Debora John

The web design and development industry is growing at a great pace. New trends and concepts are being introduced on a daily basis.

 Designers have to constantly hone their skills in order to meet the client’s expectations.

From creating eye-catching layouts to designing visuals to embed in the website, you need modern tools to get the job done.

Unlike before, a single tool isn’t sufficient. You need multiple tools for each aspect of your design.

So, if you are a web designer in search of the best web design tools to use in 2021, we have some great suggestions for you.

Being a web design Dubai company, we use these tools to create aesthetic designs for our clients.

By using these, you can do the same!

Sketch:

Sketch is a feature-rich tool for designing webs. It’s a vector-based platform used for the construction of boundaries and prototypes.

Modern-day web designing involves lots of paperwork and pre-development discussions, that’s where tools like Sketch come in handy.

Sketch lets you create a sample version of your app or website to show to your clients or just to have an idea of how the end product will look.

If you compare it to Photoshop, Sketch is much simpler in terms of sorting documents, implementing revisions, etc.

Another benefit of Sketch is the file size is much smaller when compared to Photoshop.

Further, it has a built-in grid system that helps you to enhance the user interface.

Dreamweaver:

Dreamweaver has been used for years and remains one of the preferred designing tools for web designers. 

Since it is available for both Mac and Windows operating systems, designers don’t have to worry about its compatibility.

It comes with a suite of tools and options that include:

• Syntax highlighting
• Smart Code
• Project management
• Workflow management
• Integration with Adobe products

It’s a single tool for designing, coding, and managing websites.

Adobe XD:

You can’t keep Adobe XD out of the list, it’s one of the favorite tools of web designers.

 The tool is equipped with essential features that are vital for creating modern designs with ease.

The voice prototyping feature is part of the software, which is a luxury for designers. No need to write code, just say it and make changes in your design.

Further, Adobe XD lets you import UI kits and libraries from another source to use them in your current design and display your creativity.

3D Transforms, reusable buttons, multiple variations of a single component, and repeated grids are some of the other prominent features of Adobe XD.

Figma:

Figma is a modern-day design tool. What makes it different is it enables multiple designers to collaborate in real-time and work on the same design as a team.

You can even take clients/stakeholders on board to make sure you are on the right track and no revisions are required at the end of the project.

All members of the projects can comment on a certain file to ask for or leave a review.

Lead can leave instructions for other designers to make adjustments in the design accordingly.

The tool is available for both Mac and Windows users.

Webflow:

Webflow is another website building tool used by designers. It has drag-and-drop options to create custom websites without writing any code.

It cuts down the time of development to a great extent. If your project is a simple one with no complex features, you can use Webflow instead of writing code from scratch.

Some other notable features of Webflow include:

• CSS grid–powered layouts 
• Clean, compliant, exportable code
• CSS filters 
• Over 2,000 web font families
• 100+ responsive website templates
• Responsive images

Marvel:

If you find yourself short of ideas as a designer, Marvel could be the solution for you. 

Marvel lets you create design prototypes in little time so you can proceed ahead with the development process.

It features various wonderful integrations for the insertions of the designs into the workflow of your projects. Also, you can access combined operator testing traits with Marvel.

It’s an online platform, so you don’t have to download and make some space for it on your computer. 

Photoshop:

Who can forget Photoshop, one of the oldest web design tools in the market? 

Though the digital world has transcended to a whole new level, Photoshop is still used for editing images and creating PSDs.

Photoshop is available for both Mac and Windows operating systems with some amazing features.

 It’s an ideal application for manipulating images and creating web graphics.

As a designer, you can use filters to enhance the look of images. 

Some other notable options include Brushes, Actions, Scripting, Workflow enhancements, Layer Compos, and the option to Revert.

CodeKit:

CodeKit is another popular design tool being used today. However, it’s only for Mac users. 

CodeKit makes the web apps load faster, this is its biggest benefit. 

Nowadays web designers have been tasked to keep the weight of the code as light as possible. Or else, loading time can impact the ranking of a site.

This is where CodeKit makes a designer’s job easy.

CodeKit also offers built-in features, so you can create designs by dragging and dropping elements, without doing any coding.

Also Read: Why Do You Need To Use UI Toolkits? 2021 Edition

Say you have a wonderful business idea. And fortunately, you have decent capital in hand. You have done your research and are ready to invest in a product or service people are looking for. But how will people learn about your business?

For a start-up, the first few months are crucial. If you have a solid business development strategy and everything goes according to plan, there is no reason why your small company wouldn’t thrive. And marketing is an integral part of this strategy.

Though we have various marketing channels today, digital marketing at the top of all, printing materials still holds immense importance. Not everyone trusts Facebook ads. Google ads campaigns are out of budget for start-ups. 

But a brochure, pamphlet, leaflet, and other printing materials are cheap. And if designed well, they can be as effective as digital marketing -- especially for local businesses.

Here are some of the best uses of printing materials for start-ups:

Promote Brand Awareness, Make Your Presence Felt!

Have you recently been handed over a brochure or pamphlet announcing the opening of a brand new restaurant, cafe, or some other business in your town? Printing materials do wonders for start-ups when they are only operating in a small area.

Just distribute well-designed brochures and pamphlets among hundreds of people. And if they find them engaging, no reason why they wouldn't pass those on to several other people. And the cycle perpetuates. Printing materials make your presence felt among several other service providers in the same domain.
 

Tell Your Story & Build a Connection

Printed marketing material lets you tell your story in an interesting way. Whoever gets your brochure not only learns what you offer but the bigger objective behind it. You can share the faces behind your business and what made you start it in the first place.

Stories build a connection; your prospect learns the people behind a business are not chasing money but intend to solve a common problem each of us faces. Make sure the copy you craft for your brochure has a hook, every paragraph must compel the reader to read the next one.

Market Segmentation, Higher Return

If you want the best out of your marketing campaign, then don’t market your product or service to everyone. Besides being cheap, printed material lets you market your product to an age group or gender that’s more likely to convert.

For example, if you are selling women’s jewelry locally, the wise approach would be to distribute your brochures outside beauty salons, malls, marts, etc.

Leave a Long-lasting Impression

Do you know what’s the downside of investing in TV ads? You have to constantly pay for them to keep them running. And their impact is not always a long-lasting one. No matter how good your ad is, after a certain time, people find it boring.

What’s good about well-designed ads on quality material is it remains intact for a long time. People keep such business cards with them for future use, just in case they need your product or service.

Conduct Affordable A/B Testing

It takes a few hours to create an app but optimizing it can take a lot more time. You have to try out different formats, each with a unique copy and visuals, to determine the best version of your ad. This testing normally requires a significant budget.

Fortunately, with printed material, it becomes a lot easier, cheaper, and faster! You can print different designs at an affordable cost, there are quite a few printing services in Dubai ( and I’m sure there must be a few in your area too).

Printed material lets you test what’s working and what’s likely to bring the best results, fast! Thus, you can expect a higher ROI even in the early days of your business, where -- according to Forbes -- 90% of the start-ups fail.
 

Target Audience You Don’t Find on Google & Facebook

Sounds absurd? Who doesn’t use the internet and social media these days? More than 40% of the world still has no access to the internet. If you live in a region where the internet is considered a luxury, your biggest challenge would be to promote your business door-to-door or physically.

Printed material allows you to expand your reach to such an audience that you can target on Google, Facebook, and other online platforms. Of course, you can’t underestimate them. Who knows how many of them would turn out to be your long-term buyers in the future.

Final Words

No matter how much ROI digital marketing brings, printed marketing material will always preserve its importance. Handing over your business card to an acquaintance or friend or relative feels more personal than the same online ad shown to thousands of people online.

So if you are a start-up looking to boost your visibility among your prospects with minimum investment, invest in print marketing material. And don’t forget to choose a trustworthy printing service to ensure high-quality prints.