Top Design + Research Tools

Practical resources for bringing creativity into your life and putting it to work.

Lookback

A cloud-based platform that allows you to interview users from anywhere in the world. It offers real-time collaborating through live stream and annotations.

Framer

A tool to create animated or interactive prototypes. It allows very fine control on what kind of behavior you want to see without having to write any code.

Hotjar

Hotjar’s “heatmaps” help you really get inside your user’s minds and see where they actually click, move, and scroll through your website or app.

UsabilityHub

UsabilityHub offers a range of testing tools including design surveys and preferences tests. These tests enable you to collect authentic user data quickly.

Milanote

An easy-to-use tool to organize your ideas and projects into visual boards. It enables you to collaborate on projects with your team too.

Abstract

A versioning platform that helps you manage your design process and facilitate design-dev handoffs. Say goodbye to chaotic file management.

Dovetail

Another cloud-based platform that helps you and or organization store and make sense of unstructured user research data.

Maze

This platform takes an novel, somewhat gamified approach to user research and could be good for a variety of task-based, unmoderated user testings.