15 Best Tools and Resources That Designers and Agencies Should Be Using in 2022
The 2nd law of thermodynamics states that if you own something it is eventually going to wear out. Whether or not that applies to software may be open to question. But it certainly applies to software tools and resources. Especially when you substitute “become obsolete” for “wear out”.
Many of the top design tools are frequently updated to prolong their useful life and you may never have to worry about them becoming obsolete.
Others, some of which become designer’s favorites, deserve to be replaced. They are no longer fast enough, powerful enough, flexible enough, or trendy enough to give clients what they are looking for.
Perhaps it’s time to take stock of what’s in your design toolbox. Browse the top 15 tools and resources for designers described in this article, and bring your design capabilities up to date.
We compiled this list to help you keep the 2nd law at arm’s length. We hope you will find it helpful.
1. Trafft
Trafft’s booking and business automation app is worth a trial run if your business is constantly getting bogged down trying to manage multiple appointment bookings.
· The free version of Trafft is for one employee-based businesses. It is free forever if you qualify.
· The 3 paid plans have more features, and each offers a 14-day free trial. That should give you enough time to decide which one is best suited for your business or agency.
· Trafft can be installed quickly, is easy to use, and does not require any technical expertise to maintain. But if you run into a technical problem, their support team will resolve it promptly.
· With Trafft, you can manage an unlimited number of appointment bookings at multiple locations from a single platform.
· You can also customize Trafft’s booking page to fit your brand.
· Booking reminders are sent to clients via email as are payments reminders. Clients can make payments online, including VAT when applicable.
Trafft integrates smoothly with Google Calendar, Google Meet, Mailchimp, Zoom, and more.
Click on the banner to find out more about Trafft.
2. Be — The Biggest WordPress and portfolio WordPress theme
BeTheme’s 40+ core features and huge user base make it the biggest WordPress and WooCommerce theme of all. Be’s core features are always up-to-date and make website-building easy by eliminating any need for coding, by providing design aids, options, and special effects to create interesting website pages, and by significantly cutting workflow times.
Three BeTheme core feature favorites.
· BeBuilder is brand new and probably the fastest and most flexible WordPress builder on the market. It is packed with helpful features like keyboard shortcuts, autosave, and redo/undo revision history management.
· The 650+ pre-built websites are customizable, responsive, contain basic UX features, and are designed to save you a ton of time.
· The WooCommerce builder makes creating an online shop an enjoyable experience with its shop and single product templates, and 40+ WooCommerce demos for WooCommerce.
Click on the banner. There’s plenty more to see.
The Total WordPress theme has everything you need to create an award-winning website without being bothered by pesky layout or design limitations that would slow you down. Beginners and developers will tell you that Total is a joy to use.
· 40+ easy to import pre-built demos help you get a project underway
· the WPBakery frontend page builder, the more than 100 builder modules, and a wealth of custom styling options help bring your project to a successful conclusion.
· Templatera, a WPBakery add-on, enables you to create, re-use, and manage your page layouts
· You can take advantage of Total’s pre-designed Card Styles to display post entries and the developer-friendly API to create custom card styles
· Vanilla JavaScript hooks, filters, and snippets give developers complete control.
Total is WooCommerce compatible, and SEO optimized.
Click on the banner to see if Total is the right fit for your needs.
4. wpDataTables
With wpDataTables in your toolbox you can take massive amounts of complex data and create attractive, interactive, responsive, maintainable, and highlighted or color-coded tables and charts in seconds or minutes.
· wpDataTables accepts data from MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL, and other sources as well as in a multiplicity of different formats and creates tables using Google API
· wpDataTables users have a choice of 4 chart engines
· wpDataTables integrates with Elementor, Divi, and Avada
5. Amelia
Amelia can be a genuine game changer in terms of time and money saved and human errors eliminated when used in conjunction with WordPress to automate a business’s appointment and event booking operations.
· Clients can make and manage individual and group bookings online 24/7.
· Bookings, events, and employee schedules can be managed at multiple locations from a single platform.
Amelia integrates seamlessly with Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Google Meet, and Zoom.
You could spend lots of time spicing up a boring website you’re not particularly proud of or let the Slider Revolution plugin help you do so quickly and efficiently with its -
· selections of 200+ trendy website and slider templates and 25+ addons
· ability to incorporate dynamic content taken from social media sites
· Web Graphics Library of interactive graphics and slide animations
7. WHATFONTIS
Why spend hours trying to identify an elusive font when with a WHATFONTIS Pro subscription you can get an answer in seconds?
· upload a sample of the font you want to identify.
· WHATFONTIS’s AI search algorithms and its database of 700K+ fonts will produce a correct identification >90% of the time.
· 1 on 1 premium support is at the ready should the AI algorithms yield a problematic result.
A gallery’s subject matter is undeniably its most important feature, but the way in which its content is presented can often be a determining factor in engaging and maintaining a viewer’s interest.
The Essential Grid WordPress Gallery plugin makes creating a breathtaking gallery fun and easy as it assists you in -
· presenting eye-catching product displays
· showcasing your portfolio
· sharing video and audio gems and your thought-provoking blogs.
9. LayerSlider
LayerSlider, one of the most established and popular products of its kind on the market, affords a straightforward approach to adding impressive visual effects to a new website or using them to add pizzazz to an existing one.
· LayerSlider’s hundreds of website, popup, and slider templates provide effective starting points and are a great way to learn.
· With LayerSlider’s easy-to-use visual editor, you will be able to create eye-catching content for your websites.
10. Uncode — Creative & WooCommerce WordPress Theme
The Uncode creative WordPress theme has many impressive features, but its WooCommerce Custom Builder could be the most impressive of them all.
· The Custom Builder’s features include a Single Product Builder, a My Account Builder, a custom cart, a wish list, and more.
· The Wireframes plugin and its 550+ section templates provide enough flexibility to create virtually any page layout.
Check out the gallery of user-built websites to see if Uncode is right for you.
11. Get illustrations Stock Illustrations Bundle
The Getillustrations’ bundle of premium illustrations will change your website UI, app, or presentation design thinking and approach.
· This, the world’s biggest bundle of its type features 10,000+ illustrations and counting
· Illustrations are available in Vector AI, SVG, PNG, Sketch, Figma, and Adobe formats
· Every purchase illustration comes with a commercial license.
Purchased illustrations are yours to keep and can be used as you wish.
12. Litho — Multipurpose Elementor WordPress Theme
Litho, the creation of a power elite author, is an up-to-the-minute, customizable multipurpose Elementor WordPress theme. It is eCommerce ready and loaded with customizable demo content, pages, posts, sliders, menus, and more.
· Litho can be used to build portfolio, blog, eCommerce, and business niche sites.
· Litho’s customizable layouts load quickly, are mobile friendly, and promise healthy SEO results.
13. Mobirise Website Builder Software
Mobirise, the best offline website builder on the market, is a perfect choice for creating small to medium size websites. Mobirise is ideal for anyone who prefers to take a highly visual approach.
Mobirise -
· makes site-building fast and easy with its 5500+ awesome templates
· provides full access to HTML for those who wish to code
· guarantees your site will be crazy-fast and mobile friendly.
· Mobirise is free to use and free to use commercially.
8b.io makes it easy to add an 8bio link to your social profiles on Instagram, TikTok and others. Enter your social username to automatically create your link.
· You can promote items for sale or share your message.
· Facebook and Twitter allow you to link to your website’s home page.
· Use 8bio’s pre-made templates or animated backgrounds to spice up your link.
· You can schedule your link to be active at a specific time.
15. XStore — Best WordPress WooCommerce Theme for eCommerce
XStore has plenty to brag about. This well-established WooCommerce theme is both popular and extremely affordable.
· XStore has more than 110 ready-to-customize shop demos
· $510 worth of premium plugins add to its value.
· WPBakery, Elementor, and a WooCommerce built-in single product page builder are there for you as well.
· A host of design element selections and an array of page layout options round things out.
*****
This might be a good time to take stock of what’s in your design toolbox. So, browse the top 15 design tools and resources described in this article, and bring your design capabilities up to date.
If there is a design tool or resource you need to replace with something else now would be an ideal time to do it. You should choose to replace is a favorite of yours. Surely, you’ll soon get used to the improved flexibility, speed, or efficiency a replacement would bring to the table.
Go down the list of top tools and web design resources presented here. One or more of them could make a significant difference in the quality of your work, and one or more could prove to be a game changer.