readers, especially beside a compelling call-to-action.
A good photo editor will enable you to produce high-quality files as well as compress the files if necessary. No need to worry though if you have a professional web designer in Singapore on your side. He or she can compress the files and check if everything is OK on your behalf.
Tools
Cropping and adding of filters are simple editing features that can be found even on free editing software. These are basic photo editing features that will, in most cases, not make your images stand out.
However, tools such as color and contrast adjustment, white balance adjustment, and adding hues are tools that will make your images unique. These are tools that can only be found on premium editing software.
Paying more, therefore, gets you more quality.
Compatibility with Cloud Storage
The regular process of posting photos on your site involves saving the files on your computer and then later uploading the images on your websites so as to use them on certain blog posts.
You can, however, make this process easier and faster by using editing software that can sync with your site. This allows you to upload the photos directly to the site after editing them.
This is especially useful for someone who has a lot of photos saved in one folder and is having trouble organizing how to use them on the website. A photo editor for website design that is compatible with cloud storage allows you to save the photos on your site.
7 Best Photoshop Actions for Web Designers in Singapore
Looking for information about the best Photoshop actions for web designers? One of the essential tools for Singapore web designers is Photoshop. This tool allows them to create custom web layouts, graphics, and sketch prototype ideas for their clients. The action feature is one of the best aspects of Photoshop, and makes it a necessary tool if you are looking for a way to automate complex tasks that you do regularly.
What Are Photoshop Actions?
These are a series of steps carried out by the program and are recorded and saved as a single action. You can think of them as a programming code that can run concurrently with your current artboard. They are a time-saving tactic, and they can transform your work into unique and aesthetically pleasing designs at the click of a button.
These could include all the tasks you regularly do such as creating a new document, sketching a wireframe, resizing images, applying filters and more. Better yet, all these actions can be imported to Photoshop. This makes it easy for Singapore web designers to access libraries from other web designers and share files.
After identifying your best Photoshop actions, you can go on to create a library that you can playback back in one click.
In this article, we look at the best Photoshop actions for web designers in Singapore. They will speed up your workflow and increase the efficiency of your overall web design process.
1170 Grid System PS Action
This is an action created by Pixel Industry, and it allows web designers to create 1200 px wide canvasses with a 12-column grid layout. This action is free for download and can help you save time and expedite up your web design process.
Bootstrap Grid System Photoshop Action
This action allows web designers to create 1600 px wide artboards with a bootstrap grid system for a responsive layout design. Singapore web designers find it ideal especially when working on responsive web design projects, and it is free.
Long Shadow Generator
For Singapore web designers looking to apply long shadow effects to icon designs, the long shadow generator is one of the best Photoshop actions for web designers. It is available for download from Web3Canvas.
With the Long Shadow Generator, you can add depth to your icon designs and transform your designs into stunning works of art. It has 4 actions that help you to create between 45- and 120-degree shadows for your icons and other web design projects.
iOS 7 Blur
The IOS 7 Blur allows you to create transparent screens with a single click. What this tool does is to create and build designs that give a blur effect on your iOS 7 screens.
Isometric 3D Perspective Action
This tool allows you to apply 3D perspectives to your images. More so, this action gives you access to three different types of 3D angles and depths. Before completing the design, the Isometric 3D perspective action allows you to preview your designs then proceed to transform them into stylised imagery.
With that said, it comes in two versions, the free extension, which is great for personal use, and a commercial version, which gives more features for $9.
WP Filterise
WP Filterise is one of the best Photoshop actions for web designers that allow web designers to create and apply unique filters to their images. WP Filterise helps you create perfectly imposed images for your blog or an on-site article.
It comes in a package that consists of several features such as Instagram-like, one-click image, filtering, and WordPress Post Editor integration, filters image preview and more. WP Filterise has over 50 instant photo filters with hundreds of possibilities to combine filters and friendly support.
188 PS Action Ultimate Bundle
This bundle contains some of the best Photoshop actions for web designers, and the features allow you to create custom graphics and other website content. The bundle comprises of free Facebook timeline covers, vintage bundle, light actions, 28 season actions, B&W action set, HDR, time covers among other interesting effects.
While the 188 PS Action Ultimate Bundle is a premium Photoshop action, it comes at a discounted price of $34 for Singapore web designers.
How to Create Your Photoshop Action
For Singapore web designers using Photoshop regularly, premade bundles might not work for you given the set of repeat tasks that you do every day. Did you know that you could create custom Photoshop actions?
For example, if you resize and crop images regularly, you can record and automate this action by clicking on the window button and choose the actions panel. You will need to first set a name for the action, click on the record button, and walk through the various steps you want to automate. After you are done, click on the stop button next to the record button in the action’s panel.
How to Use Premade Photoshop Actions
Did you know that you could import and export Photoshop actions? You can download Photoshop action files in zip folder files from other Photoshop users and then export them to your Photoshop program. First, you need to extract the files in the zip folder and then export the files into Photoshop.
There are various ways of exporting your files to Photoshop. This includes
- Click on the action file
- Copy the actions into the Photoshop desktop or
- Drag and drop the action files into Photoshop’s action panel
Once you have imported the action files, hit play, and the action will transform the design into interesting works of art. The best thing about premade action files is that they are highly customisable, that is, you can change the actions to suit your web design needs.
Unconventional Web Design Hacks To Crank Up Your Site Conversion Rate
Are you looking for web design hacks that will crank up your conversion rate? Well, numerous tests have shown that most of the websites with traditional or conventional web designs record below average conversion rate.
One of the plausible reasons for this sad reality fact is that online customers in Singapore are bombarded with hundreds of ads and websites per day. The only way to grab their attention is by making sure that your website design is professional and at the same time stands out from the crowd.
Yesterday, we looked at how to simplify your web design. Today, we look at some of the unconventional web design hacks that have proven to the world that going against the grind sometimes works magic.
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Leverage the Negative Space
What is the negative space? In the web design world, negative space refers to the unused space or the white space on your website that is not housing any element.
Filling up all the space available on each page with elements makes it almost impossible for the offers or vital CTAs to stand out. Too little white space on your website increases cognitive load and motivate web visitors to move to other sites.
By leveraging the negative space, we mean that you should strive to increase the amount of white space available on your website. Here are some simple tactics that you can use to achieve this goal.
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- Use shorter paragraphs
- Use bullet points and lists more often
- Use media and visuals to break up your text
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Animated CTAS
Call to Actions tells the website visitors the exact action they need to take next. Websites that have high conversion rates usually have plenty of CTAs that are properly optimized and strategically placed in various locations of the site.
One of the surest ways of making sure that your website visitors notice your CTAs and click on them includes:
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- Embed it in a video: CTA that is placed within a video gets 380% more clicks than the conventional sidebar CTAs.
- Incorporating CTA buttons in article templates have the potential to increase your website revenue by 83%
How you present, the CTA will determine the results that you get. Button CTAs spur more engagement than text-only CTAs and has the potential to increase clicks by 45%.
Animated CTAs offer even better results; their movement on the website page grasps the attention of the visitor thereby increasing their chances of clicking on them. A research done by UserTesting found out that subtle movement on the website every few seconds gets the attention of the website visitor without being annoying.
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Get Responsive Web Design
Globally, 56% of consumer traffic emanates from mobile devices that are internet enabled. More than 80% of Singaporeans use these devices to access the internet, and the majority of us have 3-4 devices.
Based on these facts, it is imperative to invest in responsive web design. This is a web design that will adjust to different screen sizes automatically. Your Singapore e-commerce website should be accessible on laptops and mobile devices.
That means the clients should be able to place orders on the website using mobile devices. If a website loads perfectly on a computer but is unresponsive when accessed on mobile devices – that is a clear indication that the site does not have a responsive design.
In the fast-paced digital world, very few people will stick on a website that is not fully accessible on a mobile device. Concisely, your conversions and revenue will plummet if you do not invest your time and resources in responsive web design.
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Steer Clear of Free or Standard Templates
First, it is important that we point out that not all the free website templates and themes are bad. The main concern is that hundreds if not thousands of business owners in Singapore and abroad have access to them. They may opt to use them instead of spending money on a custom template.
Businesses overly use free and standard website templates. Apart from making it difficult for your website to stand out and get a firm footing online, it will look cheap to potential customers who have seen other sites with the same template.
In addition, free templates have limited customization features. Be safe and increase your chances of succeeding in establishing a business in Singapore by investing in a custom website template and theme. The Singapore website development team you hire will create a theme that is unique and in line with your business needs.
With a custom template, you will be able to improve it as your business scales up without compromising other elements. This is by far one of the primary reasons why you should consider hiring a professional website designer in Singapore.
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Simple Navigation
Poor website navigation could be the reason why your website is no recording any substantial results. Placing too many choices in the navigation bard distracts the website visitors and makes it look unprofessional. This, in turn, reduces the chances of anyone clicking on any of the page links displayed on it.
Presenting fewer choices in the navigation bar will make it easier for prospects to find information. They will not have to contact your support team or chat with your live customer care team.
More importantly, simplifying navigation will ensure that you always provide the best user experience to your existing and new customers. Think deeply about these five unconventional web design hacks to know if you need to redesign your site. Note that a properly designed website will not need to be changed in the near future.
Get in touch with us for professional web design services in Singapore. We will create a template and theme for your Singapore business from scratch as well as do SEO and create digital marketing campaigns that will help your brand get the best results.
Final Thoughts
What do you make of the list? Is there a tool we missed and which you think deserves a slot on the list?
Talk to us, or better talk to the web designing team at MediaOne, and let’s help you find the perfect solution for your web designing problem.
